Principal, Experience Strategy & Engagement

About Us
Great Place To Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Our mission is to help every place become a Great Place To Work® for all. We give leaders and organizations the recognition and tools to create a consistently and overwhelmingly positive employee experience, fostering cultures that are proven to drive business, improve lives, and better society.

Our recognition is the most coveted and respected in the world for elevating employer brands to attract the right people. Our proprietary methodology and platform enable organizations to truly capture, analyze, and understand the experience of all employees. Our groundbreaking research empowers organizations to build cultures that retain talent and unlock the potential of every employee. Our coaches, content, and community connect the boldest leaders, ideas, and innovations in employee experience. Since 1992, our Certification™, Best Workplaces™ Lists, and global benchmarks have become the industry standard, built on data from more than 100 million employees in 150 countries around the world.

In 2021, Great Place To Work® was acquired by UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group.) As a leading global provider of HCM, payroll, HR service delivery, and workforce management solutions, UKG believes organizations succeed when they focus on their people. While Great Place To Work® will continue operating independently within the UKG family, our research and insights will help UKG differentiate its best-in-class HR, talent, and workforce management technology, and together we'll support every workplace to become great. UKG has 15,000 employees around the globe and is known for its inclusive and supportive workplace culture and best-in-class rewards and benefits.

Both UKG and Great Place To Work® are leading the change on what it means to be a Great Place To Work® for all, and we are proud to be Certified™ great workplaces!

About the Role:

The Principal, Experience Strategy & Engagement is a senior individual contributor responsible for scaling Great Place To Work's Brand & Experience portfolio through operational excellence, strategic program leadership, audience engagement, and cross-functional coordination.

This role serves as a strategic integrator for the team, creating capacity through stronger systems, clearer planning, improved stakeholder alignment, and scalable execution practices. The person in this role will independently lead a portfolio of smaller event experiences and executive programs while supporting flagship experiences such as the For All Summit through operational leadership and program coordination.

The ideal candidate combines operational rigor with editorial judgment and audience empathy. They excel at managing budgets and vendors, building project plans and playbooks, supporting agenda development, and improving attendee experiences. Success is measured by the ability to create capacity for the Brand & Experience team through consistent execution, operational excellence, and scalable systems.

Key Responsibilities:

Event & Experience Leadership

• Support the For All Summit and flagship experiences through operational leadership across planning, budgeting, venue management, hospitality, production, event technology, and vendor management.
• Develop integrated project plans, timelines, and readiness processes that provide visibility, accountability, and clear ownership across workstreams.
• Manage event budgets, vendors, agencies, and operational partners while identifying risks, tradeoffs, and opportunities for improvement.
• Lead event readiness reviews, onsite execution processes, and post-event retrospectives to support continuous improvement.
• Assume increasing ownership of a portfolio of executive events, leadership programs, and experiences, progressing from supporting established programs to independently leading initiatives from strategy through onsite execution.

Stakeholder Leadership

• Lead meetings, planning sessions, speaker briefings, and strategic discussions with C-suite leaders, executives, partners, and key stakeholders to drive alignment, decisions, and next steps.
• Build and maintain executive-level relationships by facilitating complex conversations, preparing executive-ready recommendations and materials, and ensuring business objectives, audience needs, and experience priorities are effectively translated into action.
• Coordinate deliverables across Marketing, Content, Creative, Customer Success, Strategic Partnerships, Research, and other cross-functional teams.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for vendors, speakers, agencies, and operational partners.
• Prepare executive-ready presentations, recommendations, status updates, and post-event reports.
• Partner closely with Strategic Partnerships to integrate sponsor-related deliverables into event plans.
• Proactively identify risks, dependencies, and decision points and facilitate alignment across stakeholders.

Operational Excellence & Team Enablement

• Build and maintain playbooks, templates, SOPs, reporting frameworks, and planning tools that improve consistency and efficiency across the Brand & Experience team.
• Establish scalable workflows, governance practices, and operating rhythms that strengthen accountability, communication, and execution.
• Identify and implement AI, automation, and technology solutions that reduce manual work and increase team capacity.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives that allow team members to spend more time on strategic, creative, and relationship-focused work.

Programming & Audience Experience

• Support agenda development, speaker research, session design, executive briefings, and attendee journey planning.
• Translate strategic direction into actionable materials such as speaker briefs, moderator guides, session frameworks, and experience plans.
• Analyze attendee feedback, participation metrics, and engagement data to improve future experiences.
• Design networking, peer-learning, and community-building experiences that increase attendee engagement and long-term value.

Required Qualifications:

• 8-12+ years of experience in event strategy, event operations, experiential marketing, program management, executive experiences, or a related field.
• Proven ability to build systems, processes, and documentation that improve team effectiveness and scalability.
• Experience supporting large-scale conferences, executive events, or summits while independently leading smaller programs from strategy through delivery.
• Strong experience managing budgets, venues, vendors, agencies, production partners, and operational logistics.
• Experience supporting executive programming, agenda development, speaker management, or content strategy with strong editorial judgment.
• Experience developing project plans, run-of-show documents, communications plans, and post-event reporting.
• Experience designing attendee engagement, networking, community-building, or executive audience experiences.
• Strong project management, stakeholder management, and executive communication skills.
• Demonstrated success influencing across functions without direct authority.
• Experience leveraging AI, automation, and technology to improve efficiency and team performance.
• Ability to operate independently in a fast-paced, evolving environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• CMP certification.
• Experience in customer success, media, consulting, executive engagement, or brand experience environments.
• Familiarity with workplace culture, leadership development, employee experience, or B2B executive audiences.
• Experience supporting sponsor-integrated events alongside a dedicated partnerships or revenue team.

Portfolio Requirements:

• 3-5 events, executive programs, or experiential initiatives where you played a significant leadership role.
• Examples of work products such as project plans, run-of-show documents, budgets, operational frameworks, engagement strategies, dashboards, executive presentations, or post-event reports.
• At least one example demonstrating programming contributions such as agenda development, speaker management, session design, or audience journey planning.
• Examples showing how you improved team effectiveness through systems, process improvements, technology, AI, or automation.

All job descriptions are written to accurately reflect the open job and include general work responsibilities. They do not present a comprehensive, detailed inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required for the job. Management reserves the right to revise the job or require that other or different tasks be performed if or when circumstances change.

The pay range for this position is $129,500 to $186,100. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. Learn more about UKG’s benefits and rewards at https://www.ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits

Benefits

Here, we know that you’re more than your work. That’s why our benefits help you thrive personally and professionally, from wellness programs and tuition reimbursement to U Choose — a customizable expense reimbursement program that can be used for more than 200+ needs that best suit you and your family, from student loan repayment, to childcare, to pet insurance. Our inclusive culture, active and engaged employee resource groups, and caring leaders value every voice and support you in doing the best work of your career. Information about our comprehensive benefits can be reviewed on the careers site at https://www.ukg.com/careers.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Great Place To Work is an equal opportunity employer. We aim to create and foster a Great Place To Work For All. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, disability, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, and other legally protected categories.

View The EEO Know Your Rights poster

Great Place To Work/UKG participates in E-Verify. View the E-Verify posters here.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process

For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email [email protected].