Community & Events Manager

Job Title: Community & Events Manager

Team: Marketing

Location: Onsite - Sawtelle (Between Santa Monica & West LA)

Employment Type: Fulltime, Salary, Exempt

Reports To: Sr. Director, Marketing

About Plug

Plug is an automotive fintech startup building the marketplace for electric vehicles. Consumers, dealers, and commercial partners trade in, sell, and auction used EVs through a platform built exclusively for electric, with nothing adapted from legacy automotive.

Consumers can get an instant cash offer in minutes, backed by data-driven pricing, battery state-of-health analysis, with pickup, payment, and title transfer handled end-to-end. Franchise and independent dealers across the United States bid in real time on inventory sourced directly from these consumers, dealers, and commercial partners. The result is a single platform that gives sellers a fast, fair exit and gives dealers a dedicated channel for sourcing used EV inventory.

Founded in 2023 and led by former Tesla executives, Plug has facilitated over $100M in EV sales since launch and is backed by a $20M Series A from Lightspeed Venture Partners. We're building the most AI-native startup team in Los Angeles, full of operators, engineers, and ML researchers laying the transaction rails for the used EV market's exponential growth.

The Role

Plug is hiring a Community & Events Manager to own our event strategy end to end and build our community function from scratch. This role continues work already underway, centered on event strategy and a brand new community mandate.

This role contains responsibilities around logistics and project management. Furthermore, events are the medium, community is the compounding asset, and revenue is the outcome you connect both back to.

What You'll Do

Core Ownership

• Manage events end to end by guiding all workstreams, agency and vendor management, registration, attendee experience, catering, production logistics, and onsite execution, for flagship events down to happy hours and private dinners across dealer, commercial partner, and consumer touchpoints.

• Source, negotiate, and coordinate vendors (caterers, AV, creative production), ensuring adherence to Plug’s standards and compliance requirements.

• Build and maintain project timelines, tracking milestones, deliverables, and deadlines to keep execution seamless.

• Build and defend the event budget-to-outcome model: cost-per-opportunity by event, and pipeline and revenue attributed within a defined window.

• Keep tight financial records: track budgets, process invoices, report spend against targets.

• Own attendee registration and check-in, plus pre- and post-event comms and invites.

• Work closely with Design, Marketing, Product, Communications, Partnerships and Executive Leadership to make sure events reflect brand and execute on the business strategy.

• Provision and support leadership speaking engagements, handling logistics and materials without owning the engagement itself.

• Build Plug’s community strategy from scratch, dealer and consumer first, LA startup ecosystem second.

• Own community engagement across owned channels: posts, replies, event participation.

About You

• 5+ years in event marketing, community building, or a combined role

• Demonstrated ability to build and own a budget to outcome model, not just execute a calendar

• Relationship builder with genuine business development instincts, comfortable being the face of Plug in a room

• Experience or strong interest in building community from scratch

• Comfortable owning ambiguity, this function is being formalized as it grows

• Automotive, EV, or marketplace experience a plus, not required

PERFORMANCE METRICS

Event ROI

• Cost per per opportunity by event

• Pipeline and revenue attributed to event attendees within a defined attribution window

• Ownership of the event budget to outcome model

Community Growth

• Growth rate and new member acquisition, tracked separately for dealer/consumer community and LA startup ecosystem relationships

• Activation rate, the share of new community members who take a first meaningful action within a defined window

• Community engagement across owned channels (posts, replies, reactions)

Compensation and Benefits

Annual salary: $124,000 - $147,000

Salary ranges reflect independent, third-party benchmarking against national compensation data. Where an individual's actual offer falls within that range depends on a combination of factors, including relevant experience, specialized skills, training and qualifications, current business needs, and prevailing market conditions. Ranges are reviewed periodically and may be adjusted to reflect changing market conditions.

Benefits & Perks:

• Health, Vision, and Dental insurance

• 401(k) plan

• Daily lunch & dinner stipend

• Equity (based on role and performance)

• Unlimited PTO

• Fully stocked kitchen

• Dog-friendly office

• 30-day remote work from anywhere policy

• Ongoing opportunities for growth and development

Acknowledgments

Plug is an equal opportunity employer. We don’t discriminate based on race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, marital status, military or veteran status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. Plug will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring and the California Fair Chance Act.