Director - Cultural Programming & Experience

Role Purpose

Lead the planning, curation, and management of the destination’s cultural programming and experience layer, owning the programming calendar, content development, visitor journey, exhibit design and management, and external relations to ensure a coherent, authentic, and high-quality visitor experience across year-round and festival periods, while creating content and experiences that strengthen attendance and visitation in support of broader commercial objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Programming Calendar Ownership:
Own the annual, seasonal, and festival programming calendar, ensuring a balanced, relevant, and operationally deliverable mix of cultural experiences that aligns with asset priorities, key moments, and audience needs.

Content Development & Attendance Drivers:
Lead the development of programming content, narratives, and written materials that make the destination relevant, compelling, and culturally authentic, while shaping experiences and themes that increase audience interest, strengthen attendance and visitation, and support broader commercial objectives in coordination with Commercial and Marketing teams.

Visitor Journey & Experience Design:
Own the end-to-end visitor journey across programming touchpoints, ensuring experiences are coherent, engaging, intuitive, and culturally consistent from arrival through participation across year-round and festival periods.

Exhibit Design & Management:
Oversee the design, activation, and ongoing management of exhibits and programming spaces to ensure they remain experience-led, operationally ready, and aligned with the destination’s cultural narrative and quality standards.

External Relations Management:
Manage relationships with external entities, cultural contributors, institutions, and partners required to support programming development and delivery, ensuring alignment, credibility, and continuity across the destination’s cultural offer.

Cross-Functional Integration & Delivery:
Coordinate with Operations, Facilities Management, Marketing, Commercial, and other internal stakeholders to ensure programming requirements are integrated into site readiness, delivery plans, communications, and visitor-facing execution.

Key Success Metrics

- Quality, completeness, and timely delivery of the annual, seasonal, and festival programming calendar

- Effectiveness of content and programming themes in strengthening attendance and visitation

- Visitor satisfaction, engagement, and overall journey quality across programming touchpoints

- Readiness, quality, and ongoing performance of exhibits and programming spaces

- Strength and continuity of external relationships supporting programming delivery

- Successful execution of year-round and festival programming in coordination with internal stakeholders

Requirements

Required Skills & Competencies

- Strong cultural programming and experience leadership

- Ability to build and manage a year-round and seasonal programming calendar

- Strong content development, writing, and narrative curation capability

- Strong visitor journey and experience design capability

- Strong exhibit design oversight and management capability

- Strong external relations and partner management capability

- Ability to create content and experiences that strengthen attendance and visitation

Strong cross-functional coordination and team leadership capability

Preferred Background

· 10+ years of relevant experience across cultural programming, exhibitions, festivals, destination experiences, or visitor attractions

· Track record in public-facing cultural, heritage, entertainment, or destination environments

· Experience working with external institutions, cultural contributors, and strategic partners

· Experience in Saudi or regional cultural contexts