Employment Type: Full-time
Location: New York, NY
Work Site Type: Hybrid
Building a Brand starts with a Story
FIRST is a leading global brand experience agency providing Content, Creative, Digital Technology, Management & Delivery, and Data & Insights services. For 30 years, we have utilized three flexible delivery models: Embedded teams, Corporate Campus operations, and a Full-Service Agency. Managing over 37,000 events & projects annually across 110 countries, FIRST serves 130+ brands, specializing in Fortune 500 companies within the Financial Services, Technology, Healthcare, Media, and Professional Services sectors. FIRST is part of the broader Encore family of companies. Encore is a global leader in event production and technology. Consistently recognized for excellence, recent honors include 2026 Chief Marketer Agency of the Year, the Ad Net Zero Award for sustainability, and more.
Learn more at www.firstagency.com
What You Would Get To Do:
The Team Operations Lead, Embedded Solutions is embedded within a client account and acts as a primary partner to the account’s operational and team leadership, ensuring the smooth day-to-day functioning of the event delivery organization in AMRS and EMEA. This role acts as a key operational partner to the team, translating data, reporting, and workflow oversight into clear actions that strengthen operational discipline and support consistent, high-quality event delivery.
Combining strong business acumen, analytics capability, and operational oversight, the Team Operations Lead, Embedded Solutions helps drive performance across the team through KPI tracking, resource coordination, process governance, and operational reporting. The role balances strategic insight with hands-on execution, enabling leadership to make informed decisions while ensuring operational discipline across daily workflows.
Your Contributions
Operational Leadership & Team Support
- Act as the primary partner to the operational leadership team for a dedicated account that provides services in AMRS and EMEA, supporting day-to-day management of event operations and ensuring team workflows run efficiently.
- Provide operational oversight across event delivery activities, ensuring alignment with client expectations, internal standards, and performance metrics.
- Support leadership in preparing and facilitating operational reviews, team forums, and governance meetings including Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs).
- Support or lead initiatives to improve processes, timelines, and tools that enhance consistency, efficiency, and operational effectiveness.
- Provide ongoing support to Operational Leadership, assisting with ad-hoc requests and operational priorities as they arise.
- Serve as backup for Operations Leadership, providing coverage and maintaining continuity during periods of PTO or absence.
Data, Reporting & Operational Insights
- Manage operational reporting across the account, including KPI tracking, BOW analysis, and performance dashboards.
- Translate operational data into clear insights and recommendations that inform leadership decision-making.
- Develop and maintain reporting tools, trackers, and dashboards that support operational transparency and performance management.
- Manipulate and analyze large datasets using advanced Excel skills to identify trends, risks, and opportunities.
- Support time tracking and capacity analysis to inform resourcing and operational planning.
Resourcing & Team Operations
- Coordinate and manage the end-to-end onboarding process for new team members across AMRS and EMEA, ensuring a smooth and consistent integration into the team.
- Partner with leadership on candidate screening and interviews to help identify and onboard the right operational talent.
- Ensure new hires are effectively integrated into team processes, tools, and workflows.
- Support learning and development initiatives that strengthen operational capability and knowledge sharing across the team.
- Manage and maintain oversight of overtime forecasting, budgeting, and actuals for the team, ensuring alignment with commercial targets and proactively identifying risks, variances, and opportunities that may impact financial performance.
- Assist managers in addressing operational challenges, including workload balancing and prioritization.
- Coordinate responses to client-driven operational requests and internal leadership priorities.
- Maintain visibility into team capacity, utilization, and event allocation to support balanced workloads.
- Work with leadership to deploy bench resources effectively across projects and regions to meet delivery needs.
Process Governance & Continuous Improvement
- Ensure adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and established operational frameworks across the event delivery team.
- Monitor day-to-day operational workflows, identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, scalability, and overall service quality.
- Lead or support initiatives that refine and streamline operational processes to enable consistent and scalable event delivery.
- Maintain clear and accurate documentation, ensuring operational standards and processes are well understood and consistently applied.
- Support internal team communication by coordinating updates, sharing operational insights, and promoting knowledge exchange across the account team.
What We Are Looking For
Please be aware that we know experience does not always look like we describe it. If you believe you would be an excellent fit for this role, please apply - we would love to see how you could fit at First.
- 8–10 years of experience in event operations, program management, or operational leadership, ideally within a corporate or agency environment.
- Event management or event operations experience is strongly preferred.
- Bachelor’s Degree preferred.
- Strong operational mindset with the ability to translate business goals into structured workflows and processes.
- Experience using data and analytics to inform operational decisions.
- Advanced Excel skills including data manipulation, formulas, and pivot tables.
- Strong PowerPoint skills with experience creating business-focused presentations and reporting materials.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple operational workstreams simultaneously.
- Excellent facilitation and communication skills with confidence supporting leadership forums and operational meetings.
- Strong organizational discipline with meticulous attention to detail, a strong sense of urgency, and consistent follow-through.
- Ability to operate independently while partnering closely with leadership in complex client environments.
- Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, paired with professionalism, discretion, and confidentiality when handling sensitive information and materials.
At FIRST, we believe that our success is driven by the passion, creativity, and commitment of our teams. That's why we offer a range of benefits and perks to support your personal and professional growth:
- Medical, Dental & Vision which includes the option of a high deductible health plan (HDHP) with a health savings account (HSA)
- 401 (k)
- Five Flexible Spending Accounts Options
- Generous Paid Time Off Allowance
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Life, Disability & Pet Coverages
- Wellness Stipend
- Complimentary access to Headspace, Teladoc, Maven, Rocket Lawyer, Mobilo & more
- Aura Identity Theft Protection
- Discretionary Bonus Structure
- Global Opportunities: With a presence in 7 countries worldwide, including headquarters in London, New York, and Singapore, you may have the opportunity to work on exciting projects across different locations.
United States Residents: The base pay for this position ranges from $105,600 - $121,400. This role is also eligible for an annual discretionary bonus.
#LI-Hybrid #LI-KM1
FIRST is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. FIRST 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 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, 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 the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. We stand firm: FIRST will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. If any candidate feels that they are unable to meet the requirements of the role, please get in touch to discuss adjustments or other suitable roles.