---
title: 'Sr. Director of Events & Experiential at Smartly'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/sr-director-of-events-experiential-smartly-chicago-wfxgx0v04et2'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-10'
---

# Sr. Director of Events & Experiential at Smartly

- **Company:** Smartly
- **Location:** Chicago, IL / London, United Kingdom / New York, NY
- **Posted:** 2026-11-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-10
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/smartlyio/jobs/6250051004

## Job description

Smartly is seeking a strategic, commercially-minded Senior Director of Events & Experiential to lead our global event strategy and experiential marketing engine. Moving beyond traditional event coordination, this role is a core commercial growth driver and brand steward.

Reporting directly to marketing executive leadership, the Senior Director will lead a global team across New York and London to design, execute, and scale tier-1 industry summits, Customer Advisory Boards (CAB), and regional executive activations. The Director of Events & Experiential will also be responsible for overseeing Employer Brand Experiences and Workplace Events.

## What You Will Do

Commercial Growth & Pipeline Acceleration

- Drive Event-Influenced Revenue: Own global commercial event strategy to expand event-influenced sales pipeline.
- GTM Anchor Campaigns: Position flagship event activations (e.g., Cannes Lions, regional executive forums) as primary forcing functions that compel product, sales, and marketing teams to rally around unified market narratives and GTM launches
- Pipeline Attribution & Sales Enablement: Partner closely with Marketing Operations (MOPs) and Revenue Operations (RevOps) to leverage automated 4-, 8-, and 12-week post-event pipeline reporting
- Equip Sales and Customer Success teams with actionable post-event attendee insights via follow-up assets from PMM & Enablement

Brand Reputation, Experiential Strategy & Agency Governance

- Experiential Storytelling & Tier-1 Summits: Conceptualize and direct high-visibility experiential activations that solidify Smartly’s market leadership, thought leadership, and employer brand advocacy
- Agency Ideation & Vendor Management: Direct external creative agencies for experiential ideation and event production, maintaining internal team focus strictly on operational governance, fiscal management, and execution SLAs
- Executive & Analyst Integration: Align high-touch executive programs with PR, corporate communications, and industry analyst touchpoints (targeting an increase in 3rd-party market validations)

Retaining & Growing Existing Business

- Customer Retention Target: Structure customer-facing event tracks, certification workshops, and executive immersions to retain and grow existing business
- Customer Advisory Board (CAB) Leadership: Lead the strategic agenda, content curation, and operational execution for the global Customer Advisory Board to deepen executive client partnerships
- Product Adoption & CS Alignment: Collaborate with Customer Success to embed product education, alpha/beta invitations, and customer case study opportunities directly into event programming

Scope Control & Process Governance

- Fiscal & Budget Discipline: Direct multi-million dollar annual event operating budgets, daily invoice tracking, and vendor negotiations to ensure agile capital allocation
- Lead Window Enforcement: Require cross-functional partners (Partnerships, Product Marketing) to adhere to strict 12-week lead times and standardized briefs for joint co-marketing activations

We’re looking for someone who...

- Experience: Has 8–12+ years of progressive B2B SaaS event marketing leadership, with a proven track record of managing multi-million-dollar global event budgets and driving quantifiable sales pipeline (SALs, SQLs).
- Team Leadership: Experience managing direct reports across international hubs (specifically US and EMEA) and governing tier-1 experiential agency partners
- Commercial Acumen: Strong fluency in CRM/Marketo data flows, pipeline attribution models, and sales enablement workflows (partnering directly with RevOps)
- Process Governance: Demonstrated ability to enforce planning lead times, brief hygiene, and cross-functional SLA boundaries under fast-paced conditions

What We Offer You...

- Five weeks paid time off (PTO), 11 company paid holidays, unlimited sick days
- Generous healthcare packages & mental health benefits
- 401K plus matching & equity grants for all new Smartlies
- Wellness benefit & learning reimbursement opportunities
- Volunteer time off days & company donation matching opportunities
- And so much more…

## About Smartly

Smartly is the AI-powered advertising technology company transforming ad experiences for brands and their consumers. Our comprehensive advertising platform seamlessly integrates the capabilities of media, creative, and intelligence to power more than 800 billion impressions and generate more than 300 billion creatives annually, delivering tangible business outcomes for brands and advertisers.

Smartly is the only company in the industry recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Creative Advertising Technologies with PwC validating the results it delivers for brands. We manage creative and media for 700+ brands worldwide and $6B in ad spend across the largest media platforms, including Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Snap, and TikTok. Our end-to-end technology, unmatched access to media platforms and exceptional customer service help Fortune 500 brands to reach and engage consumers and learn what performs best.Smartly is a multinational and diverse team of 750+ Smartlies from 60+ nationalities, working in 13 countries. Together, we want to create and maintain an inclusive environment where everyone feels respected and heard. Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion approach is at the heart of it.

Visit [Smartly](http://smartly.io/) to learn more.

Salary Range (USD): $140,000 to $200,000

## About Smartly

Smartly is the AI-powered advertising technology company transforming ad experiences for brands and their consumers. Our comprehensive advertising platform seamlessly integrates the capabilities of media, creative, and intelligence to power more than 800 billion impressions and generate more than 300 billion creatives annually, delivering tangible business outcomes for brands and advertisers.

Smartly is the only company in the industry recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Creative Advertising Technologies with PwC validating the results it delivers for brands. We manage creative and media for 700+ brands worldwide and $6B in ad spend across the largest media platforms, including Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Snap, and TikTok. Our end-to-end technology, unmatched access to media platforms and exceptional customer service help Fortune 500 brands to reach and engage consumers and learn what performs best.Smartly is a multinational and diverse team of 750+ Smartlies from 60+ nationalities, working in 13 countries. Together, we want to create and maintain an inclusive environment where everyone feels respected and heard. Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion approach is at the heart of it.

Visit [Smartly](http://smartly.io/) to learn more.

The processing of your information is described in our [Candidate Privacy Notice](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/67ed4ab7f914accf87aa070c/698a11cb716926c1d76c1641_Smartly.io%20Group%20-%20Privacy%20Notice%20for%20Candidates%20-%201_2026.pdf).

## About Smartly

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Smartly is an AI-powered advertising technology company that provides a cross-channel platform integrating media, creative, and intelligence to help brands and agencies create, optimize, and scale ad campaigns.
- **Entity Type**: Private (backed by Providence Equity Partners; previously raised venture funding)
- **Headquarters**: Helsinki, Finland
- **Founded**: 2013
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Advertising technology (AdTech), AI-powered marketing
- **Target customers**: B2B – brands, agencies, performance teams, creative teams (Fortune 500 and mid-market)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Make online advertising easy, effective, and enjoyable across platforms.” (from the Smartly Culture Handbook)

## Products & Services
- **Smartly AI Advertising Platform**: A SaaS platform that unifies creative production, media buying, cross-channel performance analytics, and AI-driven optimization. Supports major media channels including Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Snap, and TikTok.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (acquired by Providence Equity Partners in December 2019 for ~$222M)
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue of $150M (as of recent data) | Total Funding: $222.8M (including a $200M private equity round in 2019)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Providence Equity Partners (parent company), Highland Europe, Lifeline Ventures. Partners with major media platforms (Meta, Google, TikTok, Snap, Pinterest).
- **Growth Signals**: 800+ employees (10.3% YoY growth), 700+ brands served, $6B in annual ad spend managed, 800B+ impressions and 300B+ creatives generated annually. Recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Creative Advertising Technologies.

## Competitive Advantages
- Only company recognized as a Leader in Forrester’s Creative Advertising Technologies Wave with PwC-validated results.
- End-to-end platform that bridges creative and media, reducing fragmentation for advertisers.
- Deep, direct integrations with all major social and search platforms, providing unmatched access and speed.

## Strategic Focus
- Continue to expand AI capabilities across creative production, cross-channel orchestration, and real-time performance measurement.
- Grow presence in connected TV (CTV) and programmatic advertising.
- Scale global operations and deepen partnerships with enterprise brands and agencies.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture highlights**: Grounded in Nordic values of trust, autonomy, and work-life balance. Emphasizes ownership, radical candor, and continuous learning.
- **Remote/hybrid policy**: Hybrid/office-based depending on location; offices in Helsinki, New York, London, Berlin, Mexico City, Sydney, Manila, and more.
- **Notable perks**: Early career programs (New Grad, Internships, Launchpad for engineers), global collaboration, and a focus on impact from day one.
- **Engineering culture**: Strong technical teams (227 in technical roles), active in machine learning and platform engineering. Opportunities to work on high-scale systems (800B impressions).

## Sources
1. [smartly.io](https://www.smartly.io/)
2. [Smartly Careers](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/smartlyio)
3. [LinkedIn – Smartly](https://www.linkedin.com/company/smartly-io)
4. [Smartly Culture Handbook](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/1570479/Culture%20Handbook/Smartly.ioCultureHandbook.pdf)

## Other roles at Smartly

- [Senior Data Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-engineer-smartly-helsinki-9av7334w3d1h) — Helsinki, Finland
- [Customer Success Manager - Scale Team](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-manager-scale-team-smartly-mexico-city-6xra71jta3sy) — Mexico City, Mexico
- [US Client Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/us-client-lead-smartly-chicago-6ny4r13a2p3x) — Chicago, IL
- [Customer Onboarding Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-onboarding-manager-smartly-philippines-v7gnwyrpa2f9) — Philippines
- [CTV Account Delivery Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/ctv-account-delivery-manager-smartly-philippines-zkgjdkj8z87h) — Philippines
- [HR Operations Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/hr-operations-associate-smartly-new-york-qb8akpvh9kxg) — New York, NY
- [IT Support Specialist - APAC](https://feeny.ai/job/it-support-specialist-apac-smartly-philippines-q1tmz1w9r3av) — Philippines
- [Customer Success Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-manager-smartly-mexico-city-fh3qh40j1hyw) — Mexico City, Mexico
- [Customer Delivery Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-delivery-manager-smartly-philippines-59f2ex20e0e0) — Philippines
- [Senior Software Engineer (Editor)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-editor-smartly-helsinki-c687wap2jp2z) — Helsinki, Finland