Director - Major Events Operations

The Director, Major Events Operations is the second-in-charge to the Executive Director, Major Events and provides senior leadership across the planning, readiness and delivery of public realm event operations throughout Qiddiya City. The role translates the Major Events strategy into coordinated city-wide operating plans, ensuring that public spaces, city services, temporary event infrastructure and operational partners are integrated, safe, guest-focused and ready for delivery.

Acting on behalf of the Executive Director when delegated, the Director leads cross-functional coordination, drives decisions and escalations, and provides operational assurance from early planning through live event delivery, demobilisation and post-event review.

Act as the principal deputy to the Executive Director, Major Events, providing continuity of leadership and representing the function in delegated forums, workshops and operational decision-making bodies.

Support the definition of the Major Events operating model, priorities, annual programme and resource plan, converting strategic direction into clear work streams, accountabilities and delivery milestones.

Lead, coach and coordinate assigned Major Events 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.

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, way finding 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.

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.

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.

Own the consolidated Major Events operational risk, issue, dependency and opportunity process for assigned events, 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.

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.

Define operational scopes, service requirements, performance standards and evaluation inputs for consultants, suppliers and event delivery partners supporting public realm…