Associate Director Meetings and Congresses

Associate Director, Meetings & Congresses

Job Summary

The Associate Director, Meetings & Congresses, is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of the company’s Commercial meetings and congress portfolio. This role establishes the governance, processes, infrastructure, technology, and external partnerships required to deliver compliant, efficient, and high-impact meetings and congress experiences while supporting the organization’s continued commercialization and growth. 

Serving as the central subject matter expert for meetings and congresses, the Associate Director partners cross-functionally with Marketing, Sales, Field Training, Medical Affairs, Finance, Procurement, Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, and other stakeholders to translate business objectives into integrated meeting and congress strategies. 

The role combines strategic planning and functional leadership with end-to-end operational oversight, including portfolio planning, congress strategy, meeting management, budget stewardship, agency and supplier management, technology enablement, governance, attendee management, onsite execution, and post-event evaluation. 

As a key representative of Marketing Operations, the Associate Director serves as a collaborator and connector across the organization, driving process improvements, sharing best practices, and enabling efficient and scalable Commercial execution. The role requires strong strategic thinking, executive communication, and problem-solving skills, along with the ability to lead complex initiatives and cross-functional planning teams in a fast-paced, growing Commercial organization. 

The ideal candidate combines strategic leadership with strong operational execution and will excel at leading complex, high-visibility meetings and congresses while fostering strong partnerships with internal stakeholders and external suppliers.

Duties/Responsibilities

Strategy 

• Lead strategy, planning, and operational oversight of the Commercial meetings and congress portfolio, including national sales meetings, launch meetings, field and new-hire training meetings, leadership meetings, cross-functional meetings, major medical congresses, and associated ancillary activities. 
• Develop and maintain annual and long-range meeting and congress plans aligned with organizational priorities, commercialization milestones, field readiness, and business objectives, while maintaining an enterprise view of the portfolio to optimize planning, coordination, resource utilization, and organizational visibility.
• Partner with Commercial and Medical stakeholders to develop integrated cross-functional strategies for priority congresses while maintaining clear functional ownership and decision rights. 
• Serve as the primary Meetings & Congresses subject matter expert and strategic advisor to functional and senior leadership. 

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Planning & Execution 

•  Lead end-to-end operational planning for national, regional, and local congresses, including exhibits, sponsorships, meeting rooms, ancillary meetings and events, hospitality, attendee management, and other congress-related activities.
• Facilitate cross-functional planning and readiness activities, partnering with Marketing, Medical Affairs, Field teams, Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, and other stakeholders to ensure alignment on objectives, deliverables, timelines, responsibilities, dependencies, key decisions, and successful execution.
• Oversee registration, housing, travel-related processes, attendee communications, schedules, meeting requests, and onsite operational requirements.
• Develop and maintain processes and resources that enable field teams to execute local congress activities consistently and in alignment with company standards.
• Lead planning and execution for significant Commercial meetings, including national sales meetings, launch meetings, field training, new-hire training, leadership meetings, and other strategic internal meetings.
• Partner with meeting owners and functional leaders to translate business, strategic, and learning objectives into effective meeting strategies, formats, agendas, and attendee experiences.
• Lead venue sourcing, contracting, registration, housing, food and beverage, transportation, production coordination, attendee communications, onsite logistics, event materials, and financial reconciliation.
• Establish consistent planning standards and best practices across company-sponsored Commercial meetings.
• Provide onsite leadership for priority meetings and congresses, serving as the primary operational escalation point while ensuring successful execution and proactive risk management.

Agency, Supplier & Sourcing Strategy 

• Lead agency and supplier sourcing initiatives, including RFP development, evaluation, selection, contracting, onboarding, and implementation. 
• Develop scopes of work and partner with Procurement and functional stakeholders to define supplier responsibilities, deliverables, service expectations, performance measures, and commercially responsible solutions that maximize organizational value.
• Manage agency and supplier performance through established service expectations, regular business reviews, and performance metrics. 

Budget & Financial Stewardship 

• Establish standardized budget tracking, forecasting, reconciliation, and financial closeout processes across meetings and congress programs.
• Partner with Finance, Procurement, agencies, and budget owners on purchase orders, contracts, accruals, invoicing, reconciliation, and financial reporting. 
• Provide leadership with timely visibility into spend, commitments, forecasted expenses, variances, and potential financial risks. 

