Venues and Spaces Manager

Run the venues. Reimagine the spaces. Build what comes next. We're looking for someone to take the lead on our venues and spaces at the University of Sussex Students' Union. This is an operational management role, but it's also an opportunity to build something. You'll oversee our established venues operation in Falmer House, including Falmer Bar, our catering provision, events and a large team of student staff. You'll make sure our spaces are safe, welcoming, commercially successful and somewhere students genuinely want to spend their time. But an important part of this role is about what happens next. There's a building full of opportunity. Falmer House is home to more than just our day-to-day commercial venues. We have bars, event spaces, meeting rooms and other bookable spaces, and we think there is much more we could be doing with them. One of your key objectives during your first year will be to lead the development of our venue and space hire model. You'll look at how we can make better use of our commercial venues outside the academic term, explore the potential of meeting rooms and other spaces across Falmer House, develop packages and processes that make them easy to hire, and help us build an offer that works for conferences, meetings, events and other external bookings. We aren't looking for someone simply to administer a room-booking system. We want someone who can help us answer questions like: What could we offer? Who could we offer it to? What should it cost? How do we make the experience brilliant? And how do we grow it sustainably? You'll have the freedom to help shape the answers and then lead on putting them into practice. You'll still be at the heart of our venues. Alongside developing our hire offer, you'll lead the management and continued development of our venues and catering activity, working closely with our Bar Manager, Assistant Bar Manager and student staff team. You'll oversee commercial performance and budgets, help develop our offer, maintain high operational standards and make sure we're meeting our licensing, food safety and health and safety responsibilities. It's a varied job. Some weeks you'll be looking at budgets, performance and future commercial opportunities. Others you'll be working with colleagues on how a space could be used differently, meeting a potential hire customer, developing a new process or supporting the team through one of the busiest events in the student calendar. That's very much the point. Why a Students' Union? We're a charity, independent from the University, and everything we generate through our commercial activity ultimately helps us do more for students. That creates an interesting commercial challenge. We want our venues and spaces to generate income and operate successfully, but we're not here simply to maximise profit. They also need to be inclusive, accessible and useful spaces for our students and wider community. You'll have an important role in balancing both. Sussex Students' Union describes itself as a dynamic, values-led organisation, with income from its bars, cafés and shops helping to support its wider work for students. Who are we looking for? You might already work in a Students' Union, but you absolutely don't have to. Your background could be in bars, hospitality, events, venue management, conferences, commercial venue hire or another customer-focused operation. We're interested in people who understand great operations but are also excited by developing something new. You'll need to be comfortable leading people, managing a busy operation and taking responsibility when things don't quite go to plan. You'll also need the curiosity to spot opportunities, the commercial awareness to work out whether they stack up and the drive to turn an idea into something that actually works. The role profile particularly looks for experience in a busy bar or catering environment, customer-focused operations, health and safety, EPOS and evidence of bringing creative ideas to life. Most importantly, we're looking for someone who wants to leave things better than they found them. KEY INFORMATION Job Title: Venues and Spaces Manager Responsible to: Head of commercial services Rate of pay: Grade 6.1 £35,972 Contract: Permanent Hours of work: 36.5 hours per week (including some evenings and weekends) Location: Falmer House, BN1 9QF Applicants: Open to internal and external applicants* Please note that applications from full-time students will NOT be considered for full-time positions, as it exceeds the recommended hours of work for individuals in higher education. This applies to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. For more details please see the full Job Description and Person Specification; if you have any questions about the role please email jamie.b@sussexstudent.com KEY DATES Closing date: Monday 12th October 2026; 08:00 am Interviews: Tuesday 20th October 2026 or Wednesday 21st October 2026 Start date: As soon as possible