Our nature reserves offer huge opportunity to engage with people, particularly being near to the urban centre of Exeter. We do this through a variety of family, self-led, guided and VIP-style events. We also have ‘the Lookout’, a comfy hide extension at Bowling Green Marsh which is our centre for face-to-face visitor engagement. The high-performing RSPB shop at Darts Farm generates income to support our work and there is a membership offer to grow. We have exciting infrastructure improvement projects in the pipeline.

We have an exciting opportunity for a motivated ‘people-person’ to join our team as our Visitor Operations Manager, to lead the development and delivery of our visitor business and operation around the Exe Estuary (and further afield in Devon)

The Exe Estuary nature reserves and Darts farm RSPB shop are our focus for our visitor work, bringing the nature loving community together on our reserve and sharing our passions.

This area of Devon is fantastic for wildlife with huge variety just on the doorstep of Exeter.  We have grand plans to grow our visitor operation to connect with even more people with nature and we need YOUR help to do it!

This exciting role involves the following:-

You will lead the development, integration and delivery of all the visitor facing elements of the Devon reserves with the aim of creating an exemplar visitor experience that maximises support for nature. This post will allow you to make a big impact for nature conservation.

You will be part of a small and friendly team based at the Exe Estuary. You will also be supported by a large and fantastic team of volunteers, and colleagues in commercial consultancy roles.

We are wanting to attract someone who ideally has these essential skills

• Sound understanding of systems and procedures relevant to a commercial visitor operation
• Proven ability to plan and prioritise workloads
• A natural leader who can motivate and inspire people at all levels
• Experience of delivering an customer and visitor service experience
• Able to build and maintain strong working relationships

It would also be helpful in your role if you have the following (but please don't be put off from applying if you don't) as we are willing to be as flexible as hopefully YOU are.  We will also spend time training the right person, if needed.

• A-level standard qualifications or equivalent
• Computer literate with excellent verbal and written communications skills
• Problem solving skills and ability to work on own initiative
• Ability to manage and respond to customer needs and feedback
• Experience of managing a commercial public facing operation
• Experience of managing a diverse team
  
  

Desirable Skills and Experience:

Experience of analysing and interpreting data in a visitor experience environment
Experience of delivery a high-quality visitor offer
Ability to maximise opportunities for visitor engagement and income generation
Experience of managing and delivering against targets and KPI’s

We also need you to have an ability and willingness to work flexibly including weekends, bank holidays, school holidays and some evenings or early mornings. Our flexibility works both ways and we will support you with outside work commitments too.

This role would suit a broad range of people. If you can do the work, please apply. We are flexible and support many different working patterns and arrangements according to the diverse situations of our team. We encourage applications from all backgrounds and are committed to having a team with a diverse set of skills, experiences and abilities.

The role is a permanent, part-time post at 26 hours/week. We are looking to conduct interviews for this position from 18th October. For further information please contact natalie.holt@rspb.org.uk

As part of this application process you will be asked to provide a copy of your CV and complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above.

This role will require completion of a DBS in addition to the standard pre-employment checks.

The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Before applying for this role, we recommend reading through the candidate guidance notes attached to the top of this advert.