[Hiring] Live Events Director @Chess.com

Role Description

You are the person who makes ambitious live events come to life. You came up through live production environments, so you know what a great show looks and feels like. You understand how creative, content, broadcast, competition, hospitality, and audience experience all need to work together. Somewhere along the way, you discovered that you are just as good at seeing the whole picture, setting the direction, and getting everyone moving toward the same outcome.

You have strong creative instincts and know how to turn a big idea into something real. You can protect what makes an idea special while still making it deliverable. You know when to push for something better, when to simplify, and when someone just needs to make the call.

You are relentlessly accountable. You are comfortable holding the master schedule, guiding, supporting, and keeping those helping to drive deliverables on track. When a venue changes the load-in window, a partner needs 57 chess sets in a city you have never worked in, and broadcast wants to move the stage two meters, you solve the problems without losing sight of why the event exists in the first place.

You care about the people in the room: the players, fans, creators, partners, guests, and crew. You believe a live event is judged by the experience people had, not by whether the original plan survived.

You are equally comfortable developing a three-year strategy and walking a venue the night before doors open. You have high standards, good judgment, a low ego, and the ability to stay calm when the plan changes.

Qualifications

• More than 10 years of experience delivering major live events, with a strong foundation in live, experiential, and/or broadcast production.
• Experience serving as the accountable lead for complex events with broadcast, content, or competition at their center.
• The ability to move comfortably between long-term strategy, executive communication, and detailed delivery.
• A track record of owning large event budgets, including forecasting, vendor negotiation, contracting, and reconciliation.
• Experience sourcing and operating venues, hotels, and production partners across multiple markets or countries.
• Strong creative judgment and the operational experience to know what is possible, what needs to change, and what is worth fighting for.
• Experience leading teams and external partners without relying on direct reporting authority.
• Clear communication skills and the ability to create alignment in a fully distributed company.
• Calm and decisive leadership when conditions change and information is incomplete.
• A strong sense of ownership and genuine care for the people doing the work.
• Willingness to travel internationally several times each year and work occasional weekends or nontraditional hours when events require it.

Requirements

• Set our live events strategy.
• Build a clear long-term vision for our live event portfolio and define how events can drive audience growth, community, brand, content, partnerships, and revenue.
• Own the portfolio.
• Create an annual roadmap across competitive events, fan experiences, company gatherings, premieres, partner activations, and new event concepts.
• Lead our biggest events.
• Serve as the accountable event lead for experiences such as the Speed Chess Championship Finals.
• Turn creative ambition into reality.
• Partner with our creative and content leaders to shape great event concepts.
• Own the integration layer.
• Build and hold the master event plan and physical run of show.
• Own venues and production partners.
• Source, evaluate, negotiate, and manage venues, hotels, agencies, fabricators, and production vendors.
• Own the budget.
• Build and manage event budgets, track spending, oversee reconciliation, and manage the financial and contractual lifecycle of each event.
• Define what success looks like.
• Help us measure events across attendance, fan experience, content performance, community growth, partner value, revenue, and brand impact.
• Support live experiences across Chess.com.
• Make the experience great.
• Set the standard for how players, creators, fans, partners, staff, and crew experience our events.
• Build our operating system.
• Establish the tools, roles, approval processes, budget models, production standards, and post-event reviews.
• Explore what comes next.
• Help us evaluate new formats, markets, and partnerships.

Benefits

• This is a full-time position.
• This is a senior individual contributor role to start, with the potential to build and manage a team as our live event portfolio grows.
• You will report to our VP, Media & Content and work closely with our sports Commissioner.
• We are 100 percent remote and always have been.
• This position is open to applicants based in the United States.
• International travel will be required.