Senior Production Manager

WOW Recruitment; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

London NW studio

Job summary

WOW Recruitment is partnering with an independent studio in London to hire a Senior Production Manager. You will oversee complex builds across activations, retail, exhibitions and private events, coordinating designers, riggers, AV crews and suppliers.

Reporting to the Project Director, you’ll own budgets, health & safety, permits and technical details while exploring new LED/AV tech. The studio offers a boutique, high-skill environment with global clients.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering complex bespoke builds such as activations, retail spaces, exhibitions or installations.
• Strong budgeting and cost-control across multi-site productions.
• Ability to manage multiple suppliers, freelancers and crews on site.
• Comfortable in client-facing situations and with hosted events.

Responsibilities

• Turn concepts into buildable, costed plans from sketch to final install.
• Coordinate specialists (riggers, AV, designers) and agencies on site.
• Own budgets, H&S, permits and technical details for each project.
• Keep abreast of new LED/AV tech and industry trends.
• Grow and shape a production function within the studio over time.

Skills

Production management

Budget management

Vendor coordination

On-site supervision

Job description

Want to work on fewer projects and have the space to do every one of them justice?

And for global brands that keep coming back because they trust the work?

WOW Recruitment are partnered with an independent studio in their search for a Senior Production Manager.

The work

They design and build for some of the world’s best-known luxury fashion and jewellery houses, tech brands, games franchises, art exhibitions and cultural events.

Working directly with the brand’s global creative directors, the work spans immersive experiences, retail spaces, exhibitions and private events.

You'll have the opportunity to work across the UK and internationally, with an established presence across Asia and the Middle East. Builds often run to seven figures, and each one is made from scratch.

Why you’d want to be here

• Six projects across the whole agency at any one time, at most. They choose quality over volume, so the calendar is predictable and the weeks are steadier
• Very little pitching. Most work comes from existing clients and their referrals, so projects start with the trust already there. If they're pitching for something, it's because it's worth it!
• In the room early. You’ll be part of the conversation with creative directors while the idea can still change.
• Independent, and staying that way. You get global clients and seven-figure builds with a boutique team, without the layers of a big network agency.

What you’d own

Right now the studio leans on freelancers for the technical side, and it needs someone permanent at the centre of it. When a complicated brief lands, the questions come to you. Will the structure hold? Can we rig from there? Can it go in after closing, and what will it really cost?

• Turning concepts into buildable, costed plans, from first sketch to final install.
• Managing the specialists (riggers, build and production companies, set designers and AV), plus freelancers and crew on site
• Owning budgets, H&S, permits and the technical detail on every project
• Keeping across new LED and AV kit, and what AI can do for production
• Growing a production function that you’ll have the chance to head over time

You’ll report into the studio’s Project Director. Success is easy to describe - when anything complex comes in, you’re the first person everyone asks.

You’ll love this if...

You’ve delivered complex, bespoke builds, and you can talk through the hardest one - what went wrong and how you solved it.

You know enough about build, AV, rigging and H&S to ask the right questions, and which specialist to call for the rest.

You’re comfortable in front of clients without needing to be the face of the account. You probably get a bit geeky about new kit, and you’d bring some energy to a lively studio team.

It’s probably not for you if most of your experience is in repeatable formats, where the plan barely changes from one event to the next. Installs sometimes run into the evening too. But rest assured the owners take good care of their people and hard work is recognised.

The essentials

• Experience delivering complex, bespoke builds, such as activations, retail, exhibitions or installations
• Broad production knowledge across build, AV, lighting, rigging and H&S, and the judgement to know when to bring in a specialist
• Real examples of difficult problems you’ve solved, on site or in planning
• Confidence managing suppliers, freelancers, crew and budgets

The practical bits

• Hybrid, with the studio in north-west London