Event Marketing Manager
Administration, Marketing & Communications
Garden Grove, CA, USA
USD 100k-140k / year + Equity
About Harbinger
Harbinger is an American commercial electric vehicle (EV) company on a mission to transform an industry starving for innovation. Harbinger’s best-in-class team of EV, battery, and drivetrain experts have pooled their deep experience to bring a first-of-its-kind EV platform to support the growing demand for medium-duty EVs and Hybrids. Harbinger: Familiar Form, Revolutionary Foundation.
The role
Harbinger is showing up everywhere fleets, dealers, and government buyers make decisions — from the biggest commercial vehicle trade shows to intimate ride-and-drives that put decision-makers behind the wheel of a Class 4–6 electric truck. As Event Marketing Manager, you'll own that presence end to end, connecting every investment to brand, relationship, and pipeline goals.
Reporting to the Senior Marketing Manager, you'll build and run Harbinger's events program: trade shows and industry conferences (CES, ACT Expo, NTEA Work Truck Week, and more), ride-and-drives and vehicle demos, dealer and fleet events, and executive and customer experiences. Every event should reflect our brand, generate qualified pipeline, and be executed with the craftsmanship our vehicles are known for.
What you'll own
- Events strategy & portfolio: Evaluate trade shows, conferences, ride-and-drives, dealer/fleet events, and owned experiences; recommend where Harbinger should invest and why, prioritized against pipeline goals.
- Annual planning & budget: Build the event calendar, define objectives and audiences, forecast spend, manage POs and contracts, and keep the program within budget.
- Trade shows & industry events: Plan and execute Harbinger's presence at flagship and industry events — CES, ACT Expo, NTEA Work Truck Week, and more — including booth design and build, vehicle transport, logistics, staffing, messaging, and lead capture.
- Ride-and-drives & vehicle demos: Coordinate demo and test-drive events that get fleets and dealers behind the wheel, including the logistics of moving medium-duty vehicles, site selection, permitting, and safety.
- Field & dealer events: Support dealer launches, grand openings, and regional fleet events in partnership with the Dealer Marketing team.
- Logistics & vendor management: Manage vendors, booth builders, AV, freight and vehicle transport, catering, and on-site production across multiple concurrent events.
- Budget & ROI: Own event budgets, negotiate contracts, and track cost-per-lead and pipeline influenced for every event.
- Lead operations: Define lead-capture and qualification workflows, align routing and follow-up SLAs with Sales/RevOps in CRM (HubSpot), and monitor completion.
- Playbooks & improvement: Create repeatable templates, vendor standards, timelines, checklists, and postmortems that make each program more efficient.
- Field intelligence: Capture customer questions, competitor activity, and product feedback at events; synthesize findings for Sales, Product, and Marketing leaders.
- Measurement & reporting: Report on meetings, qualified leads, sourced and influenced pipeline, cost efficiency, and market insight.
What success looks like in the first 12 months
- A prioritized event portfolio with clear goals, audience definitions, budget guardrails, and success metrics.
- Reliable execution across flagship shows (CES, ACT Expo, NTEA Work Truck Week) and smaller high-touch programs, with fewer last-minute escalations.
- Consistent lead capture and post-event follow-up, with transparent reporting on pipeline influenced.
- Reusable playbooks, preferred vendors, and operating rhythms that let the program scale.
- A strong cross-functional reputation — Sales, Product Marketing, and Dealer Marketing know what's happening, what they own, and how events support business priorities.
Required qualifications
- 5+ years of B2B event or field marketing experience, preferably in technology, automotive, mobility, industrial, or another complex-product environment
- Demonstrated ownership of conferences or trade shows from event selection through on-site delivery and performance reporting
- Experience managing meaningful budgets, contracts, agencies, exhibit partners, venues, and multiple vendors
- Strong project management skills and judgment to prioritize across overlapping deadlines and changing requirements
- Working knowledge of CRM, marketing automation, and lead-capture/reporting tools (HubSpot, Salesforce, Cvent, or similar)
- Clear written and verbal communication and confidence working with customers, partners, speakers, and senior leaders
- Able to travel (~35%) and work occasional evenings and weekends when events require it
- Based in or able to relocate to the Garden Grove, CA area for on-site work
Preferred qualifications
- Automotive, commercial vehicle, or heavy-equipment industry experience
- Experience with vehicle/hardware logistics and ride-and-drive or test-drive programs
- Experience marketing to fleet, dealer, government, or other multi-stakeholder buying groups
- Experience launching a new event program or introducing repeatable playbooks in a fast-growing company
- Experience with executive events, account-based marketing, or partner co-marketing
- Comprehensive Health, Dental & Vision (HDV) – 100% employee covered
- Early-stage Stock Options
- Robust Retirement Savings (401k, HSA, FSA)
- Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) & Parental Leave
- Annual Vacation Bonus
- Wellness & Fertility Benefits
- Cell Phone Stipend
- Complimentary Meals & Stocked Kitchens