Venue Operations Director
Our client is a local sports council responsible for delivering large-scale, world-class tournaments, bringing together multiple stakeholders to create seamless and memorable fan experiences. They are seeking a Venue Operations Lead to be based in Saudi Arabia, supporting tournament delivery across Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam.
This role is critical in overseeing end-to-end venue and city operations, ensuring safe, efficient, and high-quality execution across all sites. Success will be defined by delivering flawless matchday operations, integrating complex workstreams, and maintaining consistency across all venues and host cities.
This is a senior, operational leadership role with full accountability for venue and spectator operations across the tournament lifecycle. The role will drive planning, readiness, and execution across multiple host cities, managing cross-functional coordination with security, transport, and municipal stakeholders. The successful candidate will play a central role in ensuring operational excellence, from venue readiness through to live event delivery, while maintaining global standards expected of a premier international sporting event.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end planning and execution of venue, fan, and city operations across all tournament locations
- Ensure safe, efficient, and seamless spectator experiences across all venues on matchdays
- Oversee integrated operations including crowd management, wayfinding, queueing, and spectator services
- Manage accreditation, access control, and venue management protocols across all sites
- Align venue operations with security, transport, and key stakeholder activities
- Drive venue readiness planning including venue familiarization, operational testing, and coordination
- Lead the setup and operation of Venue Operations Centres (VOCs), ensuring effective reporting and issue resolution
- Coordinate host city operations including municipal services, transport planning, and emergency response readiness
- Oversee fan engagement initiatives, city branding, and presentation standards across host cities
- Ensure consistent, high-quality delivery across all venues, maintaining operational excellence throughout the tournament
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Event Management, Operations, Sports Management, or a related field
- 10+ years of experience in large-scale football operations, preferably within international sports tournaments or major global events
- Proven expertise in venue operations, crowd management, and spectator experience delivery
- Strong experience managing multi-site operations and coordinating cross-functional stakeholders
- Demonstrated leadership capability in high-pressure, fast-paced environments
- Excellent planning, organizational, and problem-solving skills with a detail-oriented approach
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills across government and private entities
- Experience in the GCC region is preferred; Arabic language skills are an advantage
**Due to the high volume of applications, please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. If you do not hear from us within two weeks, kindly consider your application unsuccessful at this time. Thank you for your understanding.**
The SR Group (Dubai) Limited is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.
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