Venue Technical Manager
Temporary Performance Space (city centre) - Fixed term until January 2026
Closing date: 1st October 2024
Interviews held on: Tuesday 15th October 2024
The Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture programme will run from January 2025 to December 2025 and is a celebration of Bradford city and district, taking place across its city, towns, villages and greenspaces. It will showcase the rich history of the district and spotlight its dynamic contemporary culture in all forms; dance and theatre, music and film, visual arts and crafts, food and faith. As part of our plans to realise this, we are creating a new temporary venue for the District:
- Meanwhile Performance and Exhibition Space
A disused building in the City Centre which we are adapting to include: a flexible underground events space, 200-seat black box theatre and an inspiring gallery/installation space.
Think festival fringe style venue – a place to be part of the action with a rough-and-ready aesthetic and a warm, welcoming and accessible atmosphere. The venue will host a curated programme of comedy, visual art, theatre, music, immersive installations, creative parties and dance.
The Meanwhile Space will be in use from February 2025 and will run through to the end of the year.
Working alongside the Venue Operations & Events Manager, you will oversee the safe, compliant, and effective delivery of technical requirements, ensuring the smooth transition between events, whilst being fully supported by the wider Bradford 2025 team including Production, Programme & Finance.
At times, your role will be responsible for duty management and be central to making sure the venue works brilliantly.
If this sounds like you, we would love to hear from you. If you would like an informal discussion about the role or the venues before applying, drop us a line to tom.langford@bradford2025.co.uk to arrange a chat.
Key responsibilities:
- Lead on technical planning across all events programmed in the venue, ensuring the smooth and safe delivery of technical services, whilst maintaining excellent health & safety practices.
- Management of contractors on site - the position will involve working closely with external contractors, performers, and the wider Bradford 2025 team.
- Coordinate technical requirements within agreed timescales and budgets.
- Pro-active in assisting the Venue Operations & Events Manager in the development, liaison and delivery of all activities, working with external partners and artists as needed, and deputising as necessary.
- This role will also involve duty management at times, overseeing the operational requirements of the venue alongside the venue manager.
To be successful in this role you’ll have:
- Extensive professional technical experience within a performance venue including, rigging, lighting, sound, AV and stage.
- Extensive knowledge of theatre or performance venue technical systems, including a high level of competency using a wide range of theatrical and performance equipment and software packages.
- Experience of liaising confidently with a wide range of contractors and stakeholders,performers and the internal Bradford 2025 team.
- Experience of working in temporary event spaces and sites
- Experience working to tight deadlines and working with budgets.
- Experience of Health & Safety management within a performance venue.
- Ability to interpret and implement technical drawings and specifications.
- Knowledge and experience of working on a variety of events in the cultural sector.
- Good problem-solving skills and work calmly under high pressure environments.
- Strong communication skills & a good team player.
- Preferably local to Bradford/West Yorkshire or willing to relocate.
Benefits include:
- £35k per annum salary.
- 37 hours per week worked flexibly
- 25 days holiday plus bank holidays.
- Contributory pension scheme with 5% employer contribution.
- High street discounts through Charity Worker Discounts.
- 2x Death in Service cover.
- Confidential Employee Assistant Helpline.
We expect everyone in our team to:
- Develop an understanding of Bradford City of Culture 2025, its values, the benefits it brings to the Bradford District and to funders and sponsors.
- Create a positive working environment, underpinned by our values.
- Act as an ambassador for Bradford City of Culture 2025.
- Drive change in our industry through actions and words that advocate inclusion and equality, creating a culture that recognises and celebrates diversity and sustainability.
- Be accountable for the safety of themselves and others by working safely and in accordance with our Health & Safety and Safeguarding Policies.
- Ensure we are collecting and using data from all activities to inform decisions, demonstrate our impact and fulfil our funding conditions in line with GDPR.
- Undertake relevant training and development as required.
- Be open to the opportunities to mentor, train and develop colleagues and participants in Bradford 2025.
- Carry out any other tasks that will be required on an ad hoc or continuing basis, commensurate with the general level of responsibility of your position.
We’re committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and can be their true selves at Bradford 2025, and we want our team to reflect our district. We believe that diversity in our team is crucial to our success, so we welcome applications from all races, genders, religions, ages, and sexual orientation as well as from people living with disabilities. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and our ambition is to recruit and retain the best people regardless of background.
If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.
If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best. This might be as simple as wanting sight of the interview questions ahead of time – whatever it is, just ask and we’ll see wat we can do.
To apply for the role please send a copy of your CV and a cover letter (no more than 2 sides of A4) to recruitment@bradford2025.co.uk. We cannot accept applications without the required cover letter unless for accessibility reasons (please let us know if this applies to you).