On-Site
Full Time
Intermediate or Experienced
London, United Kingdom
About Nova Sky Stories
At Nova Sky Stories, we empower artists and producers to bring awe and wonder to live audiences around the world. As the global leader in drone entertainment, we’ve been redefining live shows for over a decade—merging cutting-edge drone technology with imaginative artistry.
With a veteran team of engineers and creatives, we design and operate lightweight, small, precise, and safe drones that perform in the most demanding environments—urban centers, extreme temperatures, and high winds. The result? Sky Stories that inspire, captivate, and transform the sky into a canvas of imagination.
Headquartered in the U.S. with teams across Europe and the UAE, Nova Sky Stories works with the world’s leading brands, venues, and events.
📱 Follow us: @NovaSkyStories
About the job
About this role:
Help turn ambitious creative ideas into extraordinary live experiences. As Technical Director, Live Events on Nova’s Experiences team, you will lead the technical development, integration, and delivery of productions that bring together live performance, drones, visual media, and practical effects.
Working closely with the Executive Creative Director, Producer, and Show Operations, you will shape how creative concepts come to life—from early feasibility and technical design through fabrication, testing, rehearsals, and opening. You will connect the people, systems, and disciplines behind each production, ensuring every element works together to deliver safe, reliable, and compelling shows.
This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who enjoys solving complex technical challenges, brings sound judgment to ambitious projects, and builds solutions that succeed on opening night and throughout a production’s touring life.
As a Technical Director, you’ll be responsible for:
- Translate creative ambition into technical solutions. Partner with the Executive Creative Director and Producer to define requirements, assess feasibility, and develop approaches that support the creative vision.
- Bring every technical element together. Coordinate staging, scenery, lighting, audio, video, show control, and practical effects, including interfaces with drone operations, and engage specialist designers and engineers where needed.
- Guide vendors from scope through installation. Develop technical scopes, evaluate proposals, review drawings and specifications, and resolve gaps between supplier packages throughout fabrication and installation.
- Build for life on tour. Partner with Show Operations to establish requirements for transport, installation, daily removal where needed, weather exposure, maintenance, and adaptation to different venues.
- Drive testing and technical readiness. Lead technical planning for integration tests, showcases, and rehearsals; establish test objectives, coordinate readiness and programming, and drive corrective actions through resolution.
- Embed safety into technical delivery. Coordinate risk assessments, specialist reviews, acceptance checks, documentation, and approvals, escalating unresolved safety or readiness concerns to the appropriate leaders.
- Keep technical plans aligned with production needs. Partner with the Producer to establish equipment, crew, budget, and schedule requirements; assess technical changes and present clear impacts, options, and recommendations.
- Set receiving teams up for success. Oversee commissioning and handover, including final drawings, equipment records, operating limits, training, and maintenance information.
You’ll need to have:
- 8+ years of technical experience in live entertainment, including at least 3 years in technical direction or a comparable technical leadership role, with demonstrated success delivering complex productions from development through installation, rehearsals, and opening.
- Broad knowledge of live show systems and their integration, including staging, lighting, audio, video, show control, and effects.
- Ability to interpret technical drawings and specifications and coordinate designers, engineers, vendors, and department leads.
- Experience delivering outdoor or touring productions, including temporary infrastructure, repeatable installation, equipment reliability, and venue constraints.
- Strong technical planning, scope development, and cost evaluation skills, with the ability to anticipate dependencies, assess risks, and resolve integration challenges.
- Clear communication and collaborative leadership skills, including the ability to explain technical decisions to creative and production colleagues and coordinate specialist safety and compliance input.
- Relevant education in technical theatre, engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience, with availability to travel and work variable hours during testing, installation, rehearsals, and opening.
It’s a plus if you have:
- Experience integrating drones, automation, practical effects, or synchronized visual media into live productions.
- Experience developing new productions or entertainment formats where technical approaches evolve alongside the creative concept.
- Experience working across international venues, suppliers, and production teams.
- A resourceful, practical approach to balancing creative ambition, operational needs, and delivery timelines.
- A calm, collaborative leadership style and a willingness to work through detailed technical challenges alongside the team.
If you're ready to play a key role in supporting the operational backbone of a company redefining storytelling in the sky, we’d love to hear from you. Apply now to help keep Nova Sky Stories flying high.