Director of People and Culture

Welcome from Paul James, Chief Executive

Thank you for your interest in joining Birmingham Royal Ballet as our new Director of People & Culture.

This is an exciting time for Birmingham Royal Ballet. We have enormous artistic ambition and a clear mission in Ballet Everywhere: taking world-class ballet to audiences in Birmingham, across the UK and internationally, creating new work and opening up ballet to more people and communities.

But our ambitions aren’t only about what happens on stage. We are also thinking carefully about the kind of organisation we want to be, and how we make Birmingham Royal Ballet as brilliant in the way we work together as we are in the work we create.

That is why this appointment is so important to me.

The Director of People & Culture is a newly created role with a genuine opportunity to shape what comes next. Reporting directly to me, you will be an important part of the leadership of the Company, bringing together the fundamentals of a strong people function with a wider responsibility for our culture, inclusion, wellbeing and safeguarding.

Our four values are Creative to the Core, Devoted to Brilliance, Diverse and Different, and Full of Heart. I want those to be more than words. This role will help us make sure they are reflected in the experience of our people, in how we lead and communicate, and in the decisions we make.

These are challenging times for the arts and cultural sector, but I have tremendous confidence in this Company and in the people who make it what it is. We have an opportunity to keep evolving, to strengthen the organisation behind the performances and to ensure Birmingham Royal Ballet is ready for the future. That makes this a particularly exciting moment to join us. 

We aren’t necessarily looking for someone who has spent their career in ballet or the performing arts. We are looking for someone who understands people and organisations, who can listen and challenge, who is comfortable with complexity and change, and who wants to help us build an organisation where people can do their best work.

If that sounds like you, I very much hope you will consider joining us.

Paul James
Chief Executive
Birmingham Royal Ballet