Technology, Data & Infrastructure 

• Lead business processes associated with Cvent, including meeting intake, registration, attendee management, communications, reporting, and user adoption.
• Develop and maintain centralized resources and collaboration environments for meetings and congresses, including SharePoint and Microsoft Teams-based tools, repositories, training, documentation, and process standards.
• Establish reporting and dashboards that provide visibility into meeting and congress activity, attendance, spend, operational performance, and key portfolio metrics.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, capabilities, and industry best practices that can improve efficiency, attendee experience, planning effectiveness, and organizational visibility.
• Partner with Legal, Compliance, Finance, Procurement, and other stakeholders to ensure meetings and congress activities are conducted in accordance with company policies, industry regulations, compliance requirements, transparency standards, and organizational controls.
• Design, implement, and continuously enhance the Meetings & Congresses operating model, including governance frameworks, policies, processes, tools, and approval pathways.
• Establish standardized planning, execution, attendance, and recordkeeping practices that promote visibility, consistency, accountability, scalability, and effective risk management.
• Establish KPIs and post-event evaluation processes to assess operational performance, attendee experience, financial performance, supplier performance, and achievement of business objectives.
• Monitor industry trends, technologies, and best practices while continuously identifying improvement opportunities and evolving processes, governance, tools, and supplier models to support organizational growth and commercialization. 

Requirements

• Demonstrated ability to influence and lead cross-functional teams without direct authority. 
• Strong strategic thinking with the ability to translate business objectives into actionable meeting and congress strategies. 
• Exceptional organizational, planning, and project-management skills with demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex initiatives simultaneously. 
• Strong communication, presentation, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills. 
• Highly detail-oriented with a strong commitment to operational excellence and follow-through. 
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills and the ability to anticipate risks, navigate ambiguity, and adapt quickly as business priorities evolve. 
• Ability to balance strategic leadership with hands-on execution in a fast-paced, growing organization. 
• Strong financial and business acumen with experience managing significant program budgets. 
• Ability to build productive relationships across functions, organizational levels, agencies, and external suppliers. 
• Ability to travel as required, including overnight travel and onsite leadership for priority meetings and congresses. 

• Bachelors Degree or relevant industry experience. 
• Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) or similar meeting/event industry certification preferred. 
•  Commercial event planning experience, including coordination of cross-functional partners and management of external vendors
• 10+ years of progressive experience in meetings, congresses, events, Commercial Operations, or related disciplines, preferably within biotechnology, pharmaceutical, or life sciences organizations. 
• Significant experience leading complex, high-visibility Commercial meetings and congresses in a highly regulated environment. 
• Demonstrated experience supporting pre-launch, launch, and/or growing Commercial organizations strongly preferred. 
• Proven experience leading cross-functional planning teams and managing complex programs with multiple stakeholders and dependencies. 
• Demonstrated experience building governance frameworks, SOPs, operating processes, planning frameworks, and scalable operational infrastructure. 
• Strong experience with agency and supplier strategy, RFPs, contracting, budget management, forecasting, and financial reconciliation. 
• Experience implementing and/or optimizing meeting-management technologies such as Cvent and collaboration platforms such as SharePoint and Microsoft Teams. 
• Strong understanding of pharmaceutical/biotechnology compliance considerations related to meetings and congresses. 

#LI-Hybrid

EEOC Statement: Intellia believes in a diverse environment, and is committed to equal employment opportunity for all its employees and qualified applicants. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. Intellia will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and will continue to be accepted until the position is filled at which point the position will be taken down.

The base salary for this position is expected to range between $171,681.00 - $209,833.00 USD per year.

The salary offered is determined based on a range of factors including, but not limited to, relevant education and training, overall related experience, specialized, rare or in-demand skill sets, internal comparators and other business needs. Upon joining Intellia, your salary will be reviewed periodically and additional factors such as time in role and performance will be considered. Intellia may change the published salary range based on company and market factors.

Additional compensation includes a performance-based annual cash bonus, a new hire equity grant, and eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards the value of which are determined annually at the Company’s discretion.

For more information about Intellia’s benefits, please click here.