Regional Director

The IRONMAN Group; Tampa (FL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

The IRONMAN Group is seeking a Regional Director in North America to lead a multi-site portfolio of IRONMAN events. You will drive regional strategy, fiscal performance, and operational excellence while developing talent and partnerships across cities and stakeholders.

You will oversee event delivery, safety, risk management, and cross-functional alignment with Marketing, Finance, and Athlete Services to ensure world-class experiences for athletes and communities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Sports Management, or related field required.
• Strong operational acumen and ability to manage complex event operations, safety, permitting, logistics.
• Proven track record in P&L management and strategic planning.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management abilities.
• Passion for endurance sports and delivering exceptional athlete experiences.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute regional strategy aligned with global objectives.
• Drive operational excellence and continuous improvement across all events.
• Ensure safe, high‑quality execution of all IRONMAN events in the region.
• Oversee compliance with safety standards, procedures, and risk management.

Skills

Operational leadership

Budgeting & P&L

Strategic planning

Leadership & coaching

Stakeholder management

Endurance sports passion

Relationship building

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Sports Management or related field

Master’s degree (preferred)

Tools

None

Job description

At The IRONMAN Group, our purpose is clear: to inspire people to unlock their greatest potential through sport, pushing beyond limits to become the fullest expression of human achievement. Through our BE ICONIC vision, we are building the most loved brands, producing the world’s most inspiring events, and fostering deeply engaged communities that change lives. We aim to empower over a million athletes to cross a finish line each year and inspire a billion people worldwide through the power of the human spirit.

As part of our team, you’ll join a high-performance, caring culture where innovation thrives, communities are uplifted, and every achievement, big or small, is celebrated. You’ll help shape experiences that fill hearts, consume minds, and enrich souls. This is more than a job. It’s a chance to be part of a global movement, to lead from the front, and to leave a legacy. Together, we create moments that last a lifetime. The IRONMAN Group is the world's largest operator of mass participation sports, delivering over 200+ events a year across 55+ countries thanks to a passionate global team.

We are seeking a highly motivated individual for the position of Regional Director reporting to MD, North America & World Championship Events based in North America.

For more information, visit www.ironman.com/about-ironman-group.

The Opportunity

The Regional Director serves as the representative of The IRONMAN Group within assigned markets, driving regional strategy, business development, and operational excellence. This role leads a team of Operations Managers and Race Directors to deliver world-class IRONMAN events that create life-changing experiences for athletes worldwide.

As the operational and strategic leader of the region, the Regional Director holds ultimate responsibility for safe event execution, athlete experience outcomes, and financial results. The role carries full accountability for regional performance across safety, permits and compliance, risk management, operational delivery, and the regional P&L, ensuring profitability and alignment with the company’s long-range plan. Additionally, the Regional Director fosters cross-functional collaboration and champions talent development across all levels.

The role is also expected to build trusted, visible relationships across the community ecosystem - including athletes, clubs, coaches, host cities, local businesses, volunteers, public safety partners, and residents - recognizing that relationships are a core part of the IRONMAN experience and a critical driver of long-term event success.

Responsibilities & Duties

Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute regional strategy aligned with global objectives.
• Drive operational excellence and continuous improvement across all events.

Event Delivery

• Ensure safe, high-quality execution of all IRONMAN events in the region.
• Oversee compliance with technical standards, procedures, and risk management protocols.

Financial Management

• Own regional P&L performance, budgeting, and forecasting; partner closely with Finance to highlight key drivers of business performance.
• Monitor financial performance and implement cost optimization strategies.
• Proactive outreach to municipalities and vendors to enable efficient growth of the region (i.e., revenue is growing faster than costs).
• Partner closely with Marketing and Finance to align course capacity and athlete sales targets.

People Leadership, Culture & Performance

• Lead, coach, and develop a high performing team through clear expectations, regular feedback, and meaningful career conversations.
• Model IRONMAN’s BE ICONIC behaviors and athlete first mindset in daily decisions, team rituals, and onsite/offsite leadership presence.
• Build a culture of creativity, accountability, and continuous improvement, encouraging experimentation and learning across events.
• Partner cross functionally to strengthen alignment, shared ownership, and consistency of experience across the event ecosystem.
• Take active ownership of team engagement, clarity of roles, and performance outcomes.

