Director, CES Digital Platforms

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Full Time Regular Arlington, VA, US

3 days ago Requisition

Salary Range: $ To $ Annually

The Director of Product, CES Platforms is the dedicated product leader for the technology ecosystem that powers CES, including registration, exhibitor and speaker workflows, credentialing and access, mobile and mapping experiences, and the integrations and digital services that connect them.

This role owns the product vision, strategy, and multi-year roadmap for the CES platform portfolio across vendor-delivered and internally developed capabilities. The Director manages the portfolio as one product: setting direction, defining success, making disciplined build, buy, or retire decisions, holding vendors accountable to outcomes, and identifying opportunities for CES digital products to create value for attendees and exhibitors and generate revenue year-round.

This is a strategy and portfolio leadership role with delivery accountability. The Director must pair long-range product thinking with sound judgment and disciplined execution in a complex, cross-functional environment where deadlines are fixed and platform reliability is essential to the success of CES.

• Own the product vision, strategy, and multi-year roadmap for the CES technology ecosystem, spanning vendor-delivered and internally developed capabilities.
• Manage the CES platform portfolio as an integrated product, aligning investments and priorities across participant journeys, business operations, data, and technology.
• Define measurable outcomes for product initiatives and track performance across customer experience, adoption, platform reliability, operational efficiency, portfolio cost, and revenue.
• Prioritize initiatives based on customer and business value, organizational strategy, operational risk, delivery capacity, and show-critical timing.
• Develop clear business cases for significant platform investments and recommendations.
• Identify, validate, and pilot digital products and services that can create new value for CES participants and generate year-round revenue in partnership with Sales, Marketing, Conferences, and Finance.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI-enabled solutions, based on demonstrated value, implementation risk, security, data implications, and total cost of ownership.

• Serve as the accountable business owner for the CES platform portfolio and its key vendor relationships.
• Lead technology evaluations, vendor selections, and end-to-end RFP processes, including business requirements, evaluation criteria, stakeholder participation, and recommendations.
• Manage vendor contracts, renewals, service levels, product roadmaps, and performance; hold vendors accountable to commitments, timelines, quality standards, and business outcomes.
• Treat each significant renewal or platform investment as a build, buy, enhance, or retire decision supported by documented analysis.
• Establish clear ownership, decision rights, governance, documentation, and support models for CES platforms.
• Own product requirements for platform data and integrations so information flows reliably into CTA's shared data infrastructure, in close partnership with Data & Analytics and IT.
• Partner with IT to ensure CES platforms meet CTA requirements for security, access, infrastructure, and technology risk management.
• Monitor portfolio health, cost, dependencies, and risks and communicate material decisions or concerns to business and technology leaders.

• Provide portfolio-level direction and oversight for the implementation of platform capabilities and releases across the CES planning cycle.
• Translate product strategy into sequenced initiatives, clear requirements, success criteria, and accountable delivery plans.
• Lead change management and release planning, ensuring affected teams understand upcoming changes, timing, responsibilities,…