Arts Industry Supervisor (fixed term)

Closing date: 10:00 on Wednesday 11 March 2026

Interview date: Monday 23 March 2026

Start date: Tuesday 28 April 2026

End date: Friday 04 September 2026

Location: Office based, central Edinburgh

The idea at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is simple: anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them is welcome. No individual or committee determines who can or cannot perform at the Fringe.

It all began in 1947 with eight companies – six of them from Scotland – taking a risk, turning up uninvited and performing on the ‘fringe’ of the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. Over 75 years later, the Fringe has grown to become one of the greatest platforms for creative freedom in the world, second only to the Olympics in terms of global ticketed events.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe, provide information and assistance to audiences, and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.   

The Arts Industry Office supports more than 1,800 UK and international industry professionals to navigate their way around the festival each year. The Arts Industry Supervisor is a key member of the team and instrumental in welcoming UK and international delegates to the city and in delivering the arts industry services. These services include Fringe Marketplace, our professional programme connecting artists who have tour ready work with industry professionals, to facilitate onward opportunities.

Role and responsibilities

You will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:

• supporting all Arts Industry professionals to engage with the Arts Industry Office and understand the full range of available services
• enabling the efficient running of the dedicated Arts Industry Box Office and ensuring the timely processing of ticket requests. Proactively communicating information about Box Office procedures to service users
• collaboratively overseeing the end-to-end accreditation and Marketplace application processes
• researching the Fringe programme to provide bespoke advice and show suggestions to industry delegates
• supporting the Arts Industry Coordinator in recruiting, supervising and training the Arts Industry team
• maintaining stakeholder relations with venues, industry, artists and external partners
• assisting with coordination of events and projects in the run up to and during the festival as required
• assisting in an evaluation of the services, including data gathering, to inform future development and improvement to services.

Person specification

Essential

• Proficient computer skills including a good working knowledge of MS Office packages, especially Excel.
• Ability to pick up new systems quickly.
• Experience supervising a team.
• Experience of working with artists, arts industry and venue managers.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to effectively communicate with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Experience of working in a busy environment, with strong ability to prioritise.
• Excellent organisational and administrative skills.
• Good decision-making and troubleshooting skills.

Desirable

• Experience of working with a ticketing system, specifically Red61.
• Experience of working at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe or other festival or conference environments.

Rate of pay and hours of work

The rate of pay for this post is £14.15 per hour.

Normal working hours 35 hours a week, worked from 10:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday with a one-hour unpaid lunch break. During the festival period, hours will increase to 42, to be worked over six days. Any additional hours worked will be paid at the standard hourly rate.

We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process.

We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team. 

The Fringe are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.

We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.