At a glance
Employment: Permanent, Salaried
Hours: FT (40 hrs); includes weekend and evening work as based on a schedule of shows and events
Start Date: ASAP
Salary: $75,000 - $85,000 annually
Location: Calgary (on-site)
Closing Date: May 1, 2026
To apply, send your resume and cover letter to: employment@werklundcentre.ca
OPEN POSITION: ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, EVENT SERVICES
Reporting to the Director, Venue Operations, the Associate Director, Event Services leads the Event Services portfolio with a focus on excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement. This role ensures the successful execution of a diverse range of complex events, delivering exceptional experiences for clients, partners, and patrons. Combining strategic vision with operational leadership, the Associate Director oversees venue bookings, contract administration, and event delivery while building strong relationships with internal teams, resident companies, major promoters, and third-party clients.
We’re looking for a confident, adaptable leader with proven experience delivering large-scale events in fast-paced environments. You are comfortable navigating both structure and ambiguity—working within established processes while refining and evolving them as priorities shift. With a calm, solutions-focused approach, you excel at managing competing demands, responding to change, maintaining high standards of service, safety, and performance, at all times, and effectively lead a diverse set of customer-facing teams.
Who we are:
Werklund Centre (formerly Arts Commons) is the steward of Western Canada’s largest arts centre and the artistic and civic cornerstone of Calgary’s downtown core that fosters the arts through live performance, educational opportunities, and artist development. For 40 years, it has been a key contributor to the social, economic, cultural, and intellectual life and well-being of Calgarians—a commitment that is being renewed through the Werklund Centre Transformation project, the largest cultural infrastructure project in Canadian history.
Our belief
- That equitable access to the arts is a human right
Our responsibility
- To redefine a bold and adventurous Calgary by championing and investing in creativity
Our mission
- To be an inspirational force where artists, community and organizations celebrate cultural identities, experience the full breadth of human emotions, and ignite positive change
What we offer:
Employee Promise
We cultivate a diverse community that encourages collaboration, connection, and empowerment. On top of the excitement of working with a team of committed performing and visual arts professionals & enthusiasts at one of Canada’s top performing arts facilities, Werklund Centre offers:
- A collaborative, engaging and values driven work environment
- An annual salary in the range of $75,000 - $85,000
- A comprehensive health and dental benefits package, with RSP matching and access to an Employee & Family Assistance Program (EFAP)
- A positive working culture, keeping employee health and wellness a priority with generous paid time off policies and an annual lifestyle allowance
- A dynamic role that will have you engaging with the arts and communities in many different areas, and through different types of events and productions
What we value:
We are looking for individuals who share our vision of building a creative and compassionate society, inspired through the arts. Our team is made up of people with a diverse range of interests — singers, actors, musicians, playwrights, coaches, teachers, gamers, bakers, photographers, athletes, dancers. People whose interests encompass the widest spectrum. We even have furry, four-legged friends in the office. We value people who strive to do the right thing, and work to be their best. People with open minds, hearts, and arms.
What you will get to do here:
As the Associate Director, Event Services, you will lead the planning, coordination, and execution of event services operations, ensuring seamless end-to-end delivery from initial booking through post-event settlement. You will provide both strategic direction and day-to-day leadership to the Event Services team, including office staff and a large and diverse Front of House team, ensuring processes, staffing, training, and service expectations are consistently maintained. In this role, you will foster a collaborative, high-performing environment that supports staff development, accountability, and cross-functional alignment, while ensuring all event services operations deliver an exceptional level of customer service.
You will serve as a senior point of contact for key stakeholders, including resident companies, promoters, and third-party clients, while identifying opportunities to grow bookings and enhance the overall client experience. Working closely with teams across Venue Operations, you will ensure events (ranging from community programming to large-scale commercial productions), are delivered with a consistent level of excellence, supported by well-trained and appropriately staffed customer service teams. You will also oversee departmental financial management, including budgeting, forecasting, and performance monitoring, while identifying opportunities to optimize revenue and support business growth. With a strong client-focused approach, you will proactively resolve challenges, drive continuous improvement across processes and service delivery, and ensure compliance with all health and safety standards.
Strategic Goals: Drive business development goals and oversee all aspects of the event services lifecycle, ensuring operational excellence and leadership while maintaining the integrity of each event to deliver seamless, high-quality experiences for clients, patrons, partners, and the Event Services team.
Where you fit within our ecosystem:
This role is a key leadership position within the Venue Operations team, working closely with Bar Operations, Production, Programming, Finance, Ticketing, Human Resources, and external partners. You will play a central role in delivering a wide range of events, from large-scale commercial productions to high-profile partnerships with promoters and third-party clients, while ensuring strong, consistent front-of-house operations. Your ability to lead large, diverse teams, implement effective staffing and training programs, and collaborate across departments will be critical to aligning operational execution with organizational priorities and delivering a seamless guest and client experience.
You will be a great fit if you…
Must haves:
- Minimum 7+ years of management experience with increasing responsibilities in a convention or performing arts centre
- Experience dealing with large commercial clients and promoters
- In-depth knowledge of venue calendar and event planning systems, and advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office products
- Experience with preparing complex budgets and forecasts utilizing information from multiple departments, and reviewing and reporting on actuals to budget/forecast with strong financial acumen
- Experience managing teams in a performing arts centre, venue, or large-scale event setting
- Exceptional organizational and project management skills
- Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
- Strong communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills
- Positive attitude and comfortable working in collaborative environments
- Values and customer service driven
Nice to have:
- Experience in non-profit sector, an asset
- Post-secondary education in event planning and business administration, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience)
- A passion for the arts!
Working Conditions & Physical Requirements:
- Occasional work on evenings, weekends and holidays as required for a schedule of shows and events
- Lifting (up to 25 lbs)
If you are interested in applying to this exciting opportunity, please forward your resume and cover letter in confidence to:
Human Resources
Werklund Centre
205 - 8th Ave SE Calgary, Alberta T2G 0K9
Email: employment@werklundcentre.ca
Interviews will be conducted on an on-going basis and the job posting will officially close when a suitable candidate is found. For best consideration, please apply by the deadline date. While we hope to fill this position as earliest as possible, our commitment to finding the right candidate may require more time.
We thank all interested applicants in advance but will only be contacting those selected for an interview.
If you have any specific questions to ask in relation to the role, please send them to the email address above and a member of our team will do our best to respond to you in a timely manner.
Commitment to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility
As part of our organization’s commitment to IDEA, we work to remove barriers in collaboration with a broad range of voices. Removing these barriers begins with the hiring process. To that end, we are committed to recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting qualified people of all backgrounds, and providing accessible employment practices. Requests for accommodation can be made at any stage of the recruitment process, and applicants are asked to make their accommodation needs known.
We strongly encourage applicants who identify as part of underrepresented groups, including women, people of colour and those with disabilities to apply. Even if your past experiences do not align perfectly with every qualification, we strongly encourage you to apply anyway! An excitement and passion for Werklund Centre can go a long way here, whether it’s in this role or another.
