Search CITT/ICTS

Job Description / Duties

Position Summary
We are seeking an innovative, highly skilled, and highly organized Technical Director to lead the successful technical planning of productions across our venues.

This is a senior leadership role for a collaborative manager and problem-solver who thrives in a fast-paced, large-scale repertory production environment. From scenic automation and complex rigging to seamless lighting, audio, and video integration, you will guide technical execution while balancing timelines, budgets, and resources.

Reporting to the Director of Production and working as one of three Technical Directors, you will collaborate closely with Designers, Directors, Production Department Heads, Stage Management, and Stage Crew (IATSE Local 461) to provide technical leadership across multiple production departments. You will oversee the planning and execution of productions, ensuring exceptional technical standards, effective communication, and a safe, collaborative, and supportive working environment.

Start Date: Late October 2026 (Some flexibility depending on situation)

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Show Realization
• Interpret design drawings, technical riders, and scripts to determine the most effective structural, mechanical, and logistical execution strategies.
• Manage the integration of all technical elements—including scenery, props, costumes, lighting, audio, video, automation, and rigging—ensuring they meet the artistic intent from rehearsal through to performance.
• Produce comprehensive ground plans, sections, and fly schedules (AutoCAD/Vectorworks) to ensure smooth operations and load-ins.
• Act as a central point of technical continuity, resolving challenges across departments and collaborating closely with creative teams to scale designs to budget constraints.

Show Leadership & Production Collaboration
• Serve as the Technical Director for assigned theatre venues and productions, managing the season’s fast-paced schedule.
• Collaborate closely with Designers, Directors, Stage Management, and Artistic Leadership, serving as the key liaison for technical production notes.
• Execute and supervise the successful, timely, and safe load-in, technical rehearsal, preview, and load-out of productions.

Departmental Leadership & Crew Management
• Provide effective, motivating leadership to crews across all technical areas.
• Coordinate work calls, assign projects, and manage schedules Stage Crew (IATSE Local 461)
• Foster a respectful, inclusive, and collaborative work culture, resolving workplace challenges with professionalism, clarity, and fairness.
• Work closely with all department heads to ensure smooth fit up and operations of productions.
• Oversee the production schedule for the venue, ensuring clear communication of all schedule changes, identifying pressure points and potential issues, and collaborating with other departments to adjust plans as necessary to support the overall production schedule.

Operations, Budgeting & Planning
• Formulate cost estimates, expedite productions within tight timelines.
• Cultivate and oversee relationships with outside contractors, fabrication shops, and equipment suppliers.

Facility Operations, Safety & Infrastructure
• Ensure compliance with Occupational Health and Safety regulations (including WHMIS and Working at Heights) across all backstage, stage, and venue areas.
• Conduct a safety evaluation of each design to ensure the production can be safely built, installed, operated, and maintained.
• Develop and implement safe work procedures for the installation, operation, maintenance, changeover, and strike of each production.
• Maintain all theatre facilities, infrastructure, and equipment, coordinating certifications, maintenance schedules, and capital upgrades.
• Strategically plan and track the technical lifecycle of each production across repertory rotations, transfers, and season-end strikes.

Qualifications / Required Skills

Required Qualifications
• 5+ years of professional theatre experience in technical direction or technical venue management.
• Proficiency in AutoCAD and/or Vectorworks, as well as Microsoft Office.
• Demonstrated operational knowledge of structural scenic construction, modern theatre technical systems, rigging, automation, and stage mechanics.
• Proven capability to motivate, direct, and collaborate with crews and cross-functional teams in a demanding environment.
• Demonstrated expertise in managing substantial technical budgets, project schedules, and competing priorities under pressure.
• Familiarity with collective agreements and experience working with IATSE crews and union environment.
• Working knowledge of current health and safety standards, including WHMIS and Working at Heights, with an unwavering commitment to safe working practices.
• Valid Driver’s License.

Preferred Qualifications
• Post-secondary education or training in technical theatre, production management, or a related field.
• Direct experience operating within a large-scale theatre or high-volume seasonal production environment.

Additional Information

Working Conditions
The standard schedule for this role demands flexibility; evenings, weekends, and overtime are frequently required to align with production schedules, load-ins, and technical rehearsals. This role is physically demanding and involves regular time spent in rehearsal halls, active stage environments, and shops, including the use of ladders and occasional lifting.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
The Shaw Festival is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and accessible workplace that reflects the world around us. We are an equal opportunity employer and encourage applications from Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour (IBPOC), LGBTQ2+ individuals, and people of all gender identities and abilities. Accommodations are available throughout the recruitment process upon request.

Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge and honour the land upon which we gather as the traditional territory of First Nations peoples, including the Neutral Nation, the Mississauga, and the Haudenosaunee.

Salary: Contract Details and Compensation The Shaw Festival is committed to fair compensation and providing a structured environment that supports professional growth and work-life balance. • Annual Salary Range: $90,000 – $98,000 • Vacation: three weeks’ vacation annually prorated for 2026. • Benefits and RSP (3 month waiting period)

Contact Information

Application Process
Interested candidates should submit:
• Cover letter
• Resume
Applications must be received by 5pm, Friday July 31st, 2026
Please submit to:
Director of Human Resources
Email: dlg@shawfest.com 
Please include the position you are applying for in the subject line of your email.
While we appreciate all applications, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
Applicants must be legally entitled to work in Canada at the time of application.

Employer Profile

In 1962, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, lawyer and playwright Brian Doherty parlayed his love for the work of Irish playwright Bernard Shaw into a summer theatre festival, producing eight performances of Don Juan in Hell and Candida in the Court House auditorium. In this singular act of passion for theatre and culture, the Shaw Festival was born.

Today, with 10 or more productions each year performed in three theatres for an audience of more than 250,000, the Shaw Festival has grown to become a major Canadian cultural icon, a gem in this country’s rich cultural heritage. Inspired by the wit and passion of Bernard Shaw, the Shaw Festival is a contemporary theatre that features a smart, provocative, potent and diverse mix of plays from the past and present, performed by our celebrated repertory theatre Ensemble. The result is theatre that is challenging, surprising, often funny and always entertaining. These plays are lovingly and artfully brought to the stage each year by a talented team of actors, directors, and designers, showcasing the incredible tapestry of talent that this country contributes to the world.

Helmed by Artistic Director Tim Carroll (TC), The Shaw’s 64th Season runs from April 2 to December 23.