Venue Duty Manager

Manchester International Festival; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 29,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

Manchester International Festival seeks a Venue Duty Manager for Aviva Studios to lead day-to-day venue operations, coordinate events and guest services, and ensure outstanding visitor experience.

You will manage duty teams, oversee safety, liaise with producers, and support staff, volunteers, and hosts while championing equality, diversity and accessibility in a busy live events environment.

Qualifications

• Experience leading teams through large-scale live events.
• Excellent communication with diverse audiences and staff.
• Collaborative planning across departments for multi-event days.
• Able to stay calm under pressure and maintain an open, approachable manner.
• Strong organisational skills to manage multiple priorities.

Responsibilities

• Fulfil the role of Duty Manager within the operational structure of Aviva Studios.
• Lead day-to-day operation, including crowd management, risk assessments and incident response.
• Oversee visitor operations and briefing of hosts and volunteers.
• Manage visitor-facing functions such as reception, ticket scanning and retail on event days.
• Coordinate with Producers and Event Managers on operational needs for programming.
• Support staff with training and development to enhance visitor experience.
• Champion Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility in all visitor interactions.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Collaborative

Calm under pressure

Organisational skills

Equality & Inclusion

Tools

Microsoft Office

Project management tools

Job description

Venue Duty Manager

The Venue Duty Manager is a key role within our visitor team – it provides day-to-day duty management of the venue, events and activities.

Closing date - 18 October 2026Interview date - w/c 26 October 2026Salary - £32,000 per annum

This is a 12-month fixed term role.

The key responsibilities for the Venue Duty Manager include;

• Fulfil the role of Duty Manager in the operational structure of Aviva Studios, working with Supervisors, and other teams in the day-to-day delivery of outstanding and inclusive customer service to all visitors
• Play a leading delivery and decision-making role in the day-to-day operation of Aviva Studios, this may include leading evacuations, completing risk assessments, managing crowd-flow, responding to first aid incidents, monitoring and maintaining the safety and visitors, colleagues and artworks, as well as incident response and management
• Oversee complex visitor operations – often including multiple events of scale taking place simultaneously
• Manage the visitor-facing teams at Aviva Studios. Depending on the day and type of event this may include directly briefing and managing hosts and volunteers, or leading a team who in turn manage hosts and volunteers
• Oversight and on the day management of key visitor-facing functions such as: retail, reception, security, cloakroom, ticket scanning, etc
• Work with Producers and Event Managers to scope and plan operational needs for commercial and creative programming and events
• Work with the wider Duty Management team to embed a positive and proactive team culture
• Play a key role in developing, training and equipping Supervisors, Hosts and Volunteers to contribute to the visitor experience offer at Aviva Studios
• Contribute to our management, rota-ing and communications with our host team
• Champion Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility, ensuring Aviva Studios provides a consistent experience to all visitors

The person specification for the Venue Duty Manager are;

ESSENTIAL

• Experience of motivating and leading teams of people through the operational delivery of range of large-scale live events
• Effective communication skills with the ability to communicate with a broad range of people from different backgrounds
• Ability to take a collaborative approach to multiple workloads; including attending multi-departmental planning meetings, project scoping and live event delivery
• Ability to remain calm under pressure, retaining an open and approachable manner
• Excellent organisational and administration skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively
• Commitment to championing representation and inclusion at every level of the organisation with a proven ability to work with people from a wide range of backgrounds
• Familiarity with Health & Safety best practice, and implementation of policies and procedures
• Willingness to undergo relevant statutory checks e.g. DBS (Factory International will process and pay for this)
• Willingness to undertake First Aid, Safeguarding and Health and Safety Training
• Commitment to championing representation and inclusion at every level of the organisation with a proven ability to work with people from a wide range of backgrounds
• Willing to complete relevant statutory checks e.g. DBS (Factory International can support with processing and payment)

DESIRABLE

• Previous experience of working within an arts/cultural venue, large events venue or a customer-focused organization
• Previous experience of working at a silver or bronze level on large events.
• Understanding/knowledge of accessibility and previous experience of working with access customers
• Good IT skills, including proficiency with Microsoft office programs and the ability to work with project management tools
• Enthusiasm for training, mentoring and support of emerging talent

Location: Aviva Studios

Our Mission

Through art, music and culture, in digital and physical space, our mission is to create the meeting points between imagined futures and real lives.

Throughout all our areas of work we will embody our values: Open, Inventive, Equitable, International, and Determined.