Sr. Manager, Events

AppFolio • Santa Barbara, CA

6h

About The Position

AppFolio is more than a company. We’re a community of dreamers, big thinkers, problem solvers, active listeners, and multipliers. At every opportunity, we set the pace while delivering innovation built to carry real estate into the future. One in which every experience feels effortless, yet meaningful. Where customers are empowered to take on any opportunity. We show up as one team, connected by our values to be a force for good. Because together, we have the power to create extraordinary outcomes for our customers, our communities, and ourselves. The Senior Manager, Events will be responsible for leading AppFolio’s external events strategy and execution across key market segments. This role owns multiple trade show and industry event portfolios and manages a high-performing events team responsible for delivering experiences that drive pipeline growth, customer retention, and brand impact. As a Senior Manager of Events, you’ll set the strategy, guide execution, and ensure measurable outcomes across the full event lifecycle—partnering closely with Sales, Customer Success, Brand, Campaigns, and Operations to ensure events are aligned to AppFolio’s go-to-market priorities and integrated across the broader marketing mix.

Requirements

• Proven people leader with a minimum of 5 years of experience managing, coaching, and mentoring high-performing teams within a matrixed environment—balancing structure with flexibility, bringing out the best in others, and keeping things fun along the way.
• Able to structure and lead complex event programs from strategy through execution, with clear ownership of timelines, dependencies, and deliverables across multiple stakeholders.
• Proven ability to develop and present event strategies and recommendations to leadership, including rationale for show selection, investment levels, and tradeoffs.
• Strong data orientation, with experience defining KPIs, interpreting pipeline and performance reports, and using insights to refine event plans and playbooks.
• Highly skilled in cross-functional collaboration, building productive relationships with Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, Operations, Finance, and vendors.
• Excellent communication and documentation skills, with the ability to clearly articulate plans, expectations, and post-event summaries to stakeholders at all levels.
• Calm, resourceful, and solutions-oriented in a fast-paced environment, with a track record of navigating ambiguity and solving problems under time pressure.
• Must have 8+ years of experience managing B2B events such as trade shows or conferences, with hands-on ownership of in-person events (not just coordination or support).
• Demonstrated experience managing a portfolio of 10+ recurring in-person events per year, including Tier 1 trade shows across multiple customer or market segments.
• Proven experience owning event budgets and vendor contracts, including sourcing, negotiating, and managing spend against targets.
• Direct experience partnering with Sales organizations on event staffing, in-booth engagement, and structured post-show follow-up.
• Proficiency with core event and marketing tools, such as an event platform (for example, Cvent), a CRM (for example, Salesforce), a marketing automation platform, a project management tool (for example, Wrike or Asana), and a BI or reporting tool.
• Ability and willingness to travel regularly for events (approximately 25–30 percent during peak seasons) and work occasional evenings and weekends based on the event calendar.

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and mentor a team of event marketers responsible for planning and executing AppFolio’s external trade shows, industry conferences, and regional events.
• Own event strategy and performance across assigned segments and regions, defining clear objectives, target audiences, and success metrics tied to pipeline creation, revenue influence, and customer retention.
• Partner strategically with Revenue teams (Sales, Customer Success, Revenue Operations) to align event programs with territory priorities, account plans, staffing models, and growth objectives.
• Define and execute comprehensive event strategies that outline audience targeting, messaging, attendee journeys, activation plans, and measurable outcomes across large-scale and regional programs.
• Oversee end-to-end execution of complex events , including venue sourcing and contracts, vendor and agency management, booth design and logistics, budgeting, technology needs, onsite staffing, and show readiness.
• Ensure events are fully integrated into multi-channel campaigns and customer lifecycle programs , partnering cross-functionally on campaign setup, lead capture and routing, post-event follow-up, reporting standards, and performance analysis tied to pipeline, revenue, and retention—while providing hands-on support during peak seasons to ensure consistent delivery across the portfolio.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed