Position Summary...

What you'll do...

This highly visible global role at Walmart leads our Center for Excellence within our Event Solutions team supporting internal and external events and experiences for the largest company in the world. In this mission-critical role you'll lead and inspire a large team; have strategic responsibility for our talent and third-party sourcing, best practices, and budgets. The ideal candidate is a strong people leader, has proven Executive presence, is motivated by current and future trends, and masterful at managing multiple projects simultaneously with a calm demeanor.

Reporting to the VP of Corporate Communications, this role will play a critical role in helping us deliver world-class events and tailored experiences for our target audiences while also living our values. At Walmart, we aim to build a better world - helping people save money, live better and renew the planet while building thriving, resilient communities.

• Lead, manage, and mentor a high-performing team of event professionals, ensuring all team members are motivated, engaged, and working efficiently toward common goals.
• Develops and champions event best practices, maintaining a thorough understanding of industry best practices and continuously monitor trends, competitor activity, and audience preferences to identify opportunities for innovation and differentiation. Lead the development of processes, tools, and resources, with partnership from others on the events team, who create efficiency, cost savings and offer support to the Events team, as well as other internal stakeholders.
• Drives celebrity and guest talent acquisition strategy across the enterprise, with an eye to bringing top-tier talent to Walmart's events within our everyday low-cost culture. Develop and maintain strong relationships with key external and internal partners to source and secure talent and guests for meetings and appearances.
• Leads sourcing strategy, accessing current production and operations vendors, and identifying untapped resources; serves as a senior counselor and partner to production and operations teams and other business partners on sourcing needs. Looks for opportunities to maximize resources with an everyday low-cost mindset. Manage the RFP vendor process, including developing and distributing RFPs, reviewing proposals, and selecting vendors that meet our needs and budget constraints and negotiating contracts and rates with vendors to ensure favorable terms and pricing.
• Monitor and track vendor performance, ensuring they meet our expectations and deliver high-quality services.
• Oversee event budgets and forecasting to ensure accuracy and adherence to established guidelines and protocols. Provide regular financial reports and analysis to production and operations partners, including event budgets, actual spend, and forecasts.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop and implement cost-saving initiatives and strategies.
• Ensure compliance with Walmart's code of conduct and all relevant policies and procedures.
• Serve as a company ambassador, representing the company at industry events, conferences, and trade shows.

• Being a great people leader in an ever-changing and challenging environment.
• Bringing and implementing best-in-class ideas that take our events and experiences to the next level.
• Strategically engaging cross-functionally with a winning mindset.
• Communicating all status updates, changes, and pertinent details to cross-functional partners.
• Thinking of creative solutions to sourcing needs that provide wow experiences and keep us on the forefront of the events field.
• Implementing, monitoring, and enforcing pre-established event production budgets, adjusting as needed and ensuring invoices are paid on time.

• Minimum of 5 years in a leadership role with experience managing large budget, sourcing, and overseeing third party vendors and agencies.
• Proven history of planning and executing large-scale, high-quality events with complex budgets.
• Exceptional people leadership and team management skills, with the ability to motivate, collaborate and develop talent.
• Strong negotiation and relationship-building skills, with experience working with key industry stakeholders, partners, and suppliers.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and people skills.
• Ability to build strong relationships and leverage resources.
• Must be willing to travel throughout the year.
• Gracefulness under pressure and deadlines; must be able to manage multiple projects at once.
• Analytical and creative mindset