Head Of Production in London

On Board Experiential (OBE) is an award-winning, full-service, experience-led agency that creates meaningful brand experiences worldwide, with office locations in London, San Francisco, Los Angeles and NYC. We help brands to cut through the noise, capture consumer attention and leave lasting impressions that live beyond the shareable, streamable, screamable moment. We are specialists in creating extraordinary brand events – immersive, engaging and unrivalled.

The London office is the most recent to open its doors in the OBE family, making us the new kids on the block, but backed by years of experiential experience. Boasting a heavy-hitting portfolio of incredibly active brands and a range of well-established partners, we’re well set for an exciting future. We are looking to add to our Leadership team to work across our most high-profile accounts, as we continue to define experiential marketing and help achieve targeted growth.

We work with brands that care. Brands that value meaningful relationships. Brands that are prepared to challenge what’s gone before. Brands that aren’t prepared to settle for OK. Brands that want the competitive advantage. Brands that act. We are OBE and we’re a team of experiential playmakers.

THE ROLE

The Head of Production is the leader of OBE London’s event production capabilities, ensuring the quality of our event delivery output is to an industry high standard and exceeding our client expectations. They understand the operational elements of experiential work at the very highest level within both a B2C and B2B environment, with vast experience across projects of scale and for high-profile brands. Their stamp will be seen across our full portfolio of work through shaping and leading the OBE London production team.

The Head of Production will have strong industry connections throughout the industry and will own the agency production methodology of how we deliver events. They will be meticulous in their planning, an outstanding manager of people and will thrive under the pressure of large-scale big-budget events. Their impact on the business will result in market-leading experiential campaigns that fuel agency growth.

Reporting into the Managing Partners, the Head of Production will also play a key role in the agency’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT), helping to define and realise the long-term internal and external business strategy with a specific focus on building a high-performing collaborative team and culture.

Key responsibilities of the role focus on:

• Operational Leadership
• Major Project Operational Delivery
• Creative Direction
• Operational Excellence & Process

The Head of Production oversees the wider Production team that together have responsibility for the quality of our agency product. Leading, motivating and inspiring the production team, the Head of Production works closely with their senior teams and wider colleagues to deliver experiential campaigns and ensure they are executed in line with the client spec and to industry standards. A highly skilled individual with exceptional technical delivery knowledge, the Head of Production will be laser-focused on delivery quality and best-in-class consumer experience.

Responsible for the overall management and administration of the OBE London production department, including departmental Profit and Loss, the Head of Production is also responsible for establishing and implementing a strategic plan for the department, which includes talent identification, staffing and resource planning, and internal capability planning and development.

Alongside, the Head of Production will play a key operational role in the delivery of major projects for our wide range of clients as the senior leader of an internal team; demanding versatility and the ability to confidently show up in a variety of experiential settings. They are a senior-level point of internal escalation and capable of navigating high-profile and complex work with ease with an intuitive and sensitive understanding of stakeholder landscapes. They will also have the ability to present confidently and with authority in a client-facing environment.

Day to day, the Head of Production will have a creative mindset and will work collaboratively with the wider team to develop a culture of bold and innovative thinking that will result in exciting and industry-leading high-quality campaigns. They will cultivate an agency of fresh thinking and a team of mould breakers with the confidence to challenge what’s gone before. The Head of Production is highly skilled, calm under pressure, ambitious, passionate, daring, determined and a leader that inspires.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Head of Production role is varied and will evolve with the growth of the business.

• Operational Leadership
• Ultimate owner of our operational delivery output across the agency’s portfolio of work
• Ultimate oversight and the central point of escalation for all agency production needs
• Effectively communicating operational delivery requirements internally and externally
• Either being the senior production lead on a project or oversight of the senior production lead
• Proven presentation skills both internally and client-facing
• Extensive and expanding knowledge of industry suppliers and freelancers
• Infectious passion about the experiential industry and the technical expertise in how to deliver at scale
• High Level technical production knowledge, including but not limited to operational AV and fabrication expertise
• Strong working knowledge with CAD and design software
• High level Health and Safety knowledge and expertise
• Relevant industry accreditations
• Internal leadership of the OBE London production team and wider external freelance talent
• Ensuring continued knowledge growth and development of all members of the production team
• Growing and scaling this team as required
• Oversight and management of all production resourcing requirements across the agency’s portfolio of work
• Help the production function share best practices to learn, grow and develop together and add value back into the business
• A problem solver with an innate ability to present solutions rather than issues

Major Project Operational Delivery

• Leading the operational delivery of major agency projects, being the most senior production representative through the planning phase and during on-site execution
• Leading the internal project team to ensure that all production deliverables are to task, to time and to budget
• Design, develop and oversee project meeting infrastructure, both internally and externally to drive executional transparency and find efficiencies
• Effective delegation and intuition to know when to empower and when to get into more detail
• Strong budgeting skills and ability to oversee large scale sections of overall project budgets
• Working collaboratively at a high level with multi-agencies as required by the client
• Develop an inquisitive and detail-hungry culture

Creative Direction

• Being a creative leader across the full production portfolio to help develop client responses and conceptual output
• Ensuring a culture of creativity and innovation exists across all production work
• Being a creative champion within the business and keeping ahead of industry trends
• Adopting new and innovative ways of articulating our ideas

Operational Excellence & Process

As a fast-paced growing agency all members of the OBE SLT are required to support across other departmental areas, even if this is not core to a specific individual’s role, including:

• Production
• HR
• Finance

The Head of Production should strive to have a strong working knowledge of each part of the company’s internal and external offer. Good knowledge of the OBE Worldwide production offer and regular connections on a global agency level. Proactively share best practices and successful ways-of-working with wider teams at OBE London. Ability to build estimated production budgets within quick turnaround timelines. Day-to-day management and upskilling of your production team. Line management of key members of the team, up to SMT level and up to a maximum of 3 direct reports. Effective management of resource across the team and understanding the importance of giving time to support your team’s learning and development. Empowerment of the wider team as required, helping to ensure they have the tools, knowledge and skills required to lead on OBE’s behalf. Create outstanding working relationships with all teams across multiple areas of specialism. Providing timely and accurate quality reports to the SLT. Sitting on the SLT, the Head of Production will have an input into various elements of the strategic running of the agency. Contribute to company culture creating a positive working environment.

ABOUT THE PERSON

As the Head of Production at OBE London you:

• Are passionate about brand and experiential marketing in the sports, entertainment & Corporate space
• Have a minimum of 10 years managing and executing live event productions, with at least 5 years in a department leadership role
• Have a track record of operationally delivering major brand campaigns
• Have high level technical operational knowledge
• Have exceptional communications skills both internally and externally
• Have strong leadership skills
• Have line management experience at a senior level
• Can lead or oversee multiple projects, of scale
• Have a DNA of fresh thinking to create disruptive campaigns
• Are exceptionally organised and administratively strong
• Are a companywide advocate in using and championing agency project tracking and finance platforms
• Are a high-level problem solver and solutions driven, underpinned with a calm and methodical demeanour
• Have the vision and the ability to see the big picture
• Approach all of your work with creativity at its heart
• Have flexibility in working non-traditional hours as needed around live event deliveries
• Thrive under pressure and are approachable at all times
• Have outstanding knowledge of experiential marketing
• Are an aspiring leader throughout the business

PACKAGE

• Contract: Permanent
• Hours: 37.5 hours a week
• Location: Hybrid (Ability to attend Soho Works, 180 The Strand at least three days per week)
• Holiday: 25 days annual leave