Vice President of Operations

Salary Range: $ To $ Annually

Reports To - President and CEO

Direct Reports - Operations and Production Director, Technology Director, Audience Services Manager

Status - Regular Full-Time Exempt

Location - On site in Downtown Houston, TX, with flexibility for occasional remote work

Schedule - General business hours with some nights and weekends

The Vice President of Operations is a senior leadership role holding responsibility for elements of strategic, financial, and operational performance of the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Reporting to the President and CEO and serving as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, this position functions as the organization’s operations leader, ensuring that the campus, systems, people, and technology support a best-in-class performing arts experience for artists, audiences, staff and volunteers.

The Vice President of Operations provides leadership across production, audience services, technology, engineering, security, parking, concessions, facility operations, maintenance, and capital projects. The role directly supervises the Operations and Production Director, Technology Director, and Audience Services Manager and indirectly leads a department that has grown to 25 full-time employees and 50+ part-time employees. The successful candidate will be a strategic, collaborative, and execution-oriented leader who can strengthen operational systems, lead high-performing teams, steward major physical assets, and support the continued growth and development of a major nonprofit performing arts center.

• Serve as a strategic partner to the President and CEO and a member of the Senior Leadership Team, helping define organizational priorities, operational strategy, and long-term institutional capacity.
• Translate strategic goals into practical operating plans, systems, policies, and accountability structures that support a growing, complex performing arts organization.
• Provide operational and financial leadership that ensures reliable daily operations, strong internal coordination, fiscal discipline, and excellent stewardship of organizational resources.
• Represent the operations function in organizational planning, board and committee work, stakeholder engagement, tenant relations, and community or civic partnerships, as needed.

• Oversee comprehensive front-of-house and back-of-house operations, including production, stage operations, event services, security, parking, as well as food and beverage operations.
• Ensure the Hobby Center delivers a seamless, safe, welcoming, and high-quality experience for audiences, artists, resident companies, rental clients, volunteers, staff, vendors, and community users.
• Strengthen communication and coordination among operational departments and across the organization to ensure timely response to production needs, event schedules, patron issues, tenant requirements, and facility demands.
• Maintain effective systems for event documentation, facility readiness, incident reporting, event reporting, and post-event evaluation.

• Oversee all building services including engineering, maintenance, security, and technology.
• Lead long-range capital planning, facility stewardship, preventative maintenance, restoration projects, infrastructure improvements, and major capital initiatives in alignment with organizational priorities.
• Ensure the campus, equipment, building systems, and public spaces are maintained to the highest standards of safety, reliability, accessibility, efficiency, and presentation.
• Implement, evaluate, revise, and enforce safety, emergency preparedness, risk management, accessibility, and…