Assistant Director of Leisure & Culture

Ealing is a borough rich in diversity, creativity, and community. We are looking for an inspiring leader to join us as Assistant Director Leisure and Culture to help us take our cultural and leisure offer to the next level.

As Assistant Director for Leisure & Culture you will lead a range of resident-facing services covering leisure, parks, libraries, arts and culture, festivals, trees and a zoo as well as playing a major role in delivering the Council’s health and wellbeing strategy. You will lead a department of over 100 people all focused on delivering better places within each of Ealing’s seven towns.

You will ensure universal services are delivered for all residents and visitors to enjoy and will play a key part in making Ealing a vibrant, attractive and dynamic borough. You will provide exemplary leadership to help shape the strategic direction of services and deliver excellent outcomes.

There are lots of exciting initiatives underway in Ealing which the successful candidate would be leading/working on, including – the creation of a West London Regional Park, making Ealing more climate resilient, aligning the approach to parks and leisure with the Council’s health and wellbeing strategy, as well as promoting arts and culture in each of Ealing’s seven towns.

Our ideal candidate will have:

· A proven track record of the strategic leadership, management and transformation of services and team(s) at a senior level within an environmental setting (e.g., commercial, public, voluntary sector).

· Experience of working within diverse communities and of championing equality, diversity and inclusion

· Experience of working with a range of different external stakeholders from the Environment Agency and Sports England to the voluntary sector and community led organisations

· Successfully secured a wide range of external funding including grants, sponsorship and external investment.

· Previously delivered services across multiple boroughs

· The ability to contribute to and maintain a highly supportive and motivational organisational culture of high performance and customer service excellence.

· Knowledge and application of legislation relevant to service area, including requirements for public consultation.

How to Apply:

If you are a motivated and experienced professional looking to make a significant impact, we would love to hear from you. Please submit your CV and a supporting

statement addressing how your skills, knowledge and experience meet the essential criteria on the person specification for the role, to seniorrecruitment@ealing.gov.uk by 11:59pm on Sunday 9 November 2025.

Your CV should be tailored and include detail of your education, qualification, full employment history and membership of professional bodies.

Please aim to keep your CV and supporting statement to two pages each and include your name at the top of both documents on all pages used.

It is anticipated that first round interviews will be held during w/c 17 November, and an in-person assessment day held during w/c 1 December.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please let us know about anything that would help you to demonstrate evidence that you meet the essential criteria for the role.

You must have the right to work in the UK. Evidence for the right to work in the UK will be requested at the interview stage.

It is an exciting time to join us, here at Ealing Council. If you would like to make a positive difference to our residents and borough, then we’re looking forward to hearing from you.

We’ve tried to make this website as accessible as possible. You can use the accessibility widget on the right hand side to make it more accessible to you and your needs.

Ealing Council is committed to creating good jobs and delivering on its connected communities’ agenda. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive.

We therefore welcome applications from all residents of the borough, we particularly welcome applications from candidates who are entering the employment market in the early stages of their career and mid-career professionals, who are currently underrepresented in Ealing’s workforce.

Please note all applications will be determined on merit.

Role Profile

Ealing E&S Directorate Recruitment Brochure