Sr. Manager, Events & Hospitality

AAON, Inc.; Tulsa (OK); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

AAON, Inc. is seeking a Sr. Manager for Events & Hospitality to lead corporate events, hospitality services, and travel programs across locations.

You will set strategy, standards, and processes, manage budgets and vendor relations, and partner with cross-functional teams to align initiatives with business goals. The role requires extensive leadership and a track record of delivering high-visibility events, with emphasis on cost controls, service quality, and scalable practices across the

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in hospitality, business, marketing, or related field.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in corporate events, hospitality, experiential marketing, or related area.
• 3+ years of people leadership experience and managing complex events, budgets, contracts, and vendors.

Responsibilities

• Lead company-wide strategy for events, hospitality services, and related programs.
• Establish standard processes, service expectations, and operating guidelines across locations.
• Oversee complex events with objectives, budgets, timelines, and resources.

Skills

Leadership

Budgeting

Vendor management

Event planning

Hospitality operations

Travel programs

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic planning

Education

Bachelor's degree in hospitality management, business administration, marketing, or related

Job description

Job Description

The Sr. Manager, Events & Hospitality provides company-wide leadership for corporate events, hospitality services, and corporate travel programs. This position establishes strategies, standards, and processes that create consistent, professional experiences for customers, employees, leaders, and community partners across company locations. The role leads event and hospitality operations, manages budgets and external partners, and collaborates across the organization to align programs with business objectives. The Sr. Manager ensures programs are executed effectively, responsibly, and in alignment with company expectations.

Primary Duties

• Develops and leads the company-wide strategy for corporate events, hospitality services, and related programs, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives and stakeholder needs.
• Establishes standardized processes, service expectations, planning practices, and operating guidelines for events and hospitality services across company locations.
• Provides leadership for complex corporate events, including defining objectives, scope, budgets, timelines, resource requirements, execution strategies, and measures of success.
• Leads hospitality operations and establishes standards for catering, meeting support, executive and customer visits, special guests, and other company-sponsored experiences.
• Oversees corporate travel programs, including vendor relationships, policy adherence, financial controls, reporting, service performance, and continuous improvement.
• Develops and manages departmental budgets, forecasts, expenditures, vendor agreements, and resource plans to support business objectives and responsible use of company resources.
• Builds and manages relationships with external service providers and evaluates vendor performance, cost, service quality, operational requirements, and business risk.
• Partners with leaders and cross-functional teams to establish priorities, resolve complex operational issues, manage risks, and support consistent event and hospitality execution across the organization.
• Evaluates program performance, stakeholder feedback, service levels, costs, and operational results to identify opportunities for improvement and implement scalable practices.
• Hires, trains, coaches, counsels, and evaluates performance of direct reports.
• Primary duties may include, but are not limited to: Establishes event planning tools, standards, schedules, contingency plans, and post-event evaluation practices to support consistent execution.
• Provides leadership and direction during major events, executive visits, customer engagements, and other high-visibility company activities.
• Monitors travel, event, and hospitality spending and identifies opportunities to strengthen financial controls, improve service, and optimize company resources.
• Ensures appropriate staffing, scheduling, resources, and operational readiness to support events and hospitality activities across company locations.
• Collaborates with marketing, sales, finance, accounting, facilities, information technology, security, administrative teams, and business leaders to coordinate organizational needs and priorities.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Job Requirements

Education and Experience Requirements: Requires a Bachelor's degree in hospitality management, business administration, marketing, or a related discipline; 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in corporate events, hospitality, experiential marketing, event consulting, or a related field, including 3+ years of people leadership experience and demonstrated experience managing complex events, budgets, contracts, and external vendors; or any combination of education and experience, which would provide an equivalent background. Experience supporting multiple locations and overseeing corporate travel programs or related reporting preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Advanced knowledge of event planning, event production, hospitality operations, and service delivery practices. Strong leadership skills with the ability to develop teams, establish accountability, and lead through complex or high-visibility situations. Strong project management, organizational, planning, and prioritization skills with the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously. Strong financial acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, expense analysis, cost management, and vendor evaluation. Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with employees, senior leaders, customers, vendors, and other stakeholders. Ability to influence decisions, establish alignment among diverse stakeholders, and build effective cross-functional relationships. Strong analytical, problem-solving, risk-management, and decision-making skills. Ability to establish scalable standards, processes, service expectations, and performance measures across multiple locations. Sound judgment and the ability to remain composed and make effective decisions in time-sensitive or high-pressure situations. Ability to negotiate and manage vendor relationships, contracts, service expectations, and associated costs. Ability to analyze program performance, spending, service levels, and stakeholder feedback and translate findings into actionable improvements. Ability to travel and work outside normal business hours, including occasional evenings and weekends, based on business and event requirements.

Essential and Physical Functions

Ability to communicate effectively and exchange accurate information with employees, leaders, customers, vendors, and other stakeholders. Ability to analyze information, establish priorities, solve complex problems, exercise sound judgment, and make decisions in time-sensitive situations. Ability to remain stationary for extended periods while performing administrative, planning, budgeting, and reporting responsibilities. Ability to move throughout office, meeting, hospitality, and event spaces to oversee activities and ensure operational readiness. Ability to occasionally move or position event materials, supplies, or equipment associated with event and hospitality activities. Ability to manage multiple priorities and maintain attention to detail in environments with changing deadlines and operational requirements.

Work Environment

Work is primarily performed in office, meeting, hospitality, and event environments. Regular interaction and collaboration with employees, senior leaders, customers, visitors, vendors, and external service providers. May work at multiple company locations, event venues, or other business-related locations depending on organizational needs. Occasional travel, evening, or weekend work may be required to support company events and business activities. May experience periods of increased activity, noise, and changing environmental conditions during events or at external venues. Compliance with all applicable company policies and safety requirements is expected.

Disclaimer

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at a time with or without notice. This job description is not an exhaustive list of all functions that the employee may be required to perform, and the employee may be required to perform additional functions. The company reserves the right to revise this job description at any time. The employee must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily. If requested, reasonable accommodations may be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job, absent undue hardship.

About AAON and BASX

At AAON and BASX, we're driven by a shared commitment to innovation, performance, and sustainability. Since 1988, AAON has been at the forefront of the HVAC industry, delivering cutting-edge solutions for commercial and industrial indoor environments. Since joining forces with AAON in 2021, BASX has built on that foundation with highly engineered, custom solutions for critical environments—where precision and reliability matter most. Together, we design and manufacture highly configurable systems tailored to each application, ensuring our customers achieve exceptional efficiency, performance, and long-term value.

Join Our Team

Join us in shaping smarter, more sustainable environments for the future.