Sales and Ticketing Manager

Salary: £32,000 to £36,000 per annum, dependent on experience

Location: Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street, London, E8 1EJ, UK – there is step free access throughout the building

Contract: Full Time, Permanent (40 hours per week) – subject to the successful completion of a 3-month probationary period

Applications close: 10am, Monday 24th February 2025

About us

For over 120 years, Hackney Empire has been a home for the people of Hackney, East London and beyond to come and share experiences together in our theatre. Every year we welcome up to 200,000 people through our doors to enjoy everything art & culture has to offer: from opera to comedy, theatre to live music, and not to forget our legendary pantomime and so much more.

From starting life as a music hall in 1901 with Charlie Chaplin, Houdini, Julie Andrews and Louis Armstrong on the books, through years as a TV Studio and a Bingo Hall, to our now iconic Grade II* listed theatre that has played host to the likes of The Rolling Stones, Florence & the Machine, Ralph Fiennes, Dave Chapelle, the British Soap Awards and thousands more!

For decades Hackney Empire has been a vital and exceptional platform for lesser represented creatives and artists and has a proud legacy of supporting marginalised voices. This continues to be core to the organisation’s manifesto: extraordinary art & culture can be created by all people, anywhere.

Each year, we also offer 4,000 local 14 – 25-year-olds the chance to get involved via our Creative Futures programme, providing free projects that build their confidence and help them make new, positive connections.

More information about us can be found at hackneyempire.co.uk.

About the role

We are looking for a Sales and Ticketing Manager to lead the Team in our Box Office. You will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of Hackney Empire’s ticket sales operation and will play a vital role in the customer booking journey. This includes maximising revenue across our variety programme through ticket sales, memberships and donations; handling customer service inquiries and line managing and motivating the Sales and Ticketing Supervisor and casual Sales and Ticketing Assistants to do the same.

You will also lead on the liaison with internal and external stakeholders and promoters on the pricing strategy and will lead on the setup of new shows on our ticketing and CRM system Spektrix; reporting and analysing ticketing data and exploring ways to improve our ticketing strategy, all while providing excellent customer service to our audiences.

Main responsibilities:

• Selling tickets, memberships & asking for donations over the phone and in person, ensuring that all of our audiences have a positive booking experience
• Representing Hackney Empire and running the Box Office for daytime and evening shows, across the week and at the weekends, acting as the contact point for the Duty Manager in helping to resolve customer queries that might arise
• Leading on the setup of new shows on our ticketing and CRM system Spektrix on a fortnightly basis, in collaboration with the Sales and Ticketing Supervisor
• Setting up and managing agent allocations for shows across our programme including but not limited to Dice, See Tickets, Ticketmaster and TodayTix
• Leading on the liaison with Agents, Producers, Programming and Marketing teams to ensure that show changes, sales reports, ticketing requests and queries are actioned accurately and quickly
• Working with the Head of Marketing to analyse and track ticketing data for shows across our programme, releasing additional tickets and setting up offers and promotions as applicable
• Leading on our Access Membership scheme at Hackney Empire, ensuring that access bookers have the correct tags on our system to allow them to book online or over the phone with ease
• Working with the Programming and Finance teams on the reconciliation and reporting of shows
• Supporting the Sales and Ticketing Supervisor as required to manage and coordinate the Box Office inbox and respond to queries
• Representing Hackney Empire at key events including our yearly pantomime press night, and working with the Head of Marketing to coordinate press night tickets and allocations
• Line managing the Sales and Ticketing Supervisor and casual Sales and Ticketing Assistants, motivating them to maximise revenue and ensuring that the highest standards of customer service are maintained at all times
• Administering and signing off timesheets on a weekly basis for payroll
• Exploring new ways we can improve our ticketing strategy at Hackney Empire
• Maintaining robust processes for keeping our data safe and secure, and leading on cleaning old data and archiving old information within our ticketing and CRM system Spektrix.

View full details including the Person Specification in the Recruitment Pack here or download below.

Representation, Access and Inclusion

Hackney Empire is a cultural beacon and an influential safe space, which annually welcomes up to 200,000 audience members – an audience that fully reflects the incredible diversity and depth of London’s communities. For decades Hackney Empire has been regarded as a vital and exceptional platform for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse creatives, artists, audiences and participants; and has a proud legacy of supporting marginalised and isolated voices. This legacy continues to this day as a core principle within the organisation’s mission.

Hackney Empire is committed to promoting equality, inclusion and representation in all areas of our work, we are opposed to all forms of discrimination, direct or indirect.

Hackney Empire’s aim is to provide an inclusive and supportive environment for all of our employees, participants, audiences, artists, patrons, clients and all other people with whom we engage to produce and present our programme; deliver our services; and to ensure legal diligence and internal best practice.

How to apply

Reference: HESATM
Apply by: 10am, Mon 24 Feb 2025
Interview(s): Tue 4 Mar 2025

Candidates should apply for this role by providing a:
• Cover letter, of no more than two pages, setting out your interest in the role and examples of how you meet the person specification
• CV
• Completed Equal Opportunities Form

Applications should be sent to recruitment@hackneyempire.co.uk including in the subject line reference HESATM, by 10am on Mon 24 Feb 2025.

Disabled and D/deaf people are currently under-represented at Hackney Empire, we will offer an interview to anyone who identifies as D/deaf or disabled if they are able to demonstrate they meet the person specification.