Senior Venue Sourcing Specialist, Meetings & Events

Senior Venue Sourcing Specialist, Meetings & Events

For 40 years, Encore Corporate Travel has helped CFOs, CPOs, and travel leaders reimagine business travel—simpler, smarter, and more personal.

With 24/7 Traveler Services, proprietary technology, proactive program management, and integrated Meetings & Events, Encore delivers clarity, control, and care across every experience.

As a proudly woman-owned, independent company, Encore moves fast, solves harder problems, and grows with intention, never compromising on the personalized service that sets it apart.

Job Description

A venue either works for the program or it doesn't. The contract either protects the client or it doesn't. The rates either hold or they don't.

Encore runs complex, high-stakes Meetings and Events programs for financial services clients across North America. The events carry real business weight. The venue shapes the experience, the experience shapes the outcome, and the outcome matters to the people who commissioned it. Getting sourcing right is not a detail. It is the foundation everything else is built on.

That's the work. And we're looking for the person who knows how to do it.

About the Role

As Senior Venue Sourcing Specialist, you own the full sourcing cycle across Encore's Meetings and Events portfolio: RFP strategy, site selection, contract negotiation, commission oversight, and the market intelligence that informs decisions before a brief is even issued.

You work closely with event coordinators on program delivery and with Leadership on commercial outcomes. This is a senior role. You are not supporting someone else's sourcing process. You are leading it.

What You Will Do

Lead the RFP cycle from brief to client presentation.

Develop sourcing strategies based on event type, budget, location, and program objectives. Prepare client-ready RFPs with clear evaluation criteria and timelines. Manage multiple active RFPs simultaneously without compromising quality or speed. Present venue options with the clarity and confidence clients in this vertical expect.

Negotiate contracts that hold.

Lead hotel and venue contract negotiations across the portfolio. Secure favorable rates, attrition protection, cancellation terms, and concessions. Review every contract for risk: force majeure, commission language, liability clauses — before it reaches a client. Manage deposit schedules, option dates, and contractual milestones. Keep the team ahead of deadlines, not chasing them.

Be the sourcing intelligence for the team.

Maintain strong relationships with key hotel properties in priority markets. Track openings, renovations, brand changes, and market shifts. Identify preferred property opportunities that benefit multiple clients and bring them to Leadership. Provide sourcing expertise early in the sales process, when it shapes what gets proposed and what gets won.

Support the rooming period as the subject matter expert.

Serve as the escalation point with hotel group sales teams on room blocks, reservations, and special requests. Ensure properties honor contracted terms. Flag discrepancies quickly. Keep coordinators supported and clients protected through the full accommodations cycle.

Own commission accuracy across the portfolio.

Ensure expected commissions are documented at contract execution. Partner with accounting to track collection. Escalate outstanding, disputed, or overdue commissions. When something is unresolved, bring it to Leadership with the context and a recommended next step. Not just the problem.

Build the team's sourcing capability.

Partner with event coordinators throughout the planning cycle and ensure clean handoffs of sourcing deliverables. Develop and maintain sourcing templates, venue reference materials, and market guides. Join client calls when venue expertise is needed. Contribute to process improvements as the team grows.

Requirements

What You Bring

Required

• 5+ years in hotel venue sourcing and contract negotiation in an agency, TMC, or corporate travel environment
  
• Proven experience managing high-volume RFP pipelines independently
  
• Direct, hands-on experience negotiating hotel contracts: attrition, cancellation, commission clauses included
  
• Familiarity with venue sourcing platforms and standard corporate travel and event management tools
  
• The ability to carry a complex, active portfolio without losing a detail or a deadline
  
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, client-ready at all times
  

An asset

• Experience in financial services events or similarly regulated, high-expectation environments
  
• Bilingual in English and French
  
• General event experience is valuable. This role requires sourcing and contracting depth specifically.
  

Who Thrives Here

Encore has held an average client retention of 15 years. That does not happen through good intentions. It happens because the people here hold a standard and hold each other to it.

The work is complex. The clients are exacting. The margin for error is small. The people who do their best work here are the ones who find that energizing, not exhausting. They know what they know, say what needs to be said, and own the outcome regardless of where the problem started.

If that is the environment you have been looking for, this is it.

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