Future Construction Manager

Be the named construction lead now, for five days of paid pre-work, primed to deliver the launch-venue build when EIS funding lands. Henley-on-Thames + launch venue (location TBD) · Consultant pre-funding, near-full-time during the build · Initial project: 5 days of paid pre-work · Fees by discussion · Start by arrangement.

Read this first: we are not actively hiring for the full build role yet. That role opens only after EIS closes. What we are doing now is identifying the right person early, paying them for five days of pre-work that helps us land EIS, and locking in the relationship before the funded build begins. If you're a senior construction manager looking for your next contract today, this isn't urgent for you. If you want a stake in a meaningful project that starts in 6–12 months and you want to be part of shaping it from before the foundations, this is for you.

About Three Doors: Three Doors is a pre-launch immersive entertainment company. We're building a 90-minute live experience for teams of 3–6 where every player walks out with a behavioural profile derived from how they actually moved through pressure, not from a questionnaire. Two audiences, one product: consumer tickets for friends, couples and groups; corporate team-development packages on weekdays.

The founder is Tom Ball, who built DeskLodge (48,000 sq ft, £4m turnover, Sunday Times Top 10 Best Places to Work 2023, B-Corp) and has played 121 escape rooms in service of this. Tom's operational-real-estate background means he speaks construction, and means he expects high standards from the people he hires to do it.

We are pre-seed. The Henley HQ is our prototype-and-testing warehouse (deliberately rough, plywood and projection). The launch venue is a separate, full-build project that begins post-funding.

The role: This is a two-phase engagement, deliberately structured around our funding timeline.

• Phase 1, pre-EIS (5 paid days, now): a tightly-scoped piece of pre-work. You pressure-test our venue requirements brief, give us a credible cost envelope and timeline for the launch venue build, and produce the materials we put in front of EIS investors that show "here is the build, here is who will deliver it, here is what it costs". You are named in the funding deck as the construction lead. You are who investors meet when they ask "who is building this".
• Phase 2, post-EIS funded build (near-full-time): the real engagement. You lead the launch-venue build end-to-end: site acquisition liaison, fit-out scoping, contractor selection, programme management, budget control, snagging, handover. Roughly 6–9 months at near-full-time intensity, sitting alongside the Production Designer (who owns creative direction) and the Operations Manager (who owns operational readiness for opening day).

The five days of pre-work is the audition. It establishes the working relationship and the deliverables that unlock EIS. The bigger engagement comes when the money lands.

• Phase 1 (5 days of paid pre-work, pre-EIS): Venue-requirements review: pressure-test the brief, flag anything missing or wrong. Honest cost envelope and timeline for a fit-out at the scale we're targeting, in a defensible format for investor review. Optional site visit if we shortlist a property pre-funding. A short written piece: credible enough to sit alongside Tom's name in the EIS deck as "here is who will run the build". Light availability for investor questions during the EIS round.
• Phase 2 (post-EIS funded build): Full programme: Gantt, dependencies, critical path. Contractor selection and management: main contractor + specialists (lighting, AV, set fabrication, fire systems). Budget control: running cost report, variance tracking, change-order discipline. On-site presence as needed.

Who you are: You've led at least two fit-out builds at the scale of a small-to-mid leisure venue (1,500–10,000 sq ft), ideally one immersive / entertainment / hospitality. Comfortable with the operational-real-estate world: you've worked alongside operators who care about the post-opening experience, not just the build. You can hold the relationship with creative direction (the Production Designer) without becoming subordinate to it: when something is unbuildable or unsafe, you say so. Numerate. Cost reports come out of you weekly, not under threat. Comfortable with the ambiguity of a pre-funded engagement. We don't need you full-time yet; we do need to know you'd be there when we do.

Bonus: Background spanning new-build and listed/existing-fabric fit-outs (we don't know yet which we'll land in). Theatre, attractions, museums, or experiential fit-out experience. Existing relationships with specialist contractors (set fabrication, lighting, AV integration). Operating-cost-aware: you understand that what you build, the team then runs.

How we work: AI-leveraged. We use Claude/ChatGPT for documentation, programme review, contractor briefing, and we expect you do too where it adds value. Pre-venue. The phase you're entering now is "be available and informed". The phase you're delivering later is "lead the build". Cockroach, not unicorn. Lean budgets, no luxury, real respect for the craft. Bias to operating discipline over startup-theatre. Tom's background is operational real estate, not VC-circuit.

Terms: Initial scope, with a clear path to the real engagement. Phase 1 is small and finite (five days of paid pre-work) but it directly buys you the inside track on Phase 2, which is the substantial work. If the funding round closes and the relationship has held up, Phase 2 follows.

What we're imagining: Phase 1 (now, 5 days): day rate discussed directly. Drawn down across roughly 4–6 weeks, with most of the work front-loaded around the EIS deck. Phase 2 (post-EIS funded build): likely a fixed fee structured as a capped % of the build budget. Terms agreed properly at the point EIS closes, against the venue we've actually landed.

What we'd like to see: your proposal. If you'd prefer Phase 1 structured differently (equity-weighted in lieu of cash, pure-success-fee contingent on EIS closing, fixed lump-sum), tell us how you'd shape it. Mostly remote during Phase 1; on-site during Phase 2 at the launch venue. Standard construction-consulting terms; deliverables (programme, cost reports, designs commissioned through you) belong to us. Named in funding materials with your consent.

Three Doors Experience Ltd is an equal-opportunity employer. We hire on judgement, behaviour under pressure, and whether you'll make the team better, not on credentials.