Venue Development Manager

We're Hiring: Venue Development Manager
Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior
Work Arrangement: Fully Remote
About Us
We are a globally focused organization committed to developing high-quality venues, destinations, and experiential spaces that support entertainment, hospitality, sports, events, retail, and community-focused activities.
Our teams collaborate across Development, Architecture, Design, Construction, Operations, Commercial, Finance, Marketing, Hospitality, Events, Technology, Legal, and external partners to create venues that are commercially viable, operationally efficient, safe, accessible, and engaging for visitors.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Venue Development Manager to lead the planning, development, delivery, and optimization of venues and destination-based facilities from initial concept through design, construction, opening, and ongoing enhancement.
The ideal candidate will combine development, project-management, commercial, operational, and stakeholder-management expertise to deliver venues that meet strategic objectives, budget requirements, technical standards, visitor expectations, and long-term operational needs.
Key Responsibilities
Develop and implement venue development strategies aligned with organizational, commercial, and destination objectives.
Lead venue development projects from concept definition and feasibility through design, construction, commissioning, opening, and post-opening optimization.
Conduct feasibility studies covering market demand, site suitability, capacity, commercial potential, operational requirements, and development costs.
Develop venue concepts, functional requirements, development briefs, and project objectives.
Evaluate potential sites, locations, properties, and development opportunities.
Coordinate site assessments covering access, infrastructure, utilities, transportation, surrounding land uses, and development constraints.
Develop business cases, financial models, capital budgets, development schedules, and investment recommendations.
Coordinate master planning and venue development programs with internal and external stakeholders.
Translate commercial and operational requirements into architectural and technical design requirements.
Work closely with architects, engineers, planners, designers, consultants, contractors, and specialist advisors.
Coordinate concept design, schematic design, detailed design, technical documentation, and construction documentation.
Review venue layouts, capacity plans, circulation, back-of-house areas, public areas, service areas, loading, parking, accessibility, and operational flows.
Ensure venue designs support efficient visitor movement, staff operations, event logistics, security, safety, and emergency response.
Coordinate requirements for hospitality, food and beverage, retail, entertainment, sports, events, VIP areas, premium experiences, and supporting facilities where applicable.
Integrate technology requirements including ticketing, access control, digital signage, Wi-Fi, audiovisual systems, building systems, security, and venue-management platforms.
Coordinate sustainability, energy efficiency, waste management, water efficiency, and environmental considerations within development plans.
Manage project budgets, cost plans, cash flows, procurement strategies, and financial forecasts.
Monitor development costs and identify opportunities for value engineering without compromising quality, safety, functionality, or visitor experience.
Establish project schedules, milestones, deliverables, dependencies, and critical-path activities.
Coordinate procurement and appointment of architects, consultants, contractors, suppliers, operators, and specialist vendors.
Prepare scopes of work, tender requirements, technical briefs, evaluation criteria, and procurement documentation.
Support tender evaluations, commercial negotiations, contract awards, and supplier onboarding.
Manage development partners, contractors, consultants, and specialist service providers.
Monitor contractor performance, construction progress, quality, cost, schedule, and compliance.
Coordinate design reviews, technical workshops, constructability reviews, value-engineering exercises, and project approvals.
Conduct regular project reviews and identify risks, delays, cost pressures, design issues, and resource constraints.
Establish project risk registers and develop mitigation and contingency plans.
Coordinate regulatory approvals, planning permissions, permits, inspections, certifications, and authority requirements.
Ensure venue development complies with applicable building, fire, safety, accessibility, environmental, and operational requirements.
Coordinate construction interfaces between architecture, structure, MEP, technology, security, audiovisual, interiors, signage, landscaping, and specialist systems.
Support commissioning, testing, systems integration, operational readiness, and handover activities.
Develop opening-readiness plans covering staffing, operating procedures, technology, facilities, security, guest services, maintenance, and emergency preparedness.
Coordinate venue operational planning with future operators and functional teams.
Ensure facilities, equipment, furniture, fixtures, technology, and operational assets are ready before opening.
Support event simulations, trial operations, soft openings, test events, and operational rehearsals.
Identify and resolve issues affecting venue readiness, customer experience, safety, or operational performance.
Develop post-opening improvement plans based on operational data, customer feedback, event performance, and stakeholder input.
Evaluate opportunities for venue expansion, refurbishment, repositioning, modernization, and capacity enhancement.
Assess potential new revenue streams including events, sponsorship, hospitality, premium experiences, retail, food and beverage, memberships, and commercial partnerships.
Collaborate with Commercial, Marketing, Sales, and Events teams to ensure venue development supports revenue objectives.
Support development of venue operating models, business plans, pricing structures, service concepts, and commercial strategies.
Analyze visitor profiles, market trends, competitor venues, event demand, utilization patterns, and customer expectations.
Establish venue capacity, utilization, event-calendar, and revenue assumptions for development planning.
Coordinate stakeholder engagement with investors, owners, government authorities, community representatives, operators, tenants, partners, and other relevant parties.
Prepare executive reports, investment papers, project updates, decision documents, and development recommendations.
Maintain comprehensive project documentation, approvals, drawings, specifications, contracts, budgets, schedules, and handover records.
Establish governance frameworks, development standards, approval processes, and reporting requirements.
Promote continuous improvement, innovation, digital transformation, and best practices in venue development.
Evaluate emerging venue technologies, smart-building solutions, immersive experiences, sustainability technologies, and operational innovations.
Ensure lessons learned from completed projects are incorporated into future venue-development programs.
Key Performance Indicators
Venue development project delivery
Project schedule adherence
Capital expenditure performance
Development budget variance
Forecast accuracy
Cost per square meter or development unit
Design milestone completion
Construction progress
Construction quality performance
Defect and punch-list closure
Regulatory approval completion
Permit and certification performance
Contractor performance
Consultant performance
Procurement cycle time
Contract performance
Risk mitigation completion
Change-order management
Value-engineering savings
Project contingency utilization
Commissioning completion
Systems integration readiness
Operational readiness
Opening-readiness completion
Trial-event performance
Venue capacity utilization
Event utilization
Revenue-generation potential
Commercial partnership readiness
Visitor experience performance
Accessibility compliance
Safety and compliance performance
Sustainability performance
Energy and operating-efficiency targets
Post-opening issue resolution
Asset lifecycle performance
Stakeholder satisfaction
Project documentation completeness
Lessons-learned implementation
Ideal Candidate
The successful candidate should have strong experience in venue development, real estate development, major projects, hospitality development, entertainment facilities, sports venues, destination development, or complex commercial property projects.
The candidate should demonstrate:
Proven experience managing complex venue or major development projects.
Strong understanding of the full property and development lifecycle.
Experience managing projects from feasibility and concept through construction, commissioning, and opening.
Strong knowledge

Work arrangement
No