Director, Public Realm Event Operations

Role Purpose

The Director, Public Realm Event Operations is the second-in-charge to the Executive Director, Public Realm Event Operations and leads the planning, readiness and delivery of City Operations support services for events within Qiddiya City’s public realm. The front-of-house event operator retains accountability for the event itself, including the event programme, venue operations and the guest experience within the event or venue footprint. This role ensures that public realm services, temporary infrastructure and operational partners are coordinated to support safe event delivery while maintaining effective and continuous City Operations.

Acting on behalf of the Executive Director when formally delegated, the Senior Director leads cross-functional coordination, drives decisions within agreed authority, escalates matters requiring Executive Director approval, and provides operational assurance from early planning through live event delivery, demobilisation and post-event review.

Key Responsibilities

Deputy Leadership and Direction

• Act as the principal deputy to the Executive Director, Public Realm Event Operations, providing continuity of leadership and representing the function in delegated forums, workshops and operational decision-making bodies.
• Support the Executive Director in defining the Public Realm Event Operations operating model, priorities, annual programme and resource plan, converting strategic direction into clear workstreams, accountabilities and delivery milestones.
• Lead, coach and coordinate assigned Public Realm Event Operations team members and consultants, setting expectations, monitoring performance against agreed deliverables and resolving delivery constraints.
• Prepare concise executive briefings, recommendations and decision papers on readiness, risks, dependencies, budget and operational performance.

Public Realm Event Operations Planning

• Lead the development and integration of public realm event operations plans for city-wide and district-level activity, covering waste and cleansing, public realm readiness, temporary structures, wayfinding and signage, guest services, accessibility, security interfaces, emergency interfaces, welfare, logistics and event support services.
• Establish event-specific concepts of operations, operating procedures, deployment plans, service schedules, resource assumptions, zone plans and escalation protocols appropriate to event scale and risk.
• Ensure plans address the complete event lifecycle, including build-up, testing, event days, transition between sessions or events, breakdown, reinstatement and close-out.
• Maintain clear scope boundaries between City Operations and asset or venue operators. Coordinate city-side interfaces and dependencies without assuming responsibility for the direct operation of venues or individual assets.

Integrated City Coordination and Governance

• Coordinate planning across City Operations, districts, venues and assets, mobility, security, emergency services, technology and telecommunications, facilities management, public realm, utilities, guest experience, commercial, procurement and external stakeholders.
• Establish and manage governance routines, integrated planning workshops, action trackers, decision logs, interface registers and reporting cycles that support timely closure of cross-functional issues.
• Confirm ownership of interfaces and hand-offs between permanent city operations, temporary event overlays, venue operations and third-party delivery partners.
• Escalate material decisions, unresolved dependencies and changes in scope to the Executive Director with clear options and recommended actions.

Readiness, Assurance and Risk Management

• Develop and manage an integrated operational readiness framework, including readiness criteria, evidence requirements, assurance reviews, testing, rehearsals, simulations, inspections and go or no-go recommendations.
• Manage the consolidated Public Realm Event Operations risk, issue, dependency and opportunity process for assigned events on behalf of the Executive Director, ensuring accountable owners, mitigations, due dates and escalation thresholds are defined.
• Challenge plans for practicality, capacity, resilience, accessibility, guest impact, health and safety, security, environmental performance and continuity of essential city services.
• Ensure lessons from exercises, previous events, benchmarking and post-event reviews are incorporated into revised plans and standards.

Live Event Delivery and Command

• Provide senior operational leadership during event periods and, when delegated, lead the city-side event operations function within the agreed command, control and communication structure.
• Coordinate public realm operational deployment, monitor service performance and city conditions, resolve cross-functional issues and maintain an accurate common operating picture for leadership.
• Ensure incidents, service failures and emerging risks are logged, triaged, escalated and communicated through approved protocols.
• Oversee orderly demobilisation and public realm reinstatement, confirming defects, outstanding actions, service recovery needs and hand-back requirements.

Commercial, Procurement and Partner Management

• Define operational scopes, service requirements, performance standards and evaluation inputs for consultants, suppliers and event delivery partners supporting public realm operations.
• Support procurement planning, tender evaluation, mobilisation and contract governance, working with Commercial and Procurement to protect programme, quality, value and accountability.
• Monitor supplier readiness and delivery against contractual obligations, service levels and event requirements, escalating shortfalls and coordinating corrective action.
• Validate operational budget assumptions, forecasts, change requests and cost pressures for assigned workstreams, providing recommendations to the Executive Director.

Continuous Improvement and Capability Building

• Develop repeatable standards, templates, playbooks, checklists and reporting tools that strengthen Qiddiya City’s Public Realm Event Operations capability and support consistent delivery across the event portfolio.
• Build strong working relationships with internal functions, government entities, emergency services, operators, promoters and delivery partners.
• Support workforce and volunteer integration by defining operational roles, deployment requirements, briefing needs, supervision arrangements and welfare interfaces for public realm operations.
• Lead structured post-event reviews, capture evidence-based lessons and convert agreed improvements into accountable actions for future events.

Requirements

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Event Management, Operations Management, Business, Engineering, Facilities Management, Hospitality or a related discipline; equivalent relevant professional experience may also be considered.
• Postgraduate qualifications are not required but may be beneficial.
• Relevant training or certification in project, event, safety, risk or emergency management is desirable but not essential.

Experience

• Relevant experience supporting the planning or delivery of events, festivals, sporting or entertainment programmes, destinations, public realm operations or other complex operational environments.
• Experience coordinating operational activities across more than one function, supplier or stakeholder group.
• Experience supervising teams or workstreams, coordinating decisions and representing a function in operational forums.
• Practical exposure to operational planning, readiness activities, live delivery, risk coordination or post-event review.
• Some exposure to suppliers, procurement, budgets or performance monitoring is desirable; specialist support will be available where appropriate.
• This position is reserved exclusively for Saudi nationals, in support of national workforce development and localisation objectives.

Preferred Background

• Major event organising committees, destination or city operations, event promoters, venue or precinct operators, government event authorities, integrated facilities management, or specialist event operations consultancies.
• Delivery exposure to both planned major events and live operational environments requiring multi-agency coordination and rapid issue resolution.