Director Cultural Programming & Experience📣 Job Ad

About the Role

Qiddiya is seeking a Director - Cultural Programming & Experience to lead the development and execution of the destination's cultural offerings. This full-time position is based in Riyadh, Riyadh Province, and requires over 10 years of relevant experience.

Role Overview

The Director - Cultural Programming & Experience will be responsible for the planning, curation, and management of the destination’s cultural programming and experience layer. This includes owning the programming calendar, content development, visitor journey design, exhibit management, and external relations. The goal is to ensure a coherent, authentic, and high-quality visitor experience throughout the year and during festival periods, while creating content and experiences that drive attendance and visitation in support of commercial objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Programming Calendar Ownership: Manage the annual, seasonal, and festival programming calendar, ensuring a balanced, relevant, and operationally feasible mix of cultural experiences aligned with asset priorities, key moments, and audience needs.
• Content Development & Attendance Drivers: Lead the creation of programming content, narratives, and written materials to establish the destination as relevant, compelling, and culturally authentic. Shape experiences and themes that enhance audience interest, strengthen attendance and visitation, and support commercial goals in collaboration with Commercial and Marketing teams.
• Visitor Journey & Experience Design: Oversee the end-to-end visitor journey across all programming touchpoints, ensuring experiences are coherent, engaging, intuitive, and culturally consistent from arrival through participation.
• Exhibit Design & Management: Supervise 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.
• External Relations Management: Cultivate and manage relationships with external entities, cultural contributors, institutions, and partners essential for programming development and delivery, ensuring alignment, credibility, and continuity.
• Cross-Functional Integration & Delivery: 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.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in cultural programming, exhibitions, festivals, destination experiences, or visitor attractions.
• A proven 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.

Essential Skills and Competencies

• Strong leadership in cultural programming and experience development.
• Capability to build and manage a comprehensive year-round and seasonal programming calendar.
• Proficiency in content development, writing, and narrative curation.
• Expertise in visitor journey and experience design.
• Skill in overseeing and managing exhibit design.
• Effective external relations and partner management abilities.
• Ability to create content and experiences that drive attendance and visitation.
• Strong cross-functional coordination and team leadership capabilities.