Job Title: Creative Technical and Production Manager

Location: Working in the Devonport Creative Cluster

Hours: Full-time, 35 hours per week to be worked flexibly including evenings & weekends to suit the needs of the business/team

Salary: £32,000 - £41,000 depending on experience

Real Ideas Organisational Purpose

Real Ideas Group works to solve problems and create opportunities that regenerate communities and support individuals to progress and flourish. We do this through four teams, each with a distinct focus. Pathways, delivering employability support; Liskeard Library, a library and cultural hub; Nature and Neighbourhoods, our consultancy service; and the Devonport Creative Cluster, growing the createch sector, creative careers, businesses and opportunities.

Job Purpose

The Creative Technical & Production Manager plays a vital role across the Devonport Creative Quarter, managing Real Ideas’ technical and production facilities, addressing technical skills gaps, managing an evolving team of Devonport Creative Quarter Technicians and managing the ongoing maintenance and safeguarding of technical facilities and helping inform their future evolution.

The Creative Technical & Production Manager will manage the production of a range of creative content for Real Ideas and our customers, ensuring exceptional content is produced in all areas – artistic, educational and commercial.

They will support the design and lead the technical delivery of a range of activities, such as live shows, workshops, artist R&D residencies and other events in the Real Ideas public programme and provide operational skills training and specialist advisory support for a wide range of users and Real Ideas staff. You will support artist residencies with creative and technical mentoring and deliver professional training in immersive technologies and creative business skills.

The Real Ideas’ technical facilities are centred around key immersive disciplines: 360 film and content creation for domes using Unreal, Unity and other software; projection mapping; spatial audio; AR, VR and real time projects. It is expected that the successful

candidate will have a core understanding of more than one of these disciplines, and a willingness to develop skills in the other areas.

You will work closely across all three pillars in a matrix structure, particularly with Education & Community Coordinator (schools dome content), Dome & Events Manager (public dome technical operation), Business & Commercial Manager (commercial productions), and Print & Studios Manager (artist residency support).

Main duties and responsibilities

• Active technical and operational management of dome and all immersive technology facilities across the cluster, for all uses (public screenings, productions, commercial hire, training, schools’ sessions), managing equipment operation, maintenance, troubleshooting and upgrades, and coordinate resource management and scheduling of physical and digital assets and equipment to meet agreed targets.

• Manage and develop the evolving team of technicians who provide technical support and delivery of activities, scheduling their work and ensuring provision of specialist support, and line manage Tech Apprentice (from Year 2) providing training, development and supervision.

• Ensure the provision of specialist support for the processes that form immersive media design, including 360 live capture, animation, visual effects, digital artwork, sound recording/sound design, use of software including Unreal and Unity, quality control motion capture, and virtual/augmented/mixed reality.

• Manage and, where necessary, carry out the technical delivery of a range of activities in the Real Ideas’ public programme, including inductions, workshops, live shows, and other events to meet agreed targets.

• Manage the coordination of planning, acquisition, and provision of specialist digital resources ensuring excellent resource management, scheduling and co-ordination of physical and digital assets and equipment.

• Manage the production of a range of immersive content and experiences, for Real Ideas and our customers to meet agreed targets.

• Actively work with Real Ideas IT service provider to manage and develop production infrastructure, software and firmware upgrades, ensuring optimum and consistent service provision across all immersive technology facilities.

• Design and deliver immersive technology training programmes from beginners to advanced, deliver business skills training for creative practitioners (pricing, marketing, business planning), coordinate freelance trainers and specialist facilitators, and support Education & Community Coordinator with youth career pathways.

• Manage production project timelines and budgets, coordinate freelance creatives and technical specialists for productions, provide specialist advisory and technical support to staff and customers, and collaborate across all three pillars in matrix structure on immersive tech delivery.

Real Ideas wide responsibilities

• To represent Real Ideas well, understanding and talking coherently about Real Ideas products and programmes to provide more value for customers and members.

• To adhere to and uphold Real Ideas' social purpose, strategic aims, and policies.

• To contribute to a culture of inclusion and equality and demonstrate a commitment to removing all forms of discrimination.

