Business Development Assistant

Squint/Opera is Journey's immersive design studio, bridging the digital and physical worlds through groundbreaking storytelling and emerging technologies such as Unreal Engine and virtual twins.

 

We're the innovators behind the Empire State Building Observatory's digital reinvention, creating over 40 unique exhibits that transform 10,000 square feet into an interactive journey through history and architecture. At Battersea Power Station, we designed Lift 109, an immersive ascent experience that melds cutting-edge animations, interactive elements, and spatial soundscapes to breathe new life into London's iconic landmark. For Qiddiya City, we pushed the boundaries of virtual production, crafting a revolutionary campaign that ignited global excitement for Saudi Arabia's visionary sports and entertainment mega-development.

 

We're at the forefront of a new era in experiential multidimensional design (MDX) and an integral part of Journey’s Experience Stack. Inspired by the concept of a tech stack, our Experience Stack draws on decades of cumulative expertise from our physical, lighting, live & immersive, and emerging technology studios to produce magical, meaningful, original work. This integration propels our partners into new realms of growth and delivers multidimensional experiences that are not just consumed but that are lived and felt through every dimension of human interaction.

 

Role Summary:

As Journey experiences growth and success, we are seeking a Business Development Assistant to provide support across all of our growth-related activities, specifically in Europe and the Middle East. Reporting to the Business Development Manager for EMEA, this role will cover coordinating responses to bids, managing schedules and deadlines, data entry, and general support of the BD team.

Main Responsibilities

• Attending departmental Business Development meetings and liaising with the Managing Director, BD Directors and the wider team.
• Reading and summarising RFPs to enable the Business Development team to make an informed decision about whether to pursue particular projects, with an understanding of the unique Journey offer as well as the individual studios.
• Managing RFP responses by collating material, writing methodologies, editing CVs, etc in conjunction with the appropriate BD Director, and ensuring safe submission.
• Coordinating all parties involved in the bid process to ensure everyone is aware of the level of contribution expected of them and deadlines.
• Maintaining a schedule of open bids and deadlines for submission.
• Ensuring that bids are submitted on time and are as complete and accurate as possible.
• Maintaining accurate data in our CRM system, Salesforce, on a weekly basis to support company forecasting.
• Tracking correspondence and ensuring leads are followed up on.
• Sourcing and coordinating design input to ensure the visual standard of all documentation and presentation material is engaging.
• Monitoring procurement portals and RFP trackers for projects which may be of interest to uncover new projects
• Developing, promoting, and improving upon bid best practice initiatives
• Researching potential leads and contacts to support the ME Director
• Organising BD campaigns as required (researching new locations and partners/clients, assisting with travel plans, scheduling meetings)

 

Qualifications:

Required Experience

• 1-2 years of professional work experience with familiarity with new business processes is highly preferred

Desired Character Traits & Competencies

• Excellent written and verbal communications.
• Quick learner.
• Superior attention to detail.
• Highly organized.
• Interest in the Middle East, or desire to learn about the Middle East.
• Ability to clearly present information and communicate findings to colleagues around the business.

 

Additional Details:

This is a full-time position.

Our working hours are 9:30 am – 6:00 pm [Monday through Friday, with one hour for lunch]

We currently have a hybrid approach to working with a mixture of in-house and remote days.

Journey is a global design and innovation studio pioneering multidimensional experiences (MDX) that transform how people perceive, engage, and interact with the world. With studios in New York, London, Miami, and Dubai, we blend strategy, design, technology, and narrative to create sensory-rich journeys that ignite emotion and deepen connections between people, brands, and culture. 

 

Journey was formed in 2022 by visionary leaders who refuse to accept limits. United through the acquisitions of award-winning studios ICRAVE, Squint/Opera, 59, and VMI Studio, together, we form something new: a multidimensional design practice with unparalleled expertise across the physical, immersive, and digital realms. 

 

But we're so much more than a combination of acquisitions; we're a revolutionary framework of layered design capabilities akin to the layers of a technology stack for software companies. Like the best technology stacks, our framework continuously evolves to embrace new capabilities and creative possibilities with the future of the human experience at the forefront. This game-changing framework, the Journey Experience Stack, allows us to design for every touchpoint and create uncommonly cohesive brand universes, drawing on our collective expertise in interior design, lighting design, media design, interactive design, and content creation to deliver industry-first solutions for entertainment, healthcare, retail, hospitality, real estate, and cultural institutions. 

 

No other full-service studio practices multidimensional design or vertically integrates its experience capabilities with this level of sophistication. Whether we’re reimagining the hospital-patient relationship, creating the world’s most immersive entertainment venue, revolutionizing live theater, or crafting virtual twins that accelerate ideas’ passage from vision to reality, Journey’s work is pioneering the shift of how people perceive, engage, and interact with the world.