Senior Visitor Experience Officer - The Guardian : Job Details

Are you creative? Do you love engaging with our visitors? Interpreting historic houses, gardens and estates with inspiring events and finding ways to bring our stories to life? Then we’ve got a fantastic opportunity for you.

Being a Senior Visitor Experience Officer is all about people - connecting with them, inspiring them, and making sure they have the best possible day when they come to visit.

We're looking for someone who has hands on experience of delivering interpretation, events and visitor operations in a heritage/visitor attraction setting. If you've got this, please read on to learn more.

What it's like to work here

Reporting to the Property Operations Manager, you’ll be at the forefront of developing our visitor experience at Newark Park.

You’ll be based at Newark Park, a beautiful historic house, garden and estate located on top of the Cotswold escarpment. Newark Park is situated in an unspoilt corner of Gloucestershire and has the most gorgeous Cotswold views. You’ll be at the centre of a friendly, close-knit, and passionate team of staff and volunteers who work across all departments to look after this special site and share it with the public.

You’ll be part of Newark’s property leadership team and will be part of our duty manager rota. You’ll line manage one staff member (the visitor experience officer) as well as a large team of volunteers including the house experience volunteers. Your primary working pattern will be Tuesday – Saturday. 

What you'll be doing

You'll work with the Property Operations Manager to ensure every aspect of the visitor experience is shaped by our unique history and atmosphere and delivers an exceptional experience to everyone. That involves planning and delivering the programme of events, with something new each season for our regular visitors and locals, as well as ongoing events to inspire our occasional visitors and new audiences. You’ll lead on marketing, volunteering, interpretation and signage. You'll inspire and motivate others and utilise your experience in delivering solutions that support the visitor journey.

With our centuries of history and inspiring landscape, there’s everything here to fire your imagination, to create events and deliver outstanding interpretation and marketing. You’ll work collaboratively with the house, garden and estate teams to understand our spirit of place, ensuring high standards of presentation and service throughout the site.

Who we're looking for:

This job is all about providing a service. To be fantastic in this role, you’ll need to have

• Experience of delivering inspirational engagement activities to varied audiences.
• Experience of producing interpretation or marketing material, with an eye for quality and the importance of visual design and an understanding of how these apply within the arts, culture, heritage, natural environment or visitor attraction sectors.
• Experience of working with and supervising volunteers
• Strong interpersonal skills, good at talking to, and getting on with, all kinds of people
• Understanding of an audience-led approach and the ability to evaluate and use feedback to further develop an offer or experience.
• Experience working to multiple deadlines and managing your own workload
• Strong organisation and planning skills, with a good eye for detail
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Empathy with the aims of the National Trust.
• Great IT skills: Microsoft Office, as well as web and social media
• Familiarity with health and safety procedures
• Be a hard-working and committed team player

The package

The National Trust has the motto ‘For everyone, for ever’ at its heart. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.

• Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary
• Free entry to National Trust places for you, a guest and your children (under 18)
• Rental deposit loan scheme
• Season ticket loan
• EV car lease scheme 
• Perks at work discounts such as gym memberships, shopping discount codes, cinema discounts
• Holiday allowance up to 32 days relating to length of service, plus holiday purchase scheme, subject to meeting minimum criteria.
• Flexible working whenever possible
• Employee assistance programme
• Free parking at most Trust places.