• To act with integrity and always maintain the highest professional standards.

• To strive to meet individual and collective targets.

• To maintain the level of qualifications/personal and professional development and competence required to carry out this role and notify the company immediately of any circumstance that affects this.

• To proactively and effectively use all Real Ideas reporting and other systems.

• A flexible approach is required for the role. Additional, reasonable duties commensurate with the role and as agreed in advance from time to time.

This job description is not necessarily an exhaustive list of duties and is intended to reflect a range of duties the post-holder will perform. The job description will be reviewed regularly and may be changed in the light of experience and in consultation with the post-holder.

Our values: How we behave

Working at Real Ideas is exhilarating, but it can also be challenging; we're not a typical organisation and by design we don't fit into traditional business structures or strict 9 to 5 working hours.

There's nothing typical about the people who work at Real Ideas. With experience in many different industries and cultures the one thing we all have in common is a passion to make a positive difference in the world.

Principally we're looking for people who embrace our vision and values, and who want to join us on this journey. Whilst your technical skills and abilities are important, being on board with our vision is crucial.

You'll need to be dedicated, tenacious and enjoy the challenges of working as part of multi-disciplined team. At Real Ideas collaboration is key, so you'll need to be a great team

player, up for working with a wide range of people from colleagues and partners to members and suppliers.

We're interested in finding people who are proactive, hungry for opportunities to be responsible and accountable, and who can ride the waves of change with the wind in their hair and a smile on their face.

And because we always strive to be the best we can be, you'll be happy to challenge and be challenged.

If this sounds like you, then read on…

We use the following criteria to assess your suitability for the role. Please note that requirements at the application stage represent the minimum requirements for shortlisting purposes.

Behaviours

Adaptability: Looking at your ability to adapt to change (Interview)

Culture: Fit Do you share our beliefs/values and bring about diversity within Real Ideas? (Interview)

Collaboration: Can you collaborate effectively and work well with others? (Interview)

Innovation and Creativity: Do you demonstrate creative thinking and innovation in technical problem-solving? (Interview)

Prioritisation: Are you able to decide which task needs to be tackled immediately and which ones can wait – someone who can manage their time and prioritise effectively. (Interview)

Digital Technology: Do you have a commitment to adopting and using digital technology effectively to help solve problems and add value to the work of Real Ideas? (Interview)

Experience: Significant experience in immersive technology, creative technology, or dome/planetarium content creation and technical operation. Have produced creative content using immersive technologies including dome, 360 film, projection mapping, VR, spatial audio, Unreal, Unity or similar. Experience delivering training or mentoring artists and creative practitioners. Experience managing technical teams and coordinating technical resources. Experience managing technical equipment, infrastructure, troubleshooting, and maintenance. Experience delivering training or mentoring artists and creative practitioners. (Application/ interview)

Knowledge: Knowledge of immersive technology including dome projection, full dome content creation, VR, AR, 360 film, projection mapping, spatial audio, or related technologies. Understanding of creative technology workflows, production pipelines, resource management and content development. Knowledge of technical infrastructure management including software, firmware upgrades and IT systems. Knowledge of artist development, career pathways, and professional development for creative practitioners. Understanding of training delivery, curriculum development, and learning outcomes. Knowledge of creative business skills including pricing, marketing, and business planning. (Application/ interview)

Skills: Strong technical skills in immersive content creation, dome operation, and creative technology across multiple disciplines. Team leadership and management of technical staff and freelancers. Resource management, scheduling and coordination of physical and digital assets. Excellent communication skills with ability to explain technical concepts to diverse audiences. Project management skills including timeline and budget management. (Application/ interview)

Problem-solving and troubleshooting abilities with technical equipment. Ability to work collaboratively in a matrix structure across multiple teams and stakeholders. (Application/ interview)

Other: Willingness to work flexibly including evenings and weekends as required by the role. Strong commitment to diversity, equity & inclusion with a good knowledge and understanding of how discrimination works and wants to work in an environment that challenges this. Alignment with Real Ideas' social purpose and values. (Application/ interview)