About the role

Government technology has failed citizens, public servants, and service members for decades. Kaizen powers America’s application layer. We replace the legacy systems federal agencies run on with modern software, built with craft. The ticketing platform a resident uses to visit a presidential library. The marketplace DoW uses for counter-drone procurement to protect lives and critical infrastructure. The system a Veteran uses to access benefits. We build systems of record, of national consequence. Our AI-native modules and harness allow us to do so in weeks and months, not years. This year, our revenue has grown 35x. Next year, our software will serve over 100 million Americans across dozens of federal agencies. Founded in 2022 and based in New York City and DC, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital. BEFORE YOU APPLY... This is Kaizen's first dedicated events hire, and it's a build role. Our events have been run part time alongside other responsibilities. We have a conference presence, a set of shows we return to, and a handful of rooms that have worked well, but no owner and no playbook. You'll set the strategy, own the calendar and the budget, and be accountable for what the program produces. The center of the role is the federal conference circuit: the Washington-area shows and agency-facing conferences where our federal buyers gather, the field motion that surrounds them, and the executive dinners and briefings we run alongside them. State and municipal events sit underneath the federal calendar rather than beside it. Kaizen-hosted events are a real ambition and you'll scope what we should own, but that work follows the circuit rather than leading it. Events at Kaizen are a growth function, measured against pipeline and qualified meetings rather than attendance. Our buyers are public servants, and how we show up in a room is a direct statement about the quality of what we build. Politics is not a criterion at Kaizen: we don't screen for ideology, and we expect you to build trusted relationships on both sides of the aisle. LOCATION This is a hybrid role based out of our New York City HQ or our DC office. Candidates must reside in New York or DC, or be able to commute to New York City or DC to work out of our office at least three times a week (Tuesdays - Thursdays). WHO YOU ARE - You've built an events program rather than inherited one, owning the strategy, the budget, the vendor bench, and the measurement - You know the federal conference landscape, or you'll learn it quickly, and you can tell a show that draws program offices and CIOs from one that only draws vendors - You have strong taste and can defend it. You've walked a venue and known it was wrong, and you've ended a sponsorship everyone assumed would renew - You think in pipeline rather than attendance, and you've defended an events budget with something more rigorous than photos and a headcount - You're comfortable in the operational detail: shipping, badge scans, AV failures, staffing, and the seating chart that determines whether a dinner works - You're credible with senior government audiences, from a two-star Army general to an agency CIO to a contracting officer - You manage vendors, agencies, and production partners by directing their output rather than depending on it - You thrive with high autonomy in ambiguous, fast-moving environments, and you self-generate the agenda rather than waiting for one - You're AI-pilled and default to these tools in your daily workflows - You're emotionally intelligent, thoughtful, and empathetic toward public sector missions WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own Kaizen's events strategy end-to-end. Build and run the annual calendar, anchored to the federal buying year: fiscal year-end, agency budget windows, and the conferences where our buyers actually show up - Decide where Kaizen shows up and where it doesn't. Evaluate conferences and sponsorsh