If you enjoy leading people, delivering exceptional visitor experiences, and making busy, complex operations run smoothly for communities, visitors and neighbours, we’d love to hear from you.
We’re looking for a positive, practical and solution focused Visitor Operations Manager to help shape the day to day operation of Heartlands and East Pool Mine. This is a rare chance to make a real difference across two distinctive places, bringing together heritage, community, commercial activity and inclusive visitor experiences.
You’ll support teams to work confidently, safely and efficiently, helping everyone who visits, works with or uses the sites to feel welcome and included. You’ll also play an important role in helping us look after nature, beauty and history for everyone.
Contract: Fixed term, 2 years
Hours: Full time, 37.5 hours per week
Working pattern: 7.5 hours a day, 5 days a week. Flexible weekend and bank holiday working may be required as the operation moves towards a 7 day offer
Salary: £36,621 - £40,000 depending on experience
Interview date: Friday 28 August 2026
What it's like to work here:This role is based in Pool, Cornwall, working across two sites, Heartlands and East Pool Mine.
Heartlands is an eight hectare site at the heart of Cornwall’s mining heritage, bringing together historic buildings, green spaces and community facilities. Nearby, East Pool Mine cares for nationally important mining heritage within a World Heritage landscape.
The National Trust and our partner, Cornwall Rural Community Charity, are in negotiations to secure the lease for Heartlands with Cornwall Council. Together, we want to work with the local community to transform Heartlands into a vibrant place for opportunity, inclusion and experiences.
You’ll be joining a supportive and collaborative team where people and places are at the heart of everything we do. This is a busy and evolving environment, used by visitors, community groups, neighbours, partners, volunteers, tenants and colleagues. Flexibility, initiative and good judgement will really matter, as will a genuine interest in helping people feel welcome, valued and included.
What you'll be doing:You’ll be responsible for setting up and leading the day to day operation across a technically complex site, including three Cornish Engine Houses, a conference centre, retail units, museum and soft play.
As part of the Leadership Team, you’ll help set the direction for commercial operations at the property, supporting great service, growing income and sustainable ways of working. You’ll use ideas and feedback from your team, tenants, partners, communities and visitors to identify opportunities for improvement, innovation, income generation and external funding.
You’ll make sure the needs of visitors, communities, tenants and teams are reflected in how the sites are planned, resourced and run day to day. Leading from the front, you’ll champion the Trust’s standards and values, support safe and compliant operations, and help create a consistent, high quality experience for everyone who uses the sites.
You can view the full role profile for this role in the document attached. You don’t need to have all the knowledge, skills and experience listed in the role profile; this is just to provide a full picture of what’s possible in this role.
Who we're looking forWe’re looking for someone who is calm under pressure, confident working with others and motivated by helping teams deliver their best. You’ll bring operational experience, strong people skills and a commitment to creating welcoming, safe and well run places for visitors, communities and colleagues.
You’ll ideally bring:
- Operational development and management experience in a visitor facing, commercial, heritage, cultural, leisure, hospitality or multi department environment.
- Experience leading, motivating and developing diverse teams of staff and volunteers.
- A strong track record of delivering excellent customer service and achieving visitor, engagement and income targets.
- Commercial and financial awareness, including experience managing budgets, resources and income generating activity.
- Good knowledge of health, safety, risk management and compliance in a public facing setting.
- Strong planning, problem solving and decision making skills, with the ability to respond calmly to changing operational needs.
- Experience using insight, feedback and data to improve services and enhance the visitor experience.
- The ability to build positive relationships with colleagues, volunteers, partners, tenants, stakeholders and customers.
- A commitment to inclusion, collaboration and continuous improvement.
We’re especially interested in people who are practical, people focused and ready to learn in a changing environment. If you don’t meet every requirement but can see yourself bringing energy, care and strong operational judgement to this role, we’d still love to hear from you.
The packageThe 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
- EV car lease scheme (for roles that meet the salary criteria)
- 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
Requirements :Compliance.Eligibility to Work in the UK
Fixed Term f/t (37.5 hrs pw to 21/07/28)
