Global Sales Events & Recognition Lead

Role Summary

The Global Events and Recognition Lead owns the end-to-end global events and recognition portfolio, including strategy, annual planning, governance, budget, delivery, risk management, stakeholder alignment, and measurement. This role serves as the single accountable lead for events and programs that are delivered around the globe: Sales Kick Off, Sales Leadership Summits, President’s Club, ongoing Sales Recognition programs, and other strategic global sales experiences. This role works with global teams and business partners across portfolio/Solution Areas, Sales Leadership, and HR to create authentic, data-driven experiences that inspire sellers, reinforce strategic behaviors, and support retention in a competitive talent market.

Key Responsibilities

Event Planning & Execution

- Develop comprehensive event strategy defining objectives, format, content strategy, stakeholder roles, timelines, and budgets for Sales Kickoff, Sales Leadership Summit, and Presidents Club. Collaborate with sales leadership, marketing, Solution Areas/Portfolio, HR, and finance to align on event purpose and learning outcomes.

- Develop and maintain an integrated annual roadmap connecting flagship events, leadership moments, seller communications, recognition campaigns, and ongoing engagement activities into a cohesive yearlong seller experience.

- Advise the CSPO and senior sales leadership on event priorities, recognition strategy, investment choices, and seller engagement opportunities.

- Curate engaging, varied session formats that blend self-paced pre-event learning, live interactive sessions, breakout groups, and post-event reinforcement to maximize behavior change and knowledge retention.

- Foster meaningful seller connections through strategic team-building activities, group discussions, purposeful peer cross-pollination, and creative engagement tactics that build collaboration across locations and tenures.

- Manage event production across multiple teams: Avanade, Accenture, Microsoft, Partners, Clients, and Vendors.

- Establish rigorous delivery plans and operating rhythms for major events, funding approval, including milestones, dependencies, decision deadlines, speaker readiness, run-of-show development, contingency planning, issue escalation, accessibility, and participant safety.

Recognition & Reward Program Design & Management

- Design and operate an always-on global sales recognition framework that creates frequent opportunities to recognize strategic behaviors, customer impact, collaboration, growth, innovation, and performance throughout the year, rather than limiting recognition to flagship events or annual awards. Ensure appropriate market-level adaptation based on cultural relevance, language, accessibility, local regulations, audience needs, and business priorities is designed into the framework.

- Create a global recognition calendar, nomination and approval processes, manager-led and peer-to-peer recognition mechanisms, storytelling campaigns, and recurring moments that sustain participation throughout the year.

- Define a coherent recognition architecture that differentiates everyday recognition, values- and behavior-based recognition, milestone awards, customer-impact recognition, team recognition, performance awards, and elite recognition experiences.

- Establish transparent eligibility, nomination, validation, selection, approval, and exception-management processes. Partner with HR, Legal, Finance, Tax, and Total Rewards to ensure rewards and recognition comply with relevant policies and local requirements.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Leadership

- Build and lead cross-functional, global delivery teams by establishing clear workstream ownership, decision rights, operating rhythms, and accountability for outcomes. Manage production partners, venues, technology providers, Accenture M&E, and internal Avanade teams against defined scopes, budgets, quality standards, and performance expectations.

- Partner across the business to ensure data privacy and security (GDPR, EU AI Act compliance), evaluate AI ethics and transparency, and manage integration with internal systems.

- Train sales managers and leaders on delivering authentic, specific, and timely recognition while promoting peer-to-peer recognition initiatives to foster inclusive team culture.

- Communicate transparently with sales teams and leadership about event objectives, recognition program changes, and rationales to shape positive perceptions and gain buy-in from top performers.

Measurement & Continuous Improvement

- Define success measures across participation, reach, engagement, representation, recognition frequency, manager adoption, seller sentiment, content relevance, behavioral application, budget performance, and business impact. Translate insights into recommendations for future investment and program design.

- Conduct post-event reinforcement activities including knowledge checks, behavioral nudges, just-in-time learning, manager coaching guides, and 30/60/90-day impact assessments to sustain behavior change.

- Gather qualitative and quantitative feedback from sellers and managers to complement metrics, refine programs, and communicate findings to stakeholders for continuous strategy iteration.
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Required Skills & Competencies

Core Competencies

- Content curation and facilitation — ability to translate complex business strategy into engaging, action-oriented learning and recognition experiences

- Cross-functional coordination — proven capability to collaborate across sales, marketing, product, HR, and finance functions with strong stakeholder management

- Program design and project management — experience developing comprehensive event and program charters, managing timelines, budgets, and multi-stakeholder initiatives

- Data analysis and measurement — capability to define KPIs, analyze program adoption and effectiveness metrics, and communicate insights to drive decision-making

- Change management and communication — skill in framing program changes, addressing seller concerns, and building organizational buy-in for new initiatives

- Authenticity and cultural awareness — commitment to designing genuine recognition experiences and understanding dynamics across diverse seller populations and geographies

Qualifications

Required

- Experience leading complex, high-visibility global events involving executive stakeholders

- Demonstrated ownership of significant budgets

- Experience designing and operating recognition, reward, employee engagement, or incentive programs

- Strong executive presence and ability to advise senior leaders

- Experience managing complex global programs across cultures, time zones, and organizational boundaries

- Ability to manage several concurrent, deadline-driven initiatives

- Experience with event and engagement technology, measurement platforms, or recognition tools

- Demonstrated ability to convert business strategy into an integrated participant experience

Preferred

- Experience in sales, sales operations, or sales enablement

- Experience working with global reward, tax, legal, privacy, and employee-relations considerations

- Experience designing hybrid, virtual, and in-person experiences

- Experience with executive communications, speaker coaching, or content governance

- Relevant event, program management, or change leadership certification
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