Event Director - LIONS Riyadh

About the Role
The Event Director of LIONS Riyadh is a pivotal leadership role responsible for defining the strategic direction, commercial success, creative ambition, and overall delivery of the Festival. Working across the company, LIONS, and key stakeholders, the Event Director will translate the overall vision into a clear business and delivery plan, ensuring commercial, content, marketing, audience, partnerships, operations, and experience teams are aligned behind shared priorities and objectives. The role will lead the development of LIONS Riyadh as a distinctive regional Festival within the global LIONS ecosystem, ensuring it carries the authority and creative standards of LIONS while building a proposition that is relevant to Saudi Arabia, the GCC, and the wider Middle East. The Event Director will be responsible for building a commercially sustainable platform with a strong and differentiated position across creativity, marketing, media, culture, and business while ensuring the Festival delivers clear value for audiences, partners, and stakeholders. This role requires exceptional leadership and stakeholder management, with the ability to operate confidently across senior government, global brands, agencies, media organizations, creative leaders, and international partners. The successful candidate will combine strategic thinking, commercial discipline, creative judgment, and operational leadership, with the ability to make decisions, manage complexity, and maintain momentum across a large cross-functional program.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and own the overall event strategy, business plan, budget, and long-term growth roadmap, establishing clear commercial, audience, content, and experience objectives.
• Own 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 a compelling event proposition, content program, audience strategy, and end-to-end customer experience, ensuring LIONS Riyadh delivers a distinctive, world-class festival.
• Lead and align teams across Sales, Partnerships, Content, Marketing, Operations, Creative, Finance, and Project Management to deliver against shared objectives.
• Build a high-performing, collaborative team culture, providing direction, coaching, and performance management to develop talent and drive accountability.
• Build and manage senior relationships with government stakeholders, strategic partners, global brands, agencies, and industry leaders to strengthen the event's positioning and long-term success.
• Own the master event plan, overseeing critical milestones, dependencies, resources, and onsite delivery to ensure operational excellence and a seamless festival experience.
• Establish effective governance, reporting, and decision-making processes, proactively managing risks, resolving challenges, and acting as the senior escalation point across the project.
• Maintain a deep understanding of the global and regional creative, advertising, marketing, media, technology, and cultural landscape, identifying emerging trends, competitive developments, and opportunities for growth.
• Champion LIONS Riyadh's positioning within the global creative ecosystem, working with key stakeholders to build industry credibility, international participation, and a lasting presence in the region.
• Lead post-event performance reviews, evaluate commercial and strategic outcomes, and translate insights into continuous improvement and long-term growth plans for future editions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Events, Communications, or a related discipline.
• Significant senior leadership experience 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.

Qualities & Experience

• Significant senior-level experience leading large-scale events, exhibitions, festivals, conferences, or major commercial platforms.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and managing senior functional heads.
• Strong business acumen, experience in reporting, budgeting, and forecasting.
• Excellent communicator with strong 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.
• Strong stakeholder-management skills across government, private sector, and international partners.

Core Benefits

• Medical Insurance for individual and family
• Annual leave – 28 days
• Remote working on Sundays
• Working anywhere – 2 months every year
• School fees contribution, 40,000 SAR per child per year (up to a max of three children)
• Wellbeing Benefits
• Residency visa including yearly dependent fees
• Individual annual flight allowance for expats

Local Relocation Package:

• Paid flight to Riyadh – individual and family
• 30 days accommodation or suitable serviced apartment from arrival date or a one-off payment of SAR 5,000
• Up to SAR 2,500 reimbursement of shipping goods/excess baggage costs

International Relocation Package:

• Paid flight to Riyadh – individual and family
• 60 days accommodation or a suitable serviced apartment from your arrival date, or a one-off payment of SAR 5,000
• Up to SAR 2,500 reimbursement of shipping goods/excess baggage costs
• Paid flight home for individual and end-of-service gratuity payment when leaving the company (if applicable)

We work hard to make sure life at the company is rewarding, supportive, and enjoyable for everyone. We’re not solely focused on a checklist of skills. We champion energy and ambition and look for colleagues who will roll their sleeves up, join in and help make things happen. We don't just accept difference, we celebrate it. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and circumstances and base hiring decisions on relevant qualifications and merit. We are proud to provide a disability-friendly environment. If you require any support or adjustments to participate in our interview or selection processes, please let us know.