Job Description
Lead the delivery of hundreds of live events a year and manage a talented project management team at one of the UK’s most distinctive creative production companies.
About Bakehouse
Bakehouse Factory is an award-winning creative production company delivering story-led installations and theatrical activations for shopping centres, destinations, councils, brands and cultural organisations across the UK. From our 18,000 sq ft workshop in Bristol, our in-house designers, makers, installers, project managers and performers design, build and deliver everything from roaming performance to walk-through Christmas experiences that welcome up to 45,000 visitors per venue across five to eight venues each season.
The role
Bakehouse Factory is an award-winning creative production company delivering story-led installations and theatrical activations for shopping centers, destinations, councils, brands and cultural organizations across the UK. From our 18,000 sq ft Bristol workshop we design, build and deliver hundreds of projects each year, from single person roaming acts to walk-through Christmas experiences welcoming 20,000 to 35,000 visitors.
Every live event Bakehouse delivers passes through the Project Management department. It is the hub that takes a confirmed project from the Account Management team and carries it through design sign-off, production, installation, live operation and de-rig, keeping client, creative, production and finance aligned throughout.
The Head of Project Management is a Head of Department role and a member of the Bakehouse management team. You will own the department: how projects are run, how the team is resourced and developed, and how consistently we deliver on time, on budget and to the standard our clients expect. You will lead a core team of permanent Project Managers and a flexible pool of five to six contracted Project Managers who scale our capacity through the Christmas season and other seasonal peaks.
Who we are looking for
An experienced events or live production project leader who has run complex, multi-site, multi-stakeholder projects and has already led and developed a team of project managers. You are calm under pressure, commercially sharp and comfortable being the senior point of escalation for clients and for our internal departments. You care about the detail and the outcome in equal measure, and you can build repeatable process without losing the flexibility a creative company needs.
You will be as comfortable in a kick-off meeting with the design and production teams as you are on site at a shopping centre at 6am on install day, or in a budget review with the Head of Finance.
Key Responsibilities
- Department Leadership: Lead, line manage and develop the Project Management team, including permanent PMs and the contracted PM bench. Set standards, run regular one-to-ones and reviews, and build a culture of ownership and calm delivery.
- Resourcing & Scheduling: Plan PM allocation across the annual events calendar, forecasting seasonal demand and recruiting, contracting and onboarding freelance PMs ahead of peak periods. Own the department’s capacity plan.
- Project Delivery: Accountable for the successful delivery of our live events, from project confirmation through kick-off, timelining, ticketing, design and production milestones, installation, live operation inc customer and client communication and de-rig. Personally lead our largest and most complex projects.
- Process & Systems: Own and continually improve the Bakehouse project lifecycle: kick-offs, Project Confirmation Forms, milestone tracking, activation and installation manuals, RAMS, handovers and post-event reviews. Ensure documentation is consistent, current and understood.
- Budget Management: Oversee project budgets across the department. Ensure PMs build working budgets from the sale, track spend, flag variances early and reconcile accurately post-event with Finance. Protect project margin.
- Client Relationship: Act as senior delivery contact and escalation point for clients alongside the Account Management team. Ensure client communication is proactive, professional and consistent across all PMs.
- Cross-Department Coordination: Work closely with the Heads of Design, Production, Installations, Performance and Costume to align schedules, resolve conflicts and make sure each department has what it needs, when it needs it.
- Health & Safety and Compliance: Ensure our events are delivered safely and compliantly: RAMS, method statements, venue and landlord requirements, licensing, insurance and safeguarding where relevant. Champion a strong safety culture across the PM team and on site.
- Live Operations: Oversee the operational readiness of live events, including on-site management structures, event management plans, staffing plans, rotas and contingency planning, and be available as senior on-call support during live periods, which can be extensive, varied and un-social hours.
- Reporting: Provide the management team with clear visibility of project status, risks, resourcing and budget performance across the portfolio. Feed lessons learned back into how we scope and price future work.
Required skills
Essential Experience
- Five years’ project management experience in a senior role in live events, experiential, theatre or a closely related production environment, including at least two years leading a team of project managers.
- A track record of delivering complex, multi-site projects with public audiences on time and on budget.
- Experience managing freelance and contracted teams, scaling a workforce up and down with seasonal demand.
- Strong budget management: building budgets, tracking spend, managing variances and reconciling with finance.
- A confident, senior client-facing manner and experience as an escalation point.
- Working knowledge of event health and safety: risk assessments, event management plans, method statements, CDM awareness and working within venue and landlord requirements.
- Proven ability to design and embed processes and documentation across a team.
- Excellent organisational, problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to stay calm and decisive under pressure.
- Confidence with project and scheduling software and a willingness to learn our systems.
- Full UK driving license and willingness to travel to venues nationwide, including evening, weekend and early-morning work during install, live and de-rig periods.
Desirable Experience
- Experience delivering Christmas grottos, family attractions or timed-entry ticketed experiences in shopping centres or destinations.
- Experience in delivering large scale outdoor events, crowd management, risk management
- Experience working with licensed IP and brand partners.
- Familiarity with Float, Salesforce, SharePoint and Slack.
- A formal project management qualification (e.g. PRINCE2, APM, PMP).
- IOSH Managing Safely, NEBOSH or equivalent H&S qualifications.
- Experience of scenic build or installation environments and an understanding of how production timelines work.
- Experience producing or managing performance-led or theatrical content.
Benefits
What we offer
A senior seat in a company that is growing, creative and close-knit, leading the delivery of some of the most-visited family experiences in the UK. You will work with a talented in-house team of designers, makers, installers, project managers and performers, and with clients across shopping centres, destinations, councils and brands.
Salary: £40,000 – £45,000 per annum.
Contract: Permanent, full time.
Location: Bristol (7 Clothier Road, Brislington), with travel to venues across the UK, including early mornings, evenings and weekends during install, live and de-rig periods.
Reporting to: Managing Directors.
How to apply
Please send a CV and a short covering letter to [email protected] by end of Sunday 18th October. First interviews will be held w/c 19th October.
Bakehouse Factory is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from everyone and are happy to adjust our recruitment process on request.