Closing date: 10:00 Wednesday 15 April 2026
Interview date: Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 April 2026
Start date: Monday 01 June 2026
End date: Friday 04 September 2026
Location: Office based, central Edinburgh
Background
The idea at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is simple: anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them is welcome. No individual or committee determines who can or cannot perform at the Fringe.
It all began in 1947 with eight companies – six of them from Scotland – taking a risk, turning up uninvited and performing on the ‘fringe’ of the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. Over 75 years later, the Fringe has grown to become one of the greatest platforms for creative freedom in the world, second only to the Olympics in terms of global ticketed events. In 2023, 3,553 shows took place in 288 venues across Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe, provide information and assistance to audiences, and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.
The principal role of our Customer Service Supervisors is to manage and advise a team of Customer Service Assistants and to ensure the efficient operation of the Customer Services team. The Customer Service Supervisors are responsible for providing an exceptionally high standard of service to the customers of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. Under the guidance of the Customer Service Coordinator, and with the help of the Customer Service Assistants, the successful applicants will be responsible for dealing with complex customer queries, issues and complaints.
These roles will also work closely with the Box Office management team and wider Society to ensure that the Fringe ethos of providing excellent customer service is adhered to across the organisation.
Role and responsibilities:
The successful candidate will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:
- devising and delivering training to the Customer Service Assistants
- supervising and supporting the Customer Service Assistants
- ensuring the effective daily operation of the Customer Services team and that all customer enquiries are dealt with in a timely manner
- ensuring that all Fringe Box Office procedures, processes and policies are followed by the Customer Services team, such as financial procedures
- working with the Access Bookings Coordinator to assist with access bookings and supply venue access information to customers
- working with the Marketing team at the Fringe Society to support customer enquiries through social media
- working with the BoxEdits and Registration teams regarding show updates and venue policies/practices
- assisting with other festivals or events that are ticketed through the 180 Box Office.
Person specification
Essential
- Extensive experience in a customer facing role, including managing complaints.
- Experience in supervising a team of people, delegating effectively while maintaining clear oversight of activities.
- Strong team working skills, complemented by the ability to take the initiative and demonstrable problem-solving skills.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills with an understanding of how to write in a polite, professional, clear and concise manner when dealing with the public.
- Ability to work calmly and efficiently in a fast-paced environment and be responsive to changing demands on time.
- Proficient computer skills including a good working knowledge of Office 365 packages.
Desirable
- Experience of working in a festival environment.
- Knowledge of general box office procedures and practices.
- Experience with the Red61 Ticketing System.
- Experience with people with additional access requirements.
Rate of pay and hours of work
The rate of pay for this post is £14.15 per hour.
Normal working hours are 10:00 – 18:00, 35 hours per week, worked over 5 days, with a one-hour unpaid lunch break. From Monday 13 July, your contracted hours will increase to 37.5 hour to account for an extra 30min worked each day and your working days will include weekends. In the run up to and during the festival your hours will be set by a rota which will be issued in advance to cover the working hours of 09:00 – 21:00. Any additional work beyond the hours detailed below will be mutually agreed in advance and will be paid at the standard hourly rate.
We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process. We are unable to offer remote working for this position. We can offer varied start and finish times and core hours with flexibility around them.
We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team.
The Fringe are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.
We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.