Gathering Experience Designer

Role Description

Reimagining the traditional in-office work model, Virtual First empowers us to live our company mission of designing a more enlightened way of working. With Virtual First, though remote work is the primary experience for our employees, we recognize that in-person connection is vital to a thriving workforce.  That’s why we encourage teams to come together regularly in-person. These moments of connection and collaboration are essential for building trust and driving impact, which not only improves team engagement, but helps us move more quickly and get work done in new ways. We are seeking an exceptional strategic individual contributor to spearhead our in-person gathering initiatives, including designing in-person experiences that nurture connection and offsite sessions that deliver business impact.

The Gathering Experience Designer is a high impact and high visibility role, playing a central part in the Virtual First experience at Dropbox. You’ll get to work on a wide range of strategic and meaningful projects that will hone your analytical abilities and people skills, while gaining exposure to senior leaders. You will be responsible for driving strategy around Dropbox’s approach to the in-person experience and support strategic efforts around connection within the broader Virtual First model using research & insights, emerging technology, gathering models, and continued innovation and experimentation.

This gathering strategy will be developed with our Vice President of People Operations and Global Head of Virtual First and serve as a blueprint for the Offsite Planning Team’s program managers. The work will directly dictate the way Dropbox employees connect with one another within their teams. Additionally, you will develop scalable and interactive centralized playbooks and resources that collate content, experiences, types of gathering, best practices, and location-specific recommendations in partnership with Learning, HR Business Partners, DEI, and other key stakeholders. Reporting to the Head of Workplace and Community Experience, you will not only have the opportunity to be a part of an innovative team reimagining the future of work, you will also be pivotal in advancing our Virtual First goals, ensuring our in-person gathering efforts are cohesive, impactful, and aligned with our business objectives. 

The ideal candidate is a visionary with a strong track record in team effectiveness, learning, and events, capable of leading through influence and collaboration across all organizational levels, serving as a critical intersection of several cross-functional teams. You should have extensive experience in program management, communications, working through ambiguity, and designing and developing strategic programs. 

Strategy & Operations:

• Drives strategy around Dropbox’s approach to the in-person experience and supports strategic efforts around connection within the broader Virtual First model using research & insights, including ongoing efforts like the Offsite Planning Team, emerging technology, gathering models, and continued innovation and experimentation in gathering

• Consults and advises Dropbox leaders, managers, and teams on effectively designing their in-person experiences, ensuring content and experiences align with team and business outcomes

• Establishes a solid feedback loop and operational rhythms with key stakeholders to continuously improve initiatives

• Ensures inclusivity in the planning and design of in-person gatherings, considering accessibility and cultural considerations to create welcoming environments for all participants

• Ensures alignment with HR Business Partners on any functional team effectiveness plans <> gathering strategy 

• Partners with the Internal Communications and Culture and the Corporate Strategy & Operations Teams to develop a strategy for cascading direction from leadership down through team offsites to keep those themes alive and drive behavior change across the company

• Sets the strategic vision and designs the roadmap of the in-person gathering experience that will be operationalized and executed by supporting program managers

Effective Collaboration:

• Partners and aligns with a variety of senior stakeholders (senior leaders, Chiefs of Staff, etc.) and cross-functional partners (Learning, Communications, Events, DEI, Real Estate, Travel, etc.) 

• Ensures seamless hand-off to program managers to execute on offsite design and logistics 

• Ensures solid feedback loop and operational rhythms in partnership with program managers to keep a pulse on general gathering feedback, offsite improvements, and general Offsite Planning Team enhancements

• Provides mentorship, coaching, and guidance to Offsite Planning Team program managers so that they can effectively work directly with team leads on designing great offsites, and recommend activities & experiences that deliver on expected outcomes

• Collaborate with Internal Communications and Culture team to define and amplify effective engagement strategies 

Employee Resources & Content:

• Designs scalable and an interactive centralized playbooks and resources to drive gathering, team effectiveness, and community in a Virtual First working environment with Learning, HR Business Partners, DEI, and other teams for teams to self-serve

• Develops gathering content (including scalable facilitation guides) in partnership with Learning for all teams to leverage across DBX focusing on specific behaviors and outcomes 

• Develops new content based on client group goals, functional business goals, and repurposes content developed around the business into simple facilitation guides for teams to self-serve 

• Partners with Learning, HR Business Partners, and Chiefs of Staff to continually enhance content playbooks and modules based on participant feedback

Analytics & Insights:

• Drive benchmarking, integration of best practices into Virtual First gathering approach, including industry trends, macro context, and best-in-class programming

• Partners closely with People Analytics to understand efficacy of offsites, designing solutions to continuously improve outcomes

Requirements

• 10+ years of relevant experience

• Expertise in learning design to create self-serve playbooks and facilitation guides as well as inform innovative experiential events (setting strategy for larger events, connecting events to business outcomes)

• Experience designing and implementing strategic roadmaps for gathering orgs, teams, and strategic cross-functional groups in-person

• Demonstrated results in influencing and partnering with senior leaders and cross-functional partners

• Experience in scaling content, operations, and experiences  

• Strong program management skillset

• Background / familiarity with analytics and leveraging insights to inform strategy and decision-making

• Bachelor’s Degree 

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree

• Proficiency in data and analytics tools (e.g., Qualtrics, Tableau)

• Certification in Learning Design or an equivalent qualification

• Background in the development and execution of enterprise-wide events

Compensation