Global IT Events Director
Who We Are About MARI MARI is a global events and experiences company with a portfolio of world-class live properties spanning sport, art, lifestyle, and entertainment. These include major international tennis tournaments, among them the Mutua Madrid Open and Miami Open presented by Itaú , Frieze , a leading voice in contemporary art, Hyde Park Winter Wonderland , TodayTix Group , a leading digital ticketing and technology company for theatre and live performance, and Barrett-Jackson , the foremost U.S. collector car auction company. MARI delivers live experiences that bring people together, inspire audiences, and shape culture worldwide. The Role The Global IT Events Director is a senior operational leader responsible for designing, delivering, and continually improving the end-to-end IT operations for all MARI live events worldwide. This is a hands-on, globally distributed role that blends technical leadership, resource orchestration, and on-site live event management. You will oversee all technical elements of event delivery — from planning, site inspections, network builds, POS deployments, Wi-Fi design, broadcast/streaming requirements, accreditation systems, and endpoint provisioning to on-site support teams, overnight builds, and rapid issue resolution during live operations. MARI’s event calendar includes high intensity overlaps across regions (Americas, APAC, EMEA), multi-month installations, and peak concurrent periods that require careful planning, vendor management, and operational precision. You will own the global event IT operating model, manage internal and third-party resources, maintain standards and runbooks, and ensure MARI delivers faultless technical execution at every event. Key Responsibilities And Accountabilities Global Event Technology Leadership
- Own the full lifecycle of IT delivery for all global MARI events — planning, design, setup, live operations, de-rig, and post-event reviews.
- Develop and enforce a global Event Technology Standards Framework (networks, WiFi, POS, ticketing, printers, devices, connectivity, resilience, documentation).
- Conduct technical site visits and lead pre-production planning sessions with Production, Operations, Commercial, and external partners.
- Manage the global event calendar to prevent resourcing conflicts during overlapping periods (e.g., February Americas overlap, August–September APAC triple overlap, October–January EMEA peaks).
- Build detailed resource allocation plans, identifying when internal teams, temporary staff, or third-party vendors are required.
- Coordinate scheduling around 4–8-week planning windows, ensuring global workloads are sustainable and predictable.
- Serve as senior technical lead at major events worldwide.
- Oversee all on-site infrastructure as well as potential disaster recovery scenarios
- Network and Wi-Fi deployment
- Cabling and infrastructure setup
- POS and payment device rollout
- Ticketing and access control systems
- Artist/athlete/media areas
- Press rooms, broadcast/streaming support
- Back-office IT and endpoint provisioning
- Rapidly diagnose and resolve issues during live operations, ensuring business continuity.
- Build and manage a global network of boutique IT event support vendors to supplement internal teams.
- Negotiate contracts, scopes of work, SLAs, day rates, and surge capacity terms.
- Establish escalation pathways between internal teams, 3rd-party engineers, and event production.
- Create and maintain event-specific IT runbooks, diagrams, staffing plans, network maps, and pre-flight checklists.
- Develop repeatable, scalable templates for art fairs, tennis events, endurance sports, festivals, and long-duration winter attractions.
- Ensure post-event debriefs capture lessons learned and feed into continuous improvement.
- Ensure all event technologies are fully tested, configured, and signed off before deployment.
- Manage event equipment inventory and warehousing— laptops, iPads, POS units, printers, switches, APs, cabling.
- Oversee temporary internet services, 4G/5G fallback, and redundant connectivity.
- Manage and mentor a distributed global Support and Events technology team.
- Coordinate with IT Operations & Support teams to ensure effective follow-the-sun support.
- Provide coaching, training, and development to build a world-class event engineering capability.
- Own the event IT budget forecast, including staffing, equipment, vendors, and travel.
- Evaluate buy vs. rent vs. outsource decisions for event hardware.
- Tracks spend per event and identify opportunities for operational efficiency.
- Extensive travel to global events (including nights, weekends, holidays).
- Multi-week or multi-month on-site presence for intense installations (e.g., Winter Wonderland, Frieze Seoul).
- High-pressure live environments requiring rapid response and exceptional problem-solving.
- Simultaneous events across regions requiring strong remote coordination.
- Adaptability to outdoor environments, temporary structures, weather, and last-minute operational changes
- Zero critical outages across all major MARI events.
- On-time build readiness and go-live execution.
- Accurate staffing models for each region and peak period.
- Standardised event runbooks used globally.
- High vendor performance and reliable surge capacity.
- Strong relationships with Production, Commercial, and Operations teams.
- Positive feedback from event directors, partners, and VIP stakeholders.
- 10+ years in event technology, live events, or field-based technical operations.
- Demonstrated leadership in delivering IT for large-scale, multi-day or multi-week events.
- Hands-on experience with event networks, temporary connectivity, WiFi design, ticketing systems, POS, and broadcast support.
- Experience managing global technical teams and 3rd-party vendors.
- Background supporting art fairs, sports, experiential events, or major festivals highly desirable.
- Strong understanding of hardware logistics, IT security, BYOD environments, and temporary event infrastructures.
- Expert at managing complex, multi-site, multi-team event operations.
- Exceptional troubleshooting in high-pressure, live environments.
- Strong negotiation skills with vendors and contractors.
- Ability to produce clear diagrams, runbooks, and operational documentation.
- Excellent communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Strong analytical capabilities for resource modelling and event forecasting.
- Able to lead teams across time zones within a follow-the-sun model.
- Bachelor's degree in IT, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
- ITIL, PRINCE2, or project management certifications beneficial.
- Vendor-specific networking certifications desirable (e.g., Cisco, Aruba, Meraki).
- Event-specific technical qualifications (broadcast, networking, or AV) advantageous.
- Strong drive for success and relentless pursuit of achieving results.
- Is action oriented and pursues everything with energy and drive. Passionate about success and winning.
- Dedicated, committed, enthusiastic, positive, and motivated. Has courage and persistence in convictions no matter how difficult the task is.
- Is open, flexible, and adaptable to changes in work demands, people, and situations.
- Ability to view overall business priorities and redefine own and team’s priorities in line with expectations and objectives.
- Ability to plan and communicate the steps needed to deliver a defined outcome.
- Ability to ensure the most urgent and important needs of the business are achieved
- Time management for the event team and prioritising escalations
- Persuasive and influential. Understands the attitudes, interests, needs, and perspectives of others and can convince others and gain agreement.
- Listens intently and ensures other party feels they have been heard and understood.
- Maintains confidentiality, remains open to others’ ideas, and exhibits willingness to try new things.
- The work location is Chiswick Park, London.
- This is a permanent contract.
- Working hours are 9-5 pm with occasional work outside of working hours where necessary for the business.