Event Director LIONS

About the LIONS Riyadh Festival

LIONS Riyadh is a distinct Festival within the global LIONS community, home to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Launched by Tahaluf in partnership with LIONS and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Media, its purpose is to amplify Middle Eastern creativity globally. The Festival will showcase regional talent, ideas, and storytelling, connecting creative industries with leading global networks, brands, and decision-makers. The inaugural three-day Festival is scheduled for December 6–8, 2027, at KAFD, Riyadh, bringing together regional and global CMOs, creative leaders, agencies, brands, and emerging talent to focus on creative excellence, effectiveness, culture, and the future of the industry.

Role Overview: Event Director LIONS

The Event Director for LIONS Riyadh is a pivotal leadership position responsible for defining the strategic direction, commercial success, creative ambition, and overall delivery of the Festival. This role requires collaboration across Tahaluf, LIONS, and key stakeholders to translate the overall vision into a clear business and delivery plan. The Event Director will ensure alignment across commercial, content, marketing, audience, partnerships, operations, and experience teams. The role involves developing LIONS Riyadh as a distinctive regional Festival within the global LIONS ecosystem, maintaining LIONS' authority and creative standards while building a proposition relevant to Saudi Arabia, the GCC, and the wider Middle East. The successful candidate will build a commercially sustainable platform with a strong, differentiated position across creativity, marketing, media, culture, and business, ensuring clear value for audiences, partners, and stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and manage the overall event strategy, business plan, budget, and long-term growth roadmap, establishing clear commercial, audience, content, and experience objectives.
• Manage overall revenue, expenditure, and operating profit performance, driving commercial growth across sponsorship, strategic partnerships, brand experiences, hospitality, and other revenue opportunities.
• Oversee the development of the event proposition, content program, audience strategy, and end-to-end customer experience to ensure a distinctive, world-class festival.
• Lead and align teams across Sales, Partnerships, Content, Marketing, Operations, Creative, Finance, and Project Management to achieve shared objectives.
• Build and manage senior relationships with government stakeholders, strategic partners, global brands, agencies, and industry leaders.
• Manage the master event plan, overseeing critical milestones, dependencies, resources, and onsite delivery to ensure operational excellence.
• Establish effective governance, reporting, and decision-making processes, managing risks and acting as the senior escalation point.
• Maintain a deep understanding of the global and regional creative, advertising, marketing, media, technology, and cultural landscape.
• Champion LIONS Riyadh's positioning within the global creative ecosystem, working with stakeholders to build industry credibility and international participation.
• Lead post-event performance reviews, evaluate commercial and strategic outcomes, and translate insights into continuous improvement plans.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Events, Communications, or a related discipline.
• Significant senior leadership experience (+10 years) within major events, media, creative industries, entertainment, culture, or premium international platforms.
• Proven experience leading large-scale, complex, multi-functional events or businesses with full commercial and operational accountability.
• Experience launching, scaling, or repositioning a major brand, event, or platform is highly desirable.
• Relevant senior leadership experience may be considered in place of formal qualifications.

Required Skills and Attributes

• Exceptional leadership and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to operate confidently across senior government, global brands, agencies, media organizations, creative leaders, and international partners.
• Ability to combine strategic thinking, commercial discipline, creative judgment, and operational leadership.
• Strong business acumen, with experience in reporting, budgeting, and forecasting.
• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and relationship-management skills.
• Strong understanding of the global creative, advertising, marketing, media, and communications industries.
• Strong creative judgment and ability to translate market intelligence into differentiated festival experiences and business opportunities.
• Understanding of the Saudi and GCC market, alongside a strong international outlook, is an advantage.
• Experience working with global brands, intellectual property owners, or international strategic partners is highly desirable.

Work Environment and Location

This full-time position is based in Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The role requires the ability to build a high-performing, collaborative team culture, providing direction, coaching, and performance management to develop talent and drive accountability.