Business Development

• Identify and pursue opportunities for new events, acquisitions, and renewals engaging with key Business Development stakeholders
• Support commercial growth initiatives in line with IRONMAN’s long-range plan.

Safety & Critical Incident Support

• Own the region’s event safety strategy and ensure readiness across all venues, courses, and operating plans.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable safety requirements, permits, medical/EMS plans, and incident reporting standards.
• Lead critical incident response at events, including escalation, coordination with medical and public safety agencies, and communication to internal stakeholders.
• Oversee post-incident debriefs and corrective action plans; implement learnings across the regional portfolio to reduce risk and improve outcomes.

Community Engagement & Relationships

• Foster positive and collaborative relationships with local communities, authorities, and stakeholders to ensure successful event integration and long-term partnerships.
• Proactively cultivate relationships with athletes, tri clubs, coaches, local businesses, volunteers, and civic partners to strengthen trust, advocacy, and community pride around each event.
• Engage the local community year-round to surface and share stories of athlete journeys, volunteer impact, local pride, and community benefit, ensuring IRONMAN is experienced as an ongoing community presence rather than only an event-weekend activation.
• Collaborate with local community partners and intentionally "bring them in" to planning, storytelling, and activation opportunities so they feel ownership in the event experience and see The IRONMAN Group as a partner in the community, not just an operator of race weekend.
• Navigate local political and civic environments with sound judgment, proactively identifying potential red flags, understanding shifting stakeholder dynamics, and escalating emerging risks early to protect permits, partnerships, community trust, and event continuity.

Cross-Functional Alignment

• Partner with global teams (Marketing, Athlete Services, Sponsorship, Medical, Security, and Communications, etc.) to ensure seamless event delivery.
• Act as the primary liaison between regional operations and corporate leadership.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Athlete experience: Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) tracked per event and rolled up to region-level performance.
• Financial performance: EBITDA (actual vs budget/forecast) and budget adherence across the regional P&L.
• Operational performance: on-time delivery of key milestones, incident rate/severity trends, and timely closure of corrective actions.
• Readiness & compliance: permits secured by required deadlines and vendor/agency deliverables met to plan.
• Stakeholder outcomes: partner/host city satisfaction and renewal readiness.
• Community relationship health: strength of relationships with clubs, coaches, host cities, local businesses, volunteers, and public safety partners, reflected through qualitative feedback, renewal readiness, and issue-resolution effectiveness.

Qualifications/Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Sports Management, or related field (Master’s preferred).
• Strong operational acumen and ability to understand complex event operations, safety, permitting, logistics, and delivery requirements; direct experience in an operational role is beneficial but not required if the candidate can demonstrate strong judgment, learning agility, and the ability to lead operational teams effectively.
• Proven track record in P&L management and strategic planning.
• Strong leadership skills with experience managing multi-site teams.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management abilities.
• Passion for endurance sports and commitment to delivering exceptional athlete experiences.
• Preferred: experience partnering with municipalities and public safety agencies (permitting, traffic plans, medical/EMS, security) and leading event-day incident escalation.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships across the endurance sport community, including athletes, clubs, coaches, volunteers, host cities, local businesses and civic/public safety partners.

Physical & Equipment Requirements

• Ability to move, position, transport, and install materials and equipment weighing up to 25 pounds.
• Perform manual handling tasks, including bending, stooping, twisting, and reaching, associated with event setup, breakdown, and onsite operations.
• Ability to stay stationary and/or move around the event site for extended periods of time, including during long event days, outdoor conditions, and uneven surfaces.
• Ability to work in a variety of environments, including indoor and outdoor venues, and in varying weather conditions.
• Ability to operate or assist with basic event equipment and tools as required for the role.
• Extended work days and travel will be required whilst attending assigned onsite events.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to any protected characteristic under applicable law. We also provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the hiring process and employment in accordance with applicable law.

The above job description is not intended to be an "all inclusive" list of duties, responsibilities, skill and abilities, required to do the job. Rather, it is intended only to describe the general nature of the job and is a reasonable representation of its activities. Duties and responsibilities may evolve over time.