Associate, Global Swag & Event Operations - Marketing

We are global private markets specialists delivering tailored investment solutions, advisory services, and impactful, data driven insights to the world’s investors. Leveraging the power of our platform and our peerless intelligence across sectors, strategies, and geographies, we help identify the advantages and the answers our clients need to succeed.

The Global Swag & Event Operations Associate is responsible for managing the firm’s branded merchandise and gifting program while providing hands-on operational support for internal and external events. This role will manage the day-to-day execution and continued development of a coordinated the firm’s global swag program across events, offices, employee programs, gifting, milestones, and other firm initiatives. Responsibilities span vendor management, sourcing, production, global logistics, inventory, budgets, fulfillment, reporting, and process improvement. The Associate will also independently manage smaller events and defined workstreams for larger programs, partnering closely with the Events team and internal stakeholders across offices and regions. This is a hands-on program-management and event-operations role requiring strong organization, project management, analytical skills, vendor management, judgment, and follow-through. The Associate level is consistent with the team's career framework, where the role is responsible for independently owning swag function, events and making operational decisions involving timelines, vendors, stakeholders, and approved budgets.

Primary Responsibilities

Global Swag Program Management

• Manage the firm’s global branded merchandise and gifting program from strategy through fulfillment, including resources and budgets.
• Research and implement new vendors and ongoing systems related to managing global effort.
• Develop and maintain a coordinated approach to swag supporting events, offices, employee programs, gifting, milestones, and other firm initiatives.
• Manage requests from intake and approvals through sourcing, production, shipping, storage, distribution, and closeout.
• Establish and maintain standards for core merchandise, packaging, ordering, approvals, lead times, and regional consistency. Identify new branded merchandise and gifting opportunities aligned with the firm’s brand and business needs.
• Partner with office managers, Events, Marketing, and other stakeholders to anticipate demand and ensure timely execution.

Vendor, Logistics & Inventory Management

• Research and implement all related vendors.
• Manage global and local merchandise, production, shipping, storage, and fulfillment vendors.
• Support sourcing and negotiations and oversee pricing, samples, production schedules, quality control, shipping, customs, and delivery.
• Manage inventory, replenishment, allocation, distribution, and rationalization across locations.
• Monitor vendor performance and resolve production, quality, shipping, and fulfillment issues.
• Coordinate junior, temporary, or external resources providing fulfillment and operational support.

Budget, Reporting & Process Improvement

• Track budgets, purchases, invoices, shipping costs, and usage.
• Reconcile invoices and maintain accurate financial and purchasing records.
• Develop reporting on inventory, spend, usage, request volume, and fulfillment.
• Use data to identify opportunities to improve purchasing, inventory management, cost control, and operational efficiency.

Event Operations

• Support the planning and execution of local and regional internal and external events.
• Independently manage smaller events and defined workstreams for larger programs.
• Coordinate venues, vendors, registration, attendee communications, promotional materials, and event logistics.
• Maintain event-registration platforms, intranet/event sites, calendars, and related event information.
• Track event budgets, review invoices, reconcile expenses, and support financial closeout.
• Support on-site execution, including registration, materials, vendor coordination, and attendee logistics.
• Prepare post-event reporting, including attendance, feedback, expenses, lessons learned, and recommendations.
• Support major conferences and other broader Events team initiatives as assigned.

Qualifications

• Minimum four years of relevant experience in events, marketing operations, program management, branded merchandise, logistics, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience with vendor management, sourcing, production timelines, logistics, and issue resolution.
• Experience managing budgets, purchasing, invoices, and usage reporting.
• Strong organizational, project-management, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities, stakeholders, and deadlines across offices.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Strong attention to detail, sound judgment, initiative, and follow-through.
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint.
• Ability to provide on-site event support and travel as required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within financial services, services, asset management, or another global organization.
• Experience with branded merchandise, corporate gifting, inventory management, global shipping, customs, storage, or fulfillment.
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite, brand standards, and creative-production processes.
• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business administration, event management, supply-chain management, communications, or a related field preferred.

Salary Range: $100,000 - $125,000

The salary range is an estimate of pay for this position. Actual pay may vary depending on job-related factors that can include location, education, skill, and experience. The salary range does not include any benefits or other forms of possible compensation that may be available to employees.

At StepStone, we believe that our people are our most important asset and crucial to our success. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer that strives to create an environment that empowers our employees and allows them to be heard, regardless of title or tenure. Our organizational community features multiple Employment Resource Groups as well as mentorship programs to enhance the employee experience for all.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, StepStone does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law.

Candidates must be at least 18 years old to apply.

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