Director of Audiences

We are seeking an ambitious and experienced leader to become our Director of Audiences. 

The successful candidate will grow our membership, audience attendance and engagement, elevate the customer experience across all touchpoints, realise box office revenue targets and enhance Glyndebourne’s reputation as one of the wonders of the cultural world.

Glyndebourne is one of the world's leading opera companies. We produce opera of the very highest quality in a state-of-the-art opera house situated within a landscape of outstanding natural beauty.

We are going through a period of exciting change and growth, welcoming a new generation of opera-goers and taking our artistic ambitions to new heights.

In 2024, our 90th year, we welcomed close to 100,000 people to our acclaimed summer Festival; more than in any year since 2007. A further 30,000 will attend our Autumn Season, whose principles are to platform emerging talent and to provide audiences an accessible route into opera. Our year-round Learning and Engagement programme focuses on two priorities: national talent development and local engagement with children and young people.

As Director of Audiences you will lead our Marketing, Press, Insights, Website / Digital and Content teams (responsible for filmed material, brochures, programmes and other publications) as well as Retail and Art & Collections (including Archive), which serve the dual purpose of generating commercial income and enhancing the customer experience. Your success will be especially dependent on establishing clear and effective relationships with our Operations Director and their front of house and box office / ticketing teams; and vice versa.

You will be part of our nine-strong Executive team, who together define and lead the company strategy. The Directors report through the Managing Director / Artistic Director partnership to the Board of Trustees.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

Audience and Membership Growth:

• Analyse audience data and communicate insights effectively so as to inform and adjust strategies for continued growth in conjunction with artistic planning, operations, development (fundraising) and finance teams.
• Develop and execute strategies to increase attendance and membership over the long term.
• Lead initiatives in ticket pricing, branding, marketing, and press to maximise reputation, reach and engagement.
• Oversee the enhancement and optimisation of our end-to-end website and digital presence, ensuring a frictionless and engaging user experience.

Strategic Marketing Leadership:

• Lead the crafting and implementation of comprehensive marketing plans that align with our artistic vision and organisational goals.
• Lead multi-channel advertising campaigns, leveraging digital, print, and social media to boost visibility.
• Conduct and analyse market research to identify and target key demographics, particularly new and diverse audiences.
• Apply a data-driven approach to optimise pricing strategies so as to maximise both immediate and long-term revenue opportunities.

Customer Relationship Management:

• Develop strategies to increase loyalty, retention, and lifetime value among our membership and broader audience base.
• Lead the membership strategy, enhancing benefits and incentives to grow the base and foster deeper connections with members, resulting in increases in engagement, booking frequency and advocacy.
• Drive continuous improvement in customer experience across all touchpoints through systematic analysis of customer feedback, working with and involving internal stakeholders and external experts to make informed decisions that realise the brand essence.

Brand Management:

• Develop, safeguard and strengthen the Glyndebourne brand across all platforms and touchpoints.
• Develop compelling narratives and visual assets that communicate our unique value proposition.
• Ensure consistency in brand presentation across all audience interactions, from marketing collateral to on-site experiences.

Customer Experience Design:

• Champion a customer-first approach throughout the organisation, ensuring that every audience interaction is memorable, seamless and reputation-enhancing.
• Collaborate with all relevant operational teams and other teams to deliver exceptional experiences from ticket purchase to post-performance engagement.
• Implement feedback mechanisms to continually enhance the customer journey.
• Ensure that the retail and art and collections teams are working together and across departments so as to enhance the customer experience and generate commercial income according to agreed business plans.

Partnership and Community Engagement:

• Build and nurture partnerships with relevant organisations and groups which will help to increase opera's reach and accessibility.

Leadership and Team Development:

• Lead, mentor, and inspire a high-performing team, fostering a culture of creativity, collaboration, and accountability.
• Collaborate closely with the artistic, development, and operations teams to ensure alignment across all revenue-generating activities, openly involving key stakeholders and contributors in decision making.
• Drive innovation within the teams, encouraging the exploration of new ideas and approaches; celebrating managed risk-taking in a safe-to-fail culture.

Qualifications, Experience and Style:

• Outstanding personal awareness combining the ability to be decisive with a consultative and non-dogmatic approach to decision-making.
• Strong commercial drive, motivated by stretching growth targets.
• Empathetic leader; compassionate, clear-headed, candid where necessary.
• Proven experience in marketing leadership within the arts, entertainment, or cultural sectors.
• Demonstrable success in driving audience growth, engagement, and brand awareness through strategic marketing.
• Exceptional communication and leadership skills, with a track record of inspiring teams and colleagues to achieve ambitious goals.
• Strong analytical capabilities informing data-assisted decision-making; and the ability to communicate such insights to colleagues from different traditions.
• Passion for delivering exceptional customer experiences and advancing the mission of a world-class opera house.
• Readiness to learn and to step outside personal comfort-zone so as to innovate and take managed risks.
• Creative thinker with an eye for storytelling and design.
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment while managing multiple, competing priorities.

Salary and Benefits

We can offer a competitive salary. Salaries are reviewed annually on 1st January.

The contractual hours of work are 35 hours per week, however you will be expected to work additional hours to meet the demands of the role including some evenings and weekends to provide director show duty.

Due to the in-person nature of the teams you are managing, this role is intended to be carried out largely on site at Glyndebourne.  

We offer 6.6 weeks’ holiday inclusive of bank holidays per annum pro rata. We also give additional non-contractual closure dates at Christmas.

We can offer a beautiful working environment, and the chance to see world-class opera.  For those without their own transport we have a free minibus service to and from Lewes railway station. 

We also offer: 

• Free Pilates and Zumba classes, once a week
• Corporate Gym memberships
• An onsite Physiotherapist 
• Subsidised electric car charging
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Subsidised dining at our onsite restaurants
• Free tea and coffee
• Discount at the Glyndebourne shop
• Free on-site parking 
• Free minibus service to and from Lewes train station and Ringmer
• Discount at various highstreet retailers through the Glyndebourne benefits hub

​​​​How to Apply

Glyndebourne is an Equal Opportunities Employer and a Registered Charity. We promote equality, diversity and inclusion in our workplace and actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply for vacancies, including ethnically diverse and disabled candidates, who are currently under-represented in our workforce.

To help us monitor the effectiveness of our commitment to diversity and inclusion and our supporting policies and procedures, we ask all job applicants to complete our anonymized and confidential Equal Opportunities monitoring form .

Please then apply by e-mail, sending your CV and covering letter by an email or email Sally Davies- Head of HR, sally.davies@glyndebourne.com to arrange an informal discussion.

The closing date for applications is Sunday 13 October 2024. 

As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for our vacancies. If relevant to you, please inform us of this in your covering letter. If you have any questions in relation to this or if you would like this advert sent to you in a larger or dyslexia friendly font then please contact a member of the HR team at recruitment@glyndebourne.com.

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