About the Project DBT is leading preparations for the UK’s participation at Expo 2030 Riyadh, taking place from 1 October 2030 to 31 March 2031. World Expos are major global events - with an expected 42 million visitors and 197 participating countries, Expo 2030 will be a major moment for the UK’s presence on the world stage and an opportunity to highlight the importance of the bilateral relationship between the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Designed to appeal to diverse audiences, including diplomatic partners, businesses, and the visiting public, the UK Pavilion at Expo 2030 will provide an immersive experience that allows visitors to engage with the UK in a dynamic and memorable way. Every aspect - from the architecture and landscape, through to the interiors, visitor experience, and programme of public and VIP events - will be designed to show the best of the UK. This is an exciting and challenging role, providing senior leadership and strategic direction to ensure the UK has an impactful presence at World Expo 2030. Leading a multi-disciplinary team, the role integrates strategy, UK Pavilion design, build and operations oversight, commercial negotiations and supplier management and the development of private sector partnerships into a unified vision that advances HMG priorities, strengthens the UK–KSA relationship through our presence at Expo, and delivers an exceptional visitor and stakeholder experience. This role is critical to the success of the Project – delivering a brilliant visitor experience at the UK Pavilion on time, on budget, and fully staffed. The ideal candidate is a solutions-focused problem solver who will lead on strategic stakeholder engagement, (including Whitehall departments and the embassy network in Riyadh), procurement strategy and commercial delivery (working closely with the DBT Commercial team), operational planning, communications, private sector investment and supplier management to broker delivery at pace. Working with the Project SRO, you will be expected to clearly communicate and oversee the creative direction of the UK Pavilion visitor experience and events programme, ensuring its join up with the UK’s strategy and messaging, together with the design, build and operational planning of the UK Pavilion itself. The successful candidate will be able to direct a team to ensure efficient completion of milestones on the Project’s critical path for “Day 1” opening in October 2030. The candidate will be expected to demonstrate and promote civil service values across the team. Strategic Leadership and Programme Direction Working with the SRO, set the overarching strategic direction for the UK Presence at Expo 2030, ensuring all workstreams operate to a shared narrative, strategic objectives, and four-year delivery plan. Provide senior leadership across strategy, creative design, pavilion design and build, operations, private sector partnerships, supplier management and communications ensuring coherence, ambition, and high standards across the UK programme. Provide strategic oversight and advice to the Project SRO; leading on resolving key strategic issues where required. Governance, Performance, Assurance and Financial Oversight Oversee strategic, financial and delivery governance frameworks, ensuring robust decision making and performance management. Ensure commercial strategy, procurement activity and supplier performance management drive best value. Support the SRO in overseeing business case development and financial scrutiny across multi-million-pound budgets Leadership and People Provide strong and visible leadership as a key member of the programme Senior Leadership Team Line manage at least three G6 workstream leads and champion capability-building across multidisciplinary teams. Lead workforce planning for a team that will scale over the Expo lifecycle. Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, psychological safety, and high performance. Drive delivery by developing, inspiring, engaging and motivating a diverse team. Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme Disability Confident About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .