Ottawa Senators Hockey Club

Project Director, Scotia Place Transition

Ottawa Senators Hockey Club  •  Calgary, CA (Onsite)  •  16 days ago
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Job Description

At Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, we deliver excitement. Our mission is to be the heartbeat of our community by creating connections, building champions, and winning, together. If you’d like to join a team that’s people-first, diverse, innovative, and energized about delivering extraordinary fan experiences to our guests, then we’d love to sign you to a player's contract!

THE POSITION

The Scotia Place Transition Project Director is accountable for leading CSEC’s enterprise-wide transition from the Scotiabank Saddledome to Scotia Place. The role owns the end-to-end transition required to prepare the organization, teams, systems, and operations to successfully occupy, operate, and fully realize the value of the new venue.

Acting as the single point of accountability for the transition, the Project Director defines the required workstreams, guides execution, manages risk, and ensures coordinated delivery across business segments and support functions. This includes maintaining momentum while protecting day-to-day operations throughout the transition.

The role provides enterprise-level coordination, readiness, and risk management without replacing functional ownership of operations. It reports to the Scotia Place Transition Steering Committee and works closely with internal leaders, external partners, and public stakeholders to ensure a smooth and successful transition to Scotia Place.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Enterprise Transformation Leadership

  • Define and maintain the enterprise transformation strategy, roadmap, and sequencing for the Scotia Place transition.
  • Translate strategic intent into an integrated, executable transition plan across all functions.
  • Act as the enterprise integrator, ensuring alignment, coordination, and disciplined execution across the organization.
  • Frame and present clear options, trade-offs, and recommendations to support timely Executive Leadership Team and Board decisions.
  • Ensure the intended strategic, operational, and commercial benefits of the Scotia Place transition are protected and enabled through disciplined execution.

Workstream Definition & Delivery Oversight

  • Identify, define, and stand up all transformation workstreams required to support the transition.
  • Provide clear guidance to workstream leads on scope, deliverables, milestones, dependencies, and success criteria.
  • Actively manage cross-workstream interdependencies, conflicts, and gaps.
  • Hold workstream leads accountable for progress, risks, and delivery.
  • Challenge scope, sequencing, or readiness assumptions where risks to timeline, cost, or operational stability are identified.

Governance, Cadence & Reporting

  • Establish and lead a clear governance structure and reporting cadence for the transformation.
  • Chair weekly project status meetings with workstream leads to review progress, risks, decisions, and upcoming milestones.
  • Provide bi-weekly updates to the Executive Leadership Team, including progress, risks, financials, and decisions required.
  • Deliver monthly updates to the Board, providing clear visibility into progress, risks, readiness, and key milestones.
  • Ensure reporting is concise, decision-oriented, and free of surprises.

Financial Oversight & Budget Management

  • Own the transformation budget, including forecasting, tracking, and financial reporting.
  • Manage one-time transition costs and readiness investments.
  • Ensure financial discipline while enabling critical transformation outcomes.

Risk Management & Mitigation

  • Develop, maintain, and actively manage an enterprise transition risk register in alignment with CSEC’s Corporate Risk Policy.
  • Identify, assess, and mitigate operational, financial, people, reputational, and timeline risks.
  • Escalate material risks, trade-offs, and decisions to the Executive Leadership Team with clear options and recommendations.

Change Management & Organizational Readiness

  • Lead enterprise change management and readiness planning.
  • Partner with functional leaders to prepare teams for new systems, spaces, operating models, and ways of working.
  • Drive clarity, engagement, and adoption across the organization.

Operational Handover & Stabilization

  • Oversee operational handover and post-opening stabilization to ensure a smooth transition from transformation into steady-state operations.
  • Ensure accountability is clearly transferred from transformation workstreams to business-as-usual owners at the appropriate time.

Executive & Stakeholder Engagement

  • Serve as the primary executive lead for the Scotia Place transition.
  • Coordinate with internal leaders, external partners, vendors, and public stakeholders.
  • Align transition sequencing and messaging in partnership with Corporate Communications.
  • Oversee integration and performance of key third-party vendors and partners critical to transition success.

THE INDIVIDUAL

The ideal individual will have the following background:

  • 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in large-scale transformations, complex operational transitions, or enterprise programs.
  • 7+ years of experience leading or supporting major event venues, large-scale facility openings, relocations, or live-operations environments.
  • Demonstrated experience managing large, complex transformation budgets (typically $50M+), including forecasting, cost control, and executive-level financial reporting.
  • Proven experience working in fast-paced, high-visibility environments with executive and Board-level oversight.
  • Experience working with public-sector partners, municipalities, or public-private stakeholders is an asset.

Leadership Profile

  • Enterprise-minded, pragmatic, and execution-focused
  • Calm under pressure; thrives in ambiguity and complexity
  • Decisive, highly organized, and outcomes-oriented
  • Trusted advisor to executives and functional leaders
  • Focused on momentum, clarity, and disciplined delivery

Education

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Architecture, Urban Planning, Operations Management, or a related field required.
  • Master’s degree (MBA, MPA, MSc, or equivalent) considered a strong asset.
  • Professional certifications in project management, change management, or transformation leadership (e.g., PMP, PgMP, Prosci, Lean, Six Sigma) are an asset.

This position will remain open until 3:00pm Friday, May 22nd, 2026.

CSEC is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on age, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religious belief, or sexual orientation

Ottawa Senators Hockey Club

About Ottawa Senators Hockey Club

Vision -- Celebrate a Stanley Cup win in Hockey Country.

Our mission -- Deliver memorable entertainment experiences, build a stronger community and create fans for life.

Our values -- We believe in:

- Integrity ... forms the basis for everything we do, by building character on the ice, in the community, with our fans and partners.

- Commitment ... to each other, our partners and most importantly to put our fans first every day.

- Innovation ... generate new ideas, embrace change and deliver creative solutions.

- Passion ... for Canada's game, Ottawa's rich history and our home team.

- Community ... we inspire and unite the entire Ottawa-Gatineau region as one 'Sens Army'​. We are the heart of Hockey Country.

- Perseverance ... our drive for excellence is based on a 'hard-work-conquers-all'​ attitude and is fueled by our hunger to the Stanley Cup.

Industry
Arts & Entertainment
Company Size
201-500 employees
Headquarters
Ottawa, CA
Year Founded
1989
Website
nhl.com
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