Head of Visitor Services

Hever Castle is situated in the heart of the idyllic Kent countryside, with a rich and varied history dating back more than 600 years, the most famous resident being Anne Boleyn. Yet much of what visitors see today is the result of the remarkable efforts of a wealthy American, William Waldorf Astor, who used his fortune to restore, renovate and extend the Castle and gardens in the early 20th century. Today the Castle and Gardens attract over 400,000 visitors per year. The Astor Wing together with the Guthrie Pavilion in the Italian Garden and areas of the Castle itself are available for corporate events, private events and weddings. Each venue has its own unique character and offers peace, privacy and seclusion in one of the most historic and beautiful settings in England. Hever Castle offers 28 luxury ‘five-star’ bedrooms in the Astor Wing and the Anne Boleyn Wing, and you will also find Hever Castle Golf Club set within 250 acres of beautiful Kentish countryside.

We are recruiting for a Head of Visitor Services to lead and develop the teams responsible for delivering an outstanding service and exceptional experience to our visitors. Whilst primary responsibility is to deliver operational excellence, this role also focuses on the strategic development of the whole visitor experience. You will coach and develop teams including front of house staff to ensure high performance and motivation. You will act as the bridge between Operations and all departments involved in delivering the visitor experience, to ensure that agreed quality standards are maintained and use expert operations knowledge to contribute to the development and implementation of events and activities, maintaining consistency with agreed customer care standards. You will manage budgets effectively and create an environment for continuous improvement and learning across your teams.

The successful candidate will have strong experience of operational management in a customer focused role ideally within the leisure and tourism, hospitality or heritage sectors. You will have extensive experience of managing multi-disciplinary teams with the ability to mentor and motivate in order to achieve organisational targets. You will have a proven track record of driving strategy related to customer/visitor experience with demonstrable success in delivering improvements. In addition, you will have a high level of financial acumen, commercial awareness and a proven track record of budget management, as well as the ability to effectively manage complex projects.

Hever Castle are partnering with Prospectus to recruit for this vacancy. To apply please submit your CV and a two page supporting statement, preferably in Microsoft Word/PDF format. The statement should outline your motivation for joining Hever Castle and why you feel you would be a good fit for this role. You should also demonstrate your experience and skillset with examples relating to the Personal Attributes section on the Job Description. If you have any further questions or would like to know more about this opportunity please contact Steven Fraser from Prospectus.

Please note: Prospectus will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis therefore we encourage candidates to apply ASAP. As such we reserve the right to close adverts early if required.
 
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