Director Cultural Programming & Experience📣 إعلان

About Qiddiya and the Role

Qiddiya is seeking a Director Cultural Programming & Experience to lead the planning, curation, and management of the destination's cultural programming and experience layer. This full-time role is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and requires over 10 years of relevant experience.

Role Purpose

The Director Cultural Programming & Experience will own the programming calendar, content development, visitor journey, exhibit design and management, and external relations. The primary objective is to ensure a coherent, authentic, and high-quality visitor experience across year-round and festival periods. This role is also responsible for creating content and experiences that strengthen attendance and visitation, supporting broader commercial objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the annual, seasonal, and festival programming calendar, ensuring a balanced, relevant, and operationally deliverable mix of cultural experiences aligned with asset priorities, key moments, and audience needs.
• Lead the development of programming content, narratives, and written materials to ensure the destination is relevant, compelling, and culturally authentic. Shape experiences and themes that increase audience interest, strengthen attendance, and support commercial objectives in coordination with Commercial and Marketing teams.
• Manage 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.
• Oversee the design, activation, and ongoing management of exhibits and programming spaces to ensure they are experience-led, operationally ready, and aligned with the destination's cultural narrative and quality standards.
• 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.
• Coordinate with Operations, Facilities Management, Marketing, Commercial, and other internal stakeholders to integrate programming requirements into site readiness, delivery plans, communications, and visitor-facing execution.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience across cultural programming, exhibitions, festivals, destination experiences, or visitor attractions.
• Demonstrated track record in public-facing cultural, heritage, entertainment, or destination environments.
• Experience working with external institutions, cultural contributors, and strategic partners.
• Experience within Saudi or regional cultural contexts is preferred.

Key Performance Indicators

Success in this role will be measured by the quality, completeness, and timely delivery of the annual programming calendar, alongside the effectiveness of content and programming themes in strengthening attendance and visitation. Visitor satisfaction, engagement, and overall journey quality across programming touchpoints are also critical, as is the readiness, quality, and ongoing performance of exhibits and programming spaces. The strength and continuity of external relationships and successful execution of year-round and festival programming are also key indicators.

Application Information

This is a full-time position based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Qualified candidates are invited to submit their application.