Head of Experience

About:

The Rolex SailGP Championship is the most exciting racing on water, where anything can happen in short, adrenaline-fueled battles between national teams at iconic stadium destinations worldwide. Top athletes fly in identical high-tech F50 catamarans faster than the wind, at speeds approaching 60 mph. Founded in 2018, SailGP is one of the world's fastest-growing sports and entertainment properties, now in its fifth season.

SailGP also races for a better future, championing a world powered by nature. In 2020, SailGP set a new standard as the first climate positive sports and entertainment property and began delivering actions and innovations that advance the global adoption of clean energy. Underpinning the organization's purpose-driven agenda is a diversification of the league, with the goal of immediately progressing gender equity and inclusivity.

SailGP is a global organisation with defined values that shape the culture of its team - deliver quality, break boundaries, make an impact, stand together and strike a balance.

Summary:

The Head of Experience is responsible for designing and shaping the end to end event experience for fans, premium ticket holders and VIP guests at SailGP events worldwide. Sitting within the Events team, this role serves as the strategic lead for the guest journey - translating insights from the Marketing and Data teams into compelling, onsite experiences that are seamlessly integrated with operational plans.

The ideal candidate brings creativity with a deep understanding of live events, audience behaviour and premium hospitality and can work cross functionally to ensure every element of the experience - from entry to entertainment to exit - reflects the SailGP brand at its best.

Key Responsibilities Experience Strategy & Planning

• In collaboration with the Director of Fan Experience, define and lead the overarching event experience vision for all audience tiers (GA, premium, hospitality, VIP, partners).
• Develop experience concepts and journey plans based on insights and fan behaviour data provided by the Director of Fan Experience and the Marketing and Insights teams.
• Collaborate with the Fan Engagement team to determine detailed fan journey maps that span pre-event communication, onsite experiences and post event engagement.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Operations to ensure all experience elements are feasible, deliverable and fully integrated into venue layouts, staffing plans, signage and crowd flow strategies.
• Liaise with internal teams to ensure all guest facing moments are coordinated, polished and fit for purpose.
• Support Marketing by feeding in real world insight to inform broader brand storytelling and digital to physical integration.
• Partner with the Head of Ticketing to shape seasonal sales plans, analyse customer satisfaction trends and maximise profitability through strategic cost and revenue management.

Experience Development & Activation

• Collaborate with the marketing team to develop the creative and strategic direction for onsite activations, entertainment programming, hospitality environments and interactive race stadiums.
• Act as the lead voice for the onsite fan experience in all pre-event planning meetings, ensuring execution aligns with agreed standards.
• Ensure premium and VIP experiences are thoughtfully designed, logistically sound and consistently elevated across all events.

Event Weekend Oversight

• Be the senior onsite experience lead during event weekends supporting operational teams in delivering the planned experiences and solving live issues as needed.
• Monitor guest flow, dwell time, NPS feedback and live sentiment to feed back into future planning.
• Collaborate with Regional Directors and Venue Managers (Race Stadium Lead etc.) to continuously improve the guest experience year on year.

Toolkit & Standards

• Develop and manage the One Event playbook in relation to onsite experience that can be applied across global event locations.
• Work with the Operations Director on ensuring quality consistency across third party partners, suppliers and local delivery teams.

Key Expectations:

• Role models SailGP Values and pioneers a positive culture
• Leads by example and demonstrates their commitment to diversity and inclusion through their words and actions
• Challenges the status quo, embracing a mindset of continuous improvement and evolution propagating this with their teams
• Encourage and empower the delivery of work that will leave an impact on SailGP and align with Better Sport, Better Planet
• Translates SailGP's strategic objectives into SMARTER objectives and goals for their teams enabling, empowering and coaching them to deliver
• Engage in high level thinking to drive the team and SailGP forward influencing others in the process
• Exercise key problem solving skills and serve as advisor to multiple areas of the business
• Strategise constructively with key stakeholders and team managers to work towards the bigger picture
• Embraces the power of feedback, recognising its importance in building high performing teams and evolution for SailGP
• Commercially impactful, assessing stakeholder areas and considers all variables to form commercial decisions

About You:

• Extensive experience in live event experience, customer journey design or guest services roles ideally within sport, entertainment or high end hospitality.
• Proven ability to turn data insights into physical experience enhancements.
• Strong knowledge of venue operations, crowd movement, fan engagement and premium hospitality expectations.
• Experience working in a matrixed environment with operations, marketing and commercial teams.
• Creativity to reimagine and elevate the fan and event experience
• Excellent communication, planning and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to thrive under pressure during live event delivery weekends.

Location:

SailGP HQ in London, United Kingdom. Hybrid working model with a minimum of 3 days per week in the London Office.

This role will have some event travel.

SailGP is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace committed to building a team culture that celebrates diversity, equity and inclusion.