Director of Signature Events

Job Highlights

The Director of Signature Events works collaboratively across the organization to create strategically-focused signature events, including Opening Night, Concert of Arias, and Opera Ball, with the goals of elevating Houston Grand Opera’s brand, expanding HGO’s impact in the community, broadening HGO’s reach, and maximizing event revenue.

Join Us!

We are looking for talented, passionate, dedicated people who are eager to make contributions to our community and our mission.

Concerned you do not meet every single requirement listed? Apply! We know that some people are less likely to apply for a job if they don’t think they meet 100% of the requirements. At HGO, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. So, if you’re excited about this position but your experience doesn’t align perfectly, we encourage you to apply! You may be just the right candidate for this position or another role at HGO.

About The Houston Grand Opera

The mission of HGO is to enrich our diverse community through the art of opera. We do so by creating, curating, exploring, and producing outstanding experiences centered around the human voice. HGO has received a Tony Award, two Grammy Awards, and three Emmy Awards – we are the only opera company in the world to win all three honors.

Our strategic focus is two-fold: creating profoundly enriching experiences for our diverse audiences and clearly defining and positively promoting the HGO brand.

We are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working environment for all company members. We believe every team member enriches our diversity by exposing a broad range of ways to understand and engage our community and discover, design, and deliver enriching experiences.

Compensation And Benefits

We offer robust benefits to full-time employees, including:

• Comprehensive and affordable health benefits, including medical, dental, and vision insurance; a high-deductible healthcare plan with an employer funded health savings account; a flexible savings account; an employee assistance program; and employer-paid life, short term disability and long-term disability insurance
• Generous paid time off including vacation, wellness, parental leave, and scheduled and flexible holidays
• 403b retirement plan with employer match
• Flexible work schedule
• Professional development fund and opportunities
• Discounted parking in the Theater District garage and nearby lots plus easy access to Metro transportation
• Free tickets to our mainstage and community productions and events
  
  

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate across the organization to create, plan, and execute signature events including selecting thematic concepts, building event timelines, setting fundraising goals, preparing budgets, and analyzing revenue results.
• Partner with the Chief Philanthropy Officer and General Director to select the volunteer chairs for each event; support the chairs through the event process, ensuring alignment of the chair’s and HGO’s goals.
• Demonstrate leadership around idea generation to offer original, exciting, and creative concepts for signature events that are aligned with HGO mission and values.
• Lead fundraising efforts, leveraging expertise and the appeal of HGO’s signature events. Collaborate with the Senior Director of Institutional Giving and the Philanthropy Officer for Corporate Partnerships to broaden HGO’s fundraising strategy efforts to identify new corporate partnerships (including corporate prospects in the retail and luxury brand sectors).
• Manage, cultivate, and solicit a curated portfolio of donors while identifying new prospects.
• Supervise the solicitation of in-kind contributions for signature events.
• Strategically manage the involvement of key HGO leadership at signature events.
• Collaborate with HGO’s Audiences team on signature event marketing to ensure positive promotion of the HGO brand, and, along with the Associate Director of Signature Events, manage all event publicity through Audiences.
• Build and maintain long-term, strategic relationships with signature event vendors, media partners, sponsors and retail partners.
• Work with the Associate Director of Signature Events who holds primary responsibility for coordinating signature event logistics and liaising with external vendors and suppliers.
• Collaborate with the philanthropy team to develop superior cultivation and stewardship events; work with the Donor Event Specialist who holds primary responsibility for event planning, logistics, and execution.
  
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 5 years or more special event or high-level project management experience required.
• Proven success conceptualizing, organizing, executing, and fundraising for major events required, preferably in a non-profit environment.
• Must have experience in an environment where accuracy, attention to detail, and responsiveness to chairpersons, committee members, donors, board members, leadership, colleagues, and vendor partners was achieved.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills required.
• Prior experience in event publicity or managing press relations desirable.
  
  

Other Skills And Abilities

• Must thrive in a fast-paced group setting, be highly organized and efficiency-driven.
• Self-motivator with analytical problem-solving abilities; confident, experienced decision maker.
• Detail-oriented individual with attention to process; sound judgment abilities; successful customer service professional; ability to manage up, down and laterally; high level of personal and professional ethics.
• Irregular working hours, evening and weekend work is required.
• Knowledge of opera not necessary, but passion for the arts is a must.
  
  

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those we consider important for an employee to successfully perform essential functions of this job: extended periods of sitting, and performing tasks such as typing and using a computer mouse, with strong visual and auditory focus, occasional lifting (not exceeding 25 pounds), reaching for items, proficiency in keyboarding, effective communication skills, and fine motor abilities, being mobile within the office for activities like attending meetings. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Equal Opportunity

Houston Grand Opera is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at HGO are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws or regulations. HGO will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. HGO encourages applicants of all ages.