Experience Delivery Lead – UAE & Cairo

KOFISI - Centres of Productivity; Dubai; On-site; AED 450,000 - 750,000; Full time

Job summary

The Experience Delivery Lead at KOFISI - Centres of Productivity will own the master delivery programme for every new location, from concept sign-off to operational handover. You will drive product swimlanes across Uniform, OS&E, Music & Scent, Art, F&B, Signage, Internal Communications, and Marketing against a single timeline, and defend budgets with the Programme Director.

You'll maintain short- and mid-term critical paths, coordinate governance rhythms, and ensure procurement and finance

Qualifications

• Background in Design & Build, Architectural Practice, Film/Event Production, Luxury Retail or Hotel Development.
• Track record delivering multi-workstream creative projects on budget and schedule.
• Ability to manage complex programs with cross-functional teams and high stakeholder pressure.
• Cultural intelligence to operate across geographies and disciplines, including GCC.

Responsibilities

• Own the master delivery programme for each new KOFISI location from concept to handover.
• Drive product swimlanes (Uniform, OS&E, Music & Scent, Art, F&B, Signage, Internal Comms, Marketing) within a single timeline.
• Define and defend swimlane budgets with Finance and monitor cost per swimlane.
• Maintain 12-, 6-, and 3-week critical paths and anticipate risks for proactive mitigation.
• Coordinate governance: weekly swimlane reviews, monthly programme reviews, and a live dashboard.
• Lead mobilization and operational readiness for openings, ensuring a smooth transition to day-one operations.

Job description

Job Description

The Experience Delivery Lead owns the master delivery programme for every new KOFISI location, from concept sign-off to operational handover. The role drives the product swimlanes — Uniform, OS&E, Music & Scent, Art, F&B, Signage, Internal Comms, and Marketing — against a single timeline, sets and defends the budget for each swimlane alongside the Programme Director, and holds every department to the number and the date.

Key Responsibilities

• Programme Leadership


• Own the master delivery programme for each new KOFISI location, from concept sign-off to operational handover, and the critical path within it.


• Build and maintain the swimlane view: every product department mapped against the same timeline, with dependencies, lead times, and float made visible rather than assumed.


• Maintain and communicate 12-, 6-, and 3-week critical paths per project, anticipating risk early enough that it is still cheap to fix.


• Sequence long-lead items — fabric and tailoring runs, art commissioning, kitchen equipment, scent and OS&E sourcing — against build milestones so nothing arrives after the doors open.


• Run the governance rhythm: weekly swimlane review, monthly programme review, and a live dashboard that gives one version of the truth across all workstreams.


• Budget Definition & Financial Control


• Work with the Programme Director to define the budget for each swimlane at the outset, translating experience ambition into a number that survives contact with Finance.


• Track committed, spent, and forecast cost per swimlane, knowing the variance before the finance report does.


• Challenge specification and scope on cost grounds without allowing value engineering to quietly erode the experience.


• Build the cost model for repeat openings: what each swimlane costs per square meter and per seat, so the next location is priced from evidence rather than memory.


• Partner with Procurement on purchase orders, vendor payments, and payment timing so cash flow matches the programme.


• Cross-Departmental Coordination


• Drive the product departments to a single delivery rhythm: Uniform, OS&E and Styling, Music & Scent, Art, F&B, Signage, and the Brand & Comms and Marketing teams that carry launch.


• Hold each department to its deliverables, dates, and budget without owning them on the org chart. Influence is the instrument; the programme is the authority.


• Align the product swimlanes with the parallel programmes: Environments Design, Operations, Finance, and Sales. Openings fail at the seams between teams, not inside them.


• Chair the weekly coordination forum: capture decisions, resolve conflicts, close actions, and elevate early and once.


• Give Sales and Marketing the dates they can sell against, and protect those dates or renegotiate them honestly and early.


• Creative & Experience Integrity


• Partner with Environments Design and the Product team so experience intent survives the build.


• Translate design intent into build and procurement requirements specific enough that nothing is lost in interpretation.


• Act as the voice of experience through every trade-off: how members and staff will actually feel and function in the space.


• Hold the Signatures and Standards framework as the acceptance test for handover, not a nice-to-have.


• Mobilization & Operational Readiness


• Lead the transition from build completion to opening: environment, systems, and people ready from day one.


• Coordinate with People, Operations, and Digital so recruitment, training, and service activation land against the opening date, not after it.


• Run snagging and acceptance to a documented standard, with a clear definition of done per swimlane.


• Maintain and evolve the Opening Playbook so each location is faster and cheaper to deliver than the last.


• Run post-occupancy reviews and feed findings back into Formation and the Improvement & Innovation process.


• Team & Culture


• Mentor the coordinators across the product departments and raise the standard of programme practice across the division.


• Build a culture of clarity, accountability, and calm under pressure within the programme team.


• Make it normal to surface bad news early: a late date told in week two is a problem; told in week ten it is a crisis.

Requirements

• Background: Design and Build or Architectural Practice; Film, Set or Event Production; Luxury Retail or Hotel Development; Hospitality or Co-working Rollout; or Creative Agency and Experience Production. What matters is a track record of making complex, multi-workstream creative projects happen on a number with people who do not report to you.


• Programme Command: Demonstrated ability to hold many parallel workstreams in one timeline, see dependencies before they become delays, and maintain a 12-week critical path across multiple concurrent projects.


• Financial Fluency: Demonstrable budget ownership — you have held a capital or production budget, not just reported on one. Able to build a cost model, read a variance, and argue a cost case with Finance.


• Scheduling & Systems: Strong competency with scheduling tools, programme dashboards, cost trackers, and budget control systems. Advanced spreadsheet skill is assumed.


• Experience Sensibility: Appreciates craft, proportion, and experience quality, and protects design intent through to reality without being precious about it.


• Cultural Intelligence: Comfortable operating across geographies, cultures, and disciplines, from Nairobi to the GCC.


• Qualifications: Degree or diploma in Architecture, Interior Design, Project or Programme Management, Quantity Surveying, or a related field. Certification in project or programme management (PMP, PRINCE2, MSP, CAPM, or Agile) is preferred but not essential. Equivalent experience in creative or production management is highly valued.