Location: Hybrid — based at Somerset House, London; 3 days a week in the office, with travel to project sites in the UK and occasionally overseas
Reports to: Managing Director
Direct reports: None, directing 30+ freelancers on certain projects
Job Type: Full-time, 5 days a week
Contract**:** Fixed-term to 31 August 2027 (with a view to extend beyond that)
Probation Period: Three Months
Salary: £38,000 - £40,000 per annum, dependent on experience (pro rata)

About Dialled In

Dialled In celebrates the depth and diversity of alternative South Asian music and culture. With experiences as our vehicle, we create spaces where imagination thrives, communities connect and new ideas take root globally. What began as an annual festival has grown into an ecosystem — a record label and a not-for-profit — built to shift power within the creative industries and reframe what contemporary culture looks and sounds like.

We are an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, working across live events, festival programming, artist development, brand partnerships and major co-commissions.

Job Overview

Dialled In runs three things at once — a festival and live events programme, a record label, and large-scale commissioned work — with a small core team. The Operations Manager is the person who makes that possible. This is an execution role. Creative direction is set elsewhere in the organisation. Your job is to make sure that what has been promised gets delivered — on time, in scope, on budget — and that everyone involved knows what they are doing and by when.

Around 80% of the role is project delivery across the portfolio: production schedules, budgets, suppliers, freelancers, and being on the ground when it counts. The remaining 20% is the operating rhythm of the organisation: the weekly delivery meeting, the master timeline, resource planning, and honest reporting to the Managing Director on where things actually stand.

Key Responsibilities

Project Management and Delivery (approximately 80%)

Portfolio delivery: Project-manage across Dialled In’s work — festival, live events, commissions and installations — holding each project to its agreed scope, timeline and budget.

Production planning: Build and maintain production schedules, workbooks and critical paths for every project. Know what needs to happen, by when, and who is doing it.

Budget control: Track project budgets against forecast, flag variance early, and keep spend within agreed limits. Report on financial health honestly rather than optimistically.

Freelance and supplier management: Brief, coordinate and direct the freelance pool, alongside venues, suppliers and technical partners.

On-site delivery: Lead delivery on the ground at events and installations, including evenings, weekends and travel.

Risk and escalation: See problems coming — resourcing gaps, timeline slips, budget pressure — and raise them early with a proposed way forward. Know what to handle and what to escalate.

Project wash-ups: Run post-project reviews with both qualitative and quantitative findings, and make sure the lessons carry into the next project rather than being repeated.

Label support: act as a coordination point for the label side of the business, helping keep releases and label activity organised and on track.

**Operating Rhythm (approximately 20%) **

Weekly delivery meeting: Own and lead the weekly operations call — resourcing, priorities, blockers and decisions.

Master timeline: Own the organisation-wide timeline in Asana, keeping it accurate enough that the team and the Managing Director can rely on it.

Resource planning: Maintain company-wide resource mapping week by week, so that pinch points are visible before they arrive rather than after.

Accountability: Hold the team to its commitments — following up, chasing and closing things out — with the explicit backing of the Managing Director.

Reporting: Provide regular, honest updates to the Managing Director on project status, resourcing and financial health.

Process: Document and standardise how production works at Dialled In, so that what currently sits in people’s heads becomes something the organisation owns.

Team welfare: Notice when workload is becoming unsustainable, and flag it early. We take this seriously.

KPIs and OKRs - Track and report progress against company KPIs and OKRs once set by the directors

Required Skills & Experience

Around 3 years producing or project-managing cultural, live or experiential projects.

A track record of delivering complex projects on time, in scope and on budget.

Exceptionally organised, with the ability to hold many moving parts — and other people’s deadlines — in order at once.

Confident holding others to account, including people more senior than you, and diplomatic in how you do it.

Strong budget management: building, tracking and reporting against project budgets.

Experience briefing and directing freelance teams and external suppliers.

The foresight to anticipate problems and the composure to solve them under pressure.

A strong communicator, across a small internal team and with external partners.

Comfortable with project management tools. We use Asana and Google Workspace.

A real feel for music, culture and the communities Dialled In works with.

Desirable

Festival or live music production experience.

Experience of public funding environments, particularly Arts Council England.

Experience of immersive, multidisciplinary or experiential work.

Familiarity with record label operations.

Experience working in South Asia or with South Asian organisations.

Experience working with artists, brand partners or co-commissioning partners.

Perks & Benefits

25 days annual leave + bank holidays (up to 5 days carryover) (pro-rated to the contract term)

Office closure between 22nd Dec – 5th Jan (TOIL if working during this period)

TOIL for evening and weekend work

Free tickets to Dialled In partner events

Quarterly team get-togethers + annual summer party

Hybrid working: 3 days a week in-office

Pension auto-enrolment

Why This Role Is Fixed Term

We want to be straightforward about this. Dialled In’s Arts Council National Portfolio funding is up for renewal, and the outcome is confirmed in May 2027.

The contract runs to 31 August 2027 so that the postholder sees through a full delivery cycle on unannounced projects with the funding position known well before the contract ends. We would like this role to continue beyond that date, and we will talk to you openly about it as soon as we are able to.

**Equity, Diversity and Inclusion **

Dialled In exists to make space for South Asian artistry, and we hold ourselves to the same standard internally. We want a team that reflects the breadth of the communities we work with — across race, ethnicity, faith, class, caste, disability, neurodivergence, gender identity, sexual orientation and age — and we know the culture sector has not historically made that easy.

We particularly welcome applications from people who are underrepresented in music and the arts, and from people whose route into this work hasn't been the conventional one. Formal qualifications are not a requirement for this role.

If you meet most of what we've described but not all of it, apply anyway. We would rather hear from you and have the conversation.

Access and Adjustments

We want the application process to work for you. If you need this pack in another format — large print, plain text, audio — or if you'd prefer to apply by video or voice note rather than in writing, let us know and we'll arrange it.

If you need adjustments at any stage, including the interview, contact us at info@dialled-in.com and we'll make them. You don't need to explain why, and telling us will have no bearing on your application.

Interview Dates:

First round interviews: Week of October 5th
Second Round interviews: Week of October 12th 

The Bigger Picture

Dialled In is more than a festival. We’re building something long-term, and this role sits at the centre of that growth. As we expand into new cities, projects, and partnerships, your role will help define our future. If you’re excited by creative autonomy, cultural relevance, and building systems that support long-term impact, this is your chance to grow with us.

We can’t wait to see what you bring.

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