Associate Director - Culture

Qiddiya Investment Company is looking for a visionary Director - Culture to lead the development and execution of a comprehensive cultural strategy that aligns with our organizational values and business objectives. This strategic role is critical in fostering an inclusive, engaging, and performance-oriented workplace culture that inspires team members and enhances the overall employee experience.

As the Director - Culture, you will take the helm in steering cultural transformation initiatives, collaborating closely with senior leadership and cross-functional teams to cultivate an environment where every employee feels valued, recognized, and equipped to contribute their best work.

Key Responsibilities

• To lead the strategic alignment between Qiddiya's cultural business units and technology, ensuring IT initiatives effectively enable and enhance the delivery, experience, and operations of Qiddiya's cultural assets including the Qiddiya Performing Arts Centre, museums, and creative spaces. This role acts as the primary liaison between culture stakeholders and the technology division, championing innovation, operational excellence, and value realization. The Key Responsibilities:
• 1)Strategic Alignment & Stakeholder Mgmt. Act as a trusted advisor and strategic partner to leadership of culture entities. Understand and translate artistic, curatorial, and visitor experience needs into IT solutions. Prioritize IT initiatives in alignment with culture domain strategies
• 2)Technology Planning & Innovation Enablement: Identify, evaluate, and promote emerging technologies (e.g., immersive tech, digital archives, creative tools).Support digital transformation for cultural experiences (e.g., ticketing, interactive exhibits, VR/AR).Oversee technology life-cycle planning for cultural assets.
• 3)Program & Portfolio Oversight: Oversee the culture tech initiative roadmap and portfolio execution. Ensure timely and quality delivery of projects and systems for museums, theaters, and art grounds. Collaborate with architecture and delivery teams to ensure tech scalability and resilience.
• 4)Operational Readiness & Support Alignment Ensure readiness of digital infrastructure pre-opening and post-launch. Coordinate with IT operations to guarantee ongoing support for events, exhibitions, and cultural programming. Define SLAs and KPIs for system uptime and experience reliability.
• 5) Vendor and Partnership Mgmt. Evaluate and manage technology vendors, integrators, and experience consultants for the culture assets. Build technology partnerships with art-tech firms, digital curators, and museum software providers.
• 6)Governance, Risk & Compliance: Ensure alignment with Qiddiya's IT governance frameworks. Ensure compliance with data privacy, copyright
  
  

Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's in Information Technology, Computer Science or related field. Experience: 10+ years in IT leadership, including 5+ years in BRM or tech enablement roles in arts, culture, entertainment, or experience domains. Proven track record of leading digital initiatives for museums, cultural institutions, or creative venues. Strong understanding of cultural content systems (e.g., CMS, DAM, museum
• Exceptional leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and engage stakeholders at all levels
• Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret data and translate insights into actionable strategies
• Demonstrated ability to develop innovative solutions in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
• Fluency in Arabic and English is preferred