Head of Operations

Toronto, Ontario | Full-time | Reports to the Founder & Executive Director

About TMLSToronto Machine Learning Society (TMLS) is Toronto's largest community for applied AI and machine learning. For 10 years we've run the annual TMLS Summit along with a growing family of events — MLOps World (Toronto and Austin), hackathons, and our Women in AI series — bringing together thousands of practitioners, researchers, and builders each year. We're a small, close-knit team that punches well above its weight, and we care as much about the community we're building as the events themselves.

The RoleTMLS is hiring a Head of Operations to own the logistics, vendor relationships, and day-to-day execution behind our full slate of events. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for someone who thrives on turning a hundred moving pieces into a smooth, well-run event — and who genuinely enjoys the people side of the job as much as the spreadsheet side. You'll work closely with our Founder & Executive Director and a small internal team, and you'll be the person vendors, venues, and sponsors know they can count on.

What You'll Do

- Own event logistics end to end for our full portfolio — the annual TMLS Summit (multi-day, multiple venues), MLOps World, hackathons, Women in AI, virtual events, and any new event formats we add — from early planning through post-event wrap-up.
- Source venues and negotiate contracts; manage vendors across catering, AV, signage, fabrication, and other on-site needs.
- Manage sponsor logistics with care and diplomacy, including coordinating with venue-hosting sponsors on space, access, and event-day requirements.
- Run registration and ticketing across our platforms (Luma, Eventbrite), including CASL-compliant opt-ins, and keep attendee, speaker, and volunteer communications on track.
- Own the event app platform for each event (e.g. Whova) — registration integration, lead retrieval setup, and branding — so it's ready to go and on-brand every time.
- Support speakers with logistics — travel and accommodation coordination,



confirmations, and visa letters where needed.
- Recruit, brief, and manage on-site volunteers and any contract event staff (e.g. speaker coordinators).
- Act as a steady, friendly point of contact for our community, partners, and sponsors — you're often the face of TMLS.

Budget & KPIs

- Build the budget forecast for each event and keep it updated as plans and costs evolve.
- Track spending against budget across vendors, quotes, and invoices, and lead post-event financial reconciliation.
- Set KPIs for each event and manage them with the team, making sure everyone knows what they're accountable for and is tracking toward it.
- Make sure notes and data are captured throughout so we can look back after each event and use what we learned to set better goals for the next one.

Cross-Team Collaboration

- Work alongside the sales and marketing team on communications, graphics, and new initiatives, so operations, messaging, and strategy stay in sync.
- Keep sponsorship sales tracking and ticket sales tracking up to date, and help shape strategies to hit sales and attendance goals.
- Work with the content team to keep committee reviews on track and communications flowing between reviewers, speakers, and applicants.
- Create and manage CFP (Call for Proposals) forms — both for general public submissions and for sponsor/partner talks.

Process & SOPs

- Set up new process flows for anything we don't yet have a clean process for, and maintain and adjust the ones already in place.
- Build out SOPs where they're missing, and keep existing ones documented and current — handoff notes and playbooks included — so nothing lives only in one person's head.




- Manage day-to-day tasks and reporting in Asana, and keep the team's priorities visible and on schedule.

What You Bring

- Proven experience in event planning or operations — conferences, community events, or similar large-scale live events.
- A CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) designation or similar credential is an asset, though not required.
- Strong vendor and contract negotiation skills, and the organizational chops to run several events at once without dropping a ball.
- Comfortable owning a budget — forecasting costs, tracking spend, and setting and monitoring KPIs so the team knows how each event is tracking.
- Team-oriented by nature — you're comfortable working closely with sales and marketing to keep messaging, initiatives, and sales tracking aligned with operations.
- A warm, diplomatic communication style — you can navigate sponsor and partner relationships with tact, and you make people feel like TMLS is easy to work with.
- Comfort working independently and taking ownership; you don't need a lot of hand-holding to get things done.
- Working knowledge of Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Drive, Gmail); experience with tools like Asana, Luma, Eventbrite, Whova, or Canva is a plus but not a dealbreaker.

- No technical or machine learning background required, though it's considered an asset. We use AI tools to speed up tasks and automations, so a comfort level with picking those up is helpful — but this is a community and operations role first and foremost.

Nice to Have

- Experience running or supporting a recurring event series rather than a single one-off event.
- Familiarity with mail-merge tools for attendee communications.
- A network in or curiosity about Toronto's tech and events community.

Why TMLSYou'll be joining a mission that's easy to believe in: building Toronto's AI and ML community and helping it grow, year after year. It's a small team, so your work has real, visible impact — and we like to have a bit of fun while we do it.

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📌 Head of Operations (Canada)
🏢 TMLS - Toronto Machine Learning Summit
📍 Canada