Arts Industry Officer (permanent)

Closing date: Wednesday 27 May 2026

Interview date: Monday 08 June 2026

Start date: Tuesday 07 July 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. In 2024, 3,745 shows took place in 296 venues across Edinburgh.

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 marketplace each year. The Arts Industry Officer is responsible for contributing to the delivery of the arts industry services in the run up to and during August ensuring delegates receive the high quality and bespoke support that maximises their engagement with the festival, including development and delivery of Fringe Marketplace resources and activities.

A key aspect of the role will be to work with Fringe venues, artists, industry professionals and the Fringe Box Office to implement robust systems that support the complimentary ticket request service and Fringe Marketplace delivery and to ensure clear communication and understanding between key stakeholders, partners and the arts industry seasonal team.

Role and responsibilities

The successful candidate will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:

• supporting the delivery of services provided to visiting arts industry via the Arts Industry Office including accreditation, ticketing, signposting of relevant work, resources for accreditees and engagement with Fringe Marketplace
• overseeing the delivery of in-festival accreditation, issuing of passes and welcoming arriving delegates
• supporting with promotion of the services by coordinating content for arts industry bulletins and contributing to third-party communication strategies where relevant
• supporting the delivery of industry facing aspects of Fringe Connect and Fringe Marketplace – our year-round online platforms for artists and industry – including developing networking opportunities, industry facing events and maintaining content
• supporting the recruitment, training and management of a seasonal team of staff
• supporting the delivery of the core arts industry events programme, acting as event contact on the ground where required
• supporting the delivery of the Associates programme including diary management, issuing contracts, processing invoices and acting as first point-of-contact for issues and support
• driving the onboarding process and invitations for artists to submit to Fringe Marketplace, liaising with Artist Development and Artist Support teams where relevant
• keeping the arts industry database on HubSpot up to date
• supporting management of year-round stakeholder relationships and partnerships on behalf of the Society
• contributing to the delivery of the Made in Scotland programme including industry engagement with the showcase
• supporting the collection of statistical data and evaluation of the arts Industry services including Fringe Marketplace.

Person specification

Essential

• Excellent communication, administrative and organisational skills.
• Proficient computer skills including a good working knowledge of Office 365 packages – specifically Excel – and experience with databases.
• Ability to pick up new systems quickly.
• Experience of a fast-paced and high-pressure environment.
• Knowledge and understanding of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
• Experience in the production of live events and performing arts.
• General understanding of the performing arts sector at a local, national and international level.
• Experience of communicating bespoke services and processes in a user-friendly manner.
• Demonstrable ability to gather and action feedback from multiple stakeholders.
• Creative and flexible problem solving.
• Experience of supervising teams.
• Customer service experience.

Desirable

• Box office experience.
• Experience of delivering a delegate or arts industry programme.
• Previous experience working at the Fringe or a Fringe venue.

Rate of pay and hours of work

The rate of pay for this post is £28,000 per year.

Normal working hours 35 hours a week, worked from 10:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday with a one-hour unpaid lunch break. In the run-up to and during the festival you may be required to work additional days and hours.

We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process. We are unable to offer remote working for this position. We can offer varied start and finish times and core hours with flexibility around them.

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.