Senior Manager, Event Operations

Location: Hybrid in Denver, CO & Philadelphia PA or Home-based in Boston, MA

Position Summary:

Bentley Systems is seeking an operationally excellent event leader to serve as the day-to-day delivery lead for the company's flagship event portfolio, including the User Conference and Year in Infrastructure Awards program.

Working closely with the Director of Global Event Delivery and the VP of Global Events, this role drives planning cadence, workstream management, operational readiness, agency coordination, and cross-functional accountability across a complex ecosystem of stakeholders and partners. Success in this role requires the ability to influence without authority, anticipate risks before they become issues, and help teams move from ideas to execution with confidence.

The ideal candidate thrives in fast-paced environments and brings exceptional organizational discipline, problem-solving ability, and a bias toward action. They excel at creating structure, maintaining momentum, and helping teams navigate complexity with clarity and confidence.

Responsibilities:

- Program Delivery & Workstream Leadership

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- Serve as the operational lead for Bentley's flagship programs, including the User Conference and Year in Infrastructure Awards.

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- Build and maintain integrated workback schedules, critical paths, and milestone plans across all phases of delivery.

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- Establish and lead planning cadence, workstream meetings, readiness reviews, and issue-resolution forums that keep programs moving forward.

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- Drive accountability across internal teams, agency partners, and stakeholders, ensuring commitments are met and dependencies are proactively managed.

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- Identify risks, facilitate decisions, and escalate issues before they impact delivery.

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- Maintain visibility into cross-functional dependencies and ensure decisions, action items, and milestones remain on track throughout the event lifecycle.

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- Partner closely with the VP of Global Events and the Director of Global Event Delivery to ensure strategic vision and experience objectives are translated into executable plans.

- Operational Readiness & Event Execution

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- Lead operational readiness across registration, housing, transportation, food and beverage, staffing, keynote production, content delivery, show floor operations, speaker logistics, executive programs, and onsite support.

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- Partner with Experience Design and Programming & Content Operations teams to ensure creative, content, and production requirements are translated into executable plans and delivered according to schedule.

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- Lead operational readiness reviews and drive issue resolution across all major workstreams in advance of critical milestones and onsite execution.

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- Provide onsite operational leadership during load-in, event operations, load-out, and post-event closeout activities.

- Agency & Partner Leadership

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- Serve as the day-to-day operational lead for agency and production partners.

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- Coordinate agency schedules, deliverables, and dependencies to ensure work progresses with clarity, accountability, and alignment.

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- Build strong working relationships and ensure external partners operate as seamless extensions of the Bentley team.

- Operational Excellence & Process Improvement

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- Document lessons learned and incorporate improvements into future planning frameworks, templates, and playbooks.

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- Identify opportunities to simplify workflows and improve team efficiency through the practical application of AI-enabled tools, automation, and modern ways of working.

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- Partner with the Director of Global Event Delivery to pilot and adopt new technologies that improve planning visibility, reduce manual effort, and increase organizational capacity.

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- Contribute to the ongoing evolution and maturity of Bentley's event delivery model.

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- Champion operational discipline and best practices across the organization.

- This role requires people management and will lead 2 direct reports, and is a full-time role expected to work 40 hours per week.

- This role requires a minimum of 30% travel.

- Requires sitting or standing at will while performing work on a computer (or any other physical requirements).

Qualifications:

- 8–12 years of progressive responsibility leading operations for large-scale enterprise technology conferences, including flagship events with complex stakeholder ecosystems, multiple workstreams, and high executive visibility.

- Demonstrated ability to create structure, establish operating cadence, and drive accountability across highly matrixed teams and external partners.

- Strong project and program management skills with the ability to balance competing priorities and tight timelines.

- Experience managing agencies, production partners, vendors, and external service providers.

- Exceptional communication skills and the ability to maintain momentum and alignment across highly matrixed teams.

- Ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive accountability without direct authority.

- Experience building schedules, managing risks, and facilitating decision-making in dynamic environments.

- Curiosity and openness toward AI-enabled workflows, automation, and modern approaches to project management and event delivery.

- Experience with event technologies, project management platforms, and collaborative planning tools.

- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

- Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to travel domestically and internationally and provide onsite leadership during event execution.

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience leading large-scale global user conferences, customer events, or enterprise technology events.

- Experience working in software, technology, engineering, or infrastructure-related industries.

- Experience implementing event technology platforms, workflow automation, or AI-enabled planning tools.

- Professional certification in event management, project management, or related disciplines.

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#LI-HYBRID

This is a Hybrid role.


What We Offer:

- Step into a collaborative work environment where ideas flourish, and teamwork propels us forward towards shared success.
- An attractive salary and benefits package.
- Bentley Impact Day: take a day off from work to volunteer with an organization of your choice.
- Celebrate milestone achievements and moments that matter through our colleague recognition award programs and our Bentley Achievers platform.
- A commitment to inclusion, belonging and colleague wellbeing through global initiatives and resource groups.
- Be part of a company committed to making a real difference by advancing the world’s infrastructure for better quality of life, where your contributions help build a more sustainable, connected, and resilient world. Discover our latest user success stories for an insight into our global impact.

Who We Are: