Programming Manager

Job Description

About Saunter \n

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The way we gather is broken. Modern culture trades presence for digital sedation, and nightlife makes good health the price of admission.

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We’re building the successor to the bar—a new kind of third space, designed from first principles for how people want to gather today. Our first location opens in Williamsburg in early 2027, and the model is built to scale nationally.

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We’re artists and serial entrepreneurs—builders of creative and nightlife communities, consumer brands, and technology companies. We’ve spent our careers pushing culture forward, and this is our biggest swing yet.

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We’re backed by founders of some of the most influential technology companies of the past two decades, alongside one of the most followed voices in health.

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From first dawn to last call, a quick reset or a whole afternoon, our mission is to make room for warmer ways to gather.

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The Role \n

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You’ll shape the culture.

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Programming will determine what Saunter means to New York. You’ll own the calendar—Friday and Saturday nights, weeknight food and sound formats, morning classes, chef collaborations, daytime gatherings, and the formats we haven’t imagined yet.

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The weekend program has to earn a real place in New York nightlife. You should have exceptional music taste, relationships across the city’s DJ and creative scenes, and a feel for what makes a room important before everyone else has decided it is. If Saunter becomes known for the right nights, the halo will carry into everything else we do.

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The weekends make the brand. The quieter hours make the model work. The harder—and more revealing—work is turning taste into recurring formats people plan their lives around, so Monday means something here, Thursday means something else, and a Tuesday evening becomes a reason to leave the house. Capacity is perishable: a quiet daypart is revenue that never comes back.

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Not every hour should be programmed. Sometimes people should be able to spend an afternoon here without an agenda. Your job is to create demand without making the building feel busy for the sake of being busy.

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Sometimes the right answer will be an outside organizer with a community of their own. Over time, the goal is to build programming, audiences, and cultural properties that belong to Saunter.

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You’ll report to the CEO and set the calendar’s direction in close creative partnership. You’ll bring the roster, the formats, and a real point of view; the creative bar will be set together and held high. You’ll work closely with the Marketing Director, General Manager, and culinary team. Marketing leads audience acquisition and ticket conversion; you’re responsible for creating programs people genuinely want to attend and partners who bring the right communities into the room.

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This is a hands-on builder’s seat with no programming team beneath it to start—you book it, produce it, host it, and measure it. Nights and weekends are part of the job. During pre-opening and launch, you should expect to be in the room most Friday and Saturday nights, along with other major programs across the week.

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What You’ll Do \n

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Build the opening calendar. Join before the doors open and turn our programming strategy into booked reality: build the initial roster, recruit the morning instructors, lock the launch formats, develop backup options, and make sure the opening months express a clear point of view.

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Make the weekends matter. Establish Friday and Saturday as credible, distinctive nights in New York nightlife. Build relationships across the city’s music scenes, book the right talent, and create parties people return to—not one-offs that borrow relevance from a headliner.

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Give the week a rhythm. Design and run recurring weeknight and daytime formats across food, sound, movement, and culture. Own the morning class program end to end—from format design and instructor recruiting through scheduling and execution. Create reasons to visit during slower dayparts and build habits rather than one-off spectacles.

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Create Saunter originals. Develop recurring formats Saunter can own, refine, and eventually carry into future locations.

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Build the network. Develop lasting relationships with DJs, chefs, instructors, comedians, producers, artists, organizers, and community hosts. Know who is emerging, who is reliable, who brings a real audience, and who belongs at Saunter. Activate 57—our existing 12,000-member Brooklyn creative community—as a launch audience, source of collaborators, and window into the people and ideas shaping the city.

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Own the work end to end. Take programs from idea through talent outreach, negotiation, contracting, budgeting, production, run of show, on-site execution, settlement, and review.

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Make the programming perform. Direct the programming budget alongside the founding team and own event-level economics: talent costs, production costs, attendance, ticket revenue, venue spend, and contribution. Use revenue shares only when an outside partner creates enough value to justify them. Know what every format returns, and kill, rebuild, or expand it based on evidence—not attachment.

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Build demand with marketing. Partner with the Marketing Director on positioning, ticketing, launch timing, content, and audience strategy. Share accountability for attendance while maintaining clear ownership of the program itself.

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Protect the feel. Keep Saunter culturally current, warm, and inviting—never generic, clinical, self-serious, or attached to a passing optimization trend. Guard the unprogrammed hours too: someone arriving on a quiet afternoon should find calm, not a setup permanently in progress.

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Who You Are \n

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You have built programming that carries your fingerprints—parties, series, classes, or recurring formats you created that ran, grew, and outlasted their launch.

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You have been measured on the slow hours, not just the sold-out ones. You can say what a weeknight looked like when you arrived, what it looked like when you left, and what you personally did to change it.

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You have exceptional music taste and credible relationships within New York’s DJ, nightlife, and creative communities. You know the obvious names; your value comes from knowing what is next.

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You are more than a curator. You have personally taken events from idea through booking, production, live execution, and settlement.

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You understand the difference between cultural heat and borrowed relevance. A famous headliner, venue, or promoter does not automatically make a program successful, and you know how to determine what actually created demand.

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You are commercially fluent. You understand capacity, attendance, ticket price, talent and production costs, venue spend, and contribution. You have changed or killed programs you loved because the evidence said to.

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You make ambitious experiences on modest budgets. Resourcefulness excites you more than unnecessary production value.

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You bring structure to creative work. Calendars stay current, contracts get signed, talent receives what they need, budgets remain visible, and important details do not disappear during a late-night load-in.

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You are calm and present when the room is live. When talent is late, equipment fails, demand comes in below plan, or the energy is wrong, you take ownership and make sound decisions.

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You have a strong point of view and collaborate well with founders who have one too.

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Music may be your center of gravity, but you are genuinely interested in food, movement, comedy, art, neighborhoods, and the ideas that bring people together.

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You understand Saunter’s position instinctively. You know how to make health feel culturally alive without making it clinical, preachy, optimized, or overly earnest.

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Experience opening a new venue or concept is strongly preferred. Experience in New York nightlife, music programming, movement or class programming, high-touch hospitality, private clubs, or other multi-format venues is a plus.

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What We Offer \n

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• Base salary of $75,000–$95,000, based on relevant experience
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• A founding creative role with meaningful influence over the identity and calendar of Saunter’s first venue
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• The opportunity to create original formats that can shape a new national hospitality category
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How to Apply \n

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Tell us who you are and why Saunter. Send a short note and your resume to View email address on ziprecruiter.com. We read every one.

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Saunter is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of every background and meet people where they are.