PLANNING AND OPERATIONS LEAD - OFFICE OF MAJOR EVENTS

Mayor

Exempt | Location: Civic Center

Annual Salary

$75,600.00 - $110,500.00

contact information

Cynthia Castellanos
cynthia.castellanos@lacity.org

job description

LOCATION: Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles 90012

TERMS: Full-time, Exempt Internal Transfer

SALARY: $75,600 - $110,500 (Mayoral Aide V)

SUMMARY

The City of L.A. Office of Major Events (OME) works to welcome the world to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and other events of global significance. OME is charged with coordinating City departments and engaging external stakeholders to deliver safe, successful, and fiscally responsible major events while ensuring that all Angelenos benefit from these opportunities.

To prepare the City to host the world and deliver an experience that is safe, satisfactory, and enjoyable for Angelenos, the Office of Major Events is working with both internal and external stakeholders to ensure the City’s complex, multi-faceted operations can deliver for Angelenos living their lives, event spectators, and individuals engaging with the Games spirit in diverse ways.

Specifically, OME is coordinating the planning and delivery of critical Games-time operations, working closely with City departments, LA Metro, and other key municipal, county, and state partners to ensure safe, successful, fiscally responsible major events.

OME seeks an experienced, results-driven Planning and Operations Lead to work closely with key partners to ensure successful operational planning and delivery. The Planning and Operations Lead will work across the following issue areas: public safety, transportation, energy and water, city services, and aviation. The Planning and Operations Lead will report directly to the Planning and Operations Chief, and work closely with all OME staff, Mayor’s Office policy shops, and City departments, as well as other key external stakeholders.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

The Office of Major Events Capital Planning and Operations Lead works across and closely with City departments to ensure that operational planning is coordinated across workstreams for efficient, successful, and safe operational implementation. The Planning and Operations Lead reports to the Planning and Operations Chief, but will interface significantly with other OME Chiefs.

The Planning and Operations Lead works collaboratively with the OME team and all Mayor’s Office policy shops, particularly those with oversight over the City’s operational departments. The Planning and Operations Leads also works with the City’s operational departments, including but not limited to: LAPD, LAFD, EMD, LADOT, the Department of Public Works, Department on Disability, LADWP, POLA, LAWA, and other City departments and stakeholders to advance the City’s goals and objectives for these areas with the express goal of delivering a safe, accessible, financially solvent, and welcoming and enjoyable Games experience.

Responsibilities include the follow:

Operational Assessments: Determine what outstanding operational planning exists, and work alongside subject matter experts to solve planning problems, create work plans, and identify key personnel, ultimately overseeing real-time implementation.
Stakeholder Coordination: Facilitate communication among departments and external stakeholders; ensure coordination to create maximum efficiency in operational planning and minimize conflicts between departments and external stakeholders.
Policy Strategy: Work with the OME team and Mayor’s Office policy shops to determine what policy changes could be enacted to streamline operational planning and implementation.
Other Duties as Assigned

KEY QUALIFICATIONS

The Office of Major Events is looking for candidates who possess the following skills, knowledge, and capabilities:

Minimum of 5 years of experience working in or adjacent to government.
Proven ability to manage multiple projects and enforce accountability within the complex City of L.A. organizational environment.
Demonstrated exceptional analytical, communication, and leadership skills.
Familiarity with City of L.A. government operations, policymaking process, rules, plans, and functions of departments, agencies, and commissions.
A demonstrated record of creative problem solving.

ROLE EXPECTATIONS

This role is based in an office environment at Los Angeles City Hall, and it will require reporting to the office for in-person collaboration and meetings at least three days per week.

How to apply

HOW TO APPLY

Interested individuals should send a resume by email to Cynthia Castellanos (cynthia.castellanos@lacity.org) with the subject line OME PLANNING AND OPERATIONS LEAD no later than October 31, 2025. A cover letter is not required, so candidates should demonstrate through their resume how they meet the qualifications.

Suitable candidates may be contacted and hired before the application deadline. We encourage interested candidates to submit their applications promptly as the job posting may close before the listed deadline.

This is an exempt, at-will position. The individual appointed to this position will not accrue any civil service tenure, contractual employment rights, or due process rights. The incumbent may be removed, without any finding of cause, by the hiring authority.

The City of Los Angeles is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and, upon request, will provide reasonable accommodations to ensure equal access to its programs, services and activities. Please call (213) 744-9300 if you need assistance

exempt employment

If employment is said to be exempt, it is meant that the employment is exempted from the civil service provisions of the City Charter. In order to receive a regular civil service appointment, employees must have successfully participated in a civil service examination, received a high enough score on the examination to be placed on and receive an appointment from an eligible list, and they must serve a probationary period. Exempt employees do not compete in a civil service examination, they are not placed on an eligible list and receive an appointment from that list, nor do they serve a probationary period. As a result, exempt employees do not have what is referred to as a “property interest” in their job. Exempt employees serve at the will of the appointing authority and can be terminated at any time without cause. Employees with a property interest in their job, i.e. civil service employees, cannot be deprived of their employment(discharged or suspended) without due process.

General Information About Exempt Employment

Exempt employees serve at the will of the appointing authority, and as such, they may be discharged, suspended or otherwise disciplined without cause. Exempt employees have no property interest in their employment, and any procedural benefit or other prerogative extended to them by their appointing authority is not intended to create and does not create any such property interest. No officer or employee of the City may make to any other officer or employee any representation of a property interest in employment which does not correspond to Charter provisions unless the City Council, by ordinance, permits such representation. No unauthorized representation can serve as the basis of an employee's reliance on, or expectation of, a property interest.

Employees Seeking To Become Civil Service Employees

There is no protective leave for an exempt employee appointed to a civil service position. Upon receiving a civil service appointment and passing probation, the former exempt employee will be subject to the Civil Service provisions described in Article X of the City Charter. Upon appointment, the civil service employee will begin to accrue displacement and layoff seniority on the first day of his/her civil service appointment and may file for promotional examinations for which s/he qualifies. A full or half-time exempt employee appointed to a full or half-time civil service position continues to: contribute to the Retirement System; accrue vacation time; accrue sick time; receive anniversary date salary increases; and, receive health and dental benefits identical to those received in the civil service position.

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