The Heart of the City Partnership (Newcastle Castle) is recruiting two seasonal positions to deliver the Castle’s public programme of activities and events.
This will include the regular delivery of Newcastle Castle’s historic walking tours across Newcastle City Centre, as well as delivering on site activities to support the wider seasonal programmes. These programmes will celebrate Newcastle Castle’s Spirit of Place and philosophy to create a connection with every visitor, every time they visit. The role specifically assists in delivering visitor enjoyment to progress the whole site visitor experience with the aim to consistently exceed our visitors’ expectations. The role sits within the Visitor Experience Team, delivering great service to visitors and promoting good communication across the site alongside joined up service provision.
The Heart of the City Partnership
Newcastle Castle is operated by The Heart of the City Partnership, a registered charity (#1165434), which is a joint venture between several Newcastle organisations, all of whom have a passionate and vested interest in the Castle’s future preservation:
Newcastle City Council
The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Upon Tyne
Newcastle Cathedral
Our Charitable Objectives:
- The preservation and protection of Newcastle Castle
- The advancement of culture and heritage
- The advancement of education and promotion of learning
Our Spirit of Place: CASTLE CENTRAL: Connecting people to the city and inspiring discovery of the past.
Our Values:
- Be welcoming ambassadors for our city and our local area
- Be the heart of our community
- Be an inclusive space for all
- Be a place of discovery
The Details
Two positions available:
Contract A: Variable hours, fixed term until 4 January 2027.
Contract B: Variable hours, fixed term until 31 August 2026.
Pay rate: £12.71 per hour
Reports to: Programming and Engagement Officer and sits within the wider Visitor Experience Team.
Line Management: No line management responsibility
Area of impact:
- Responsible for contributing to the delivery of the Castle’s wider visitor experience, programming, and interpretation; providing excellent and engaging interactive customer experiences.
- Contributes to our visitor experience ratings and scores
Internal/ external relationships:
- Regular day to day contact with visitors and service users
- Must maintain good working relationships within the wider Castle Team
- Regular working alongside volunteers
Additional information:
- Elements of this role will be delivered in period costume.
- This role does include regular weekend work.
- This role does include outdoor working.
- This role does include lone working.
- There may be occasional evening working.
The Role
Role Overview
Its about ensuring our visitors have a great experience – You will deliver exceptional service. You will engage with visitors to bring the Castle to life and provide high standards of interpretation and presentation
Its about growing the charitable business – You will engage with visitors to capture and pass along feedback to identify new opportunities for growth and income generation.
Its about making the link to our charitable purpose – You will ensure that visitors have the opportunity to understand and engage with our purpose through high quality interpretation and promotion of our work, within the activities programme.
Its about good teamwork – You will help to create a great sense of teamwork with your enthusiasm and supportive approach, working with other staff and volunteers to achieve our objectives and communicate our key messages to visitors.
Its about looking after our resources – You will safeguard resources and equipment and assist in developing cost effective ways of working.
Its about working safely and securely – You will comply with the Castle’s processes and procedures in order to minimise risk to the public, staff, volunteers, and contractors. You will follow clearly established routines and rota requirements being in the right place at the right time with the right resources.
Responsibilities
- Delivering exceptional customer service throughout all front-facing tasks
- Delivery of walking tours through Newcastle City Centre in period dress, communicating in an effective and engaging means to a diverse audience.
- Delivery of a changing programme of daytime activities, including (but not limited to); crafts, guided tours, physical activities, short performances.
- Delivering live interpretation deployed across a variety of visitor-facing positions
- Delivery of a secondary duty (to be established with the line manager on appointment), some examples include: leading on inventorying weaponry, contributing to evaluation systems, leading on ensuring leaflets and promotional material are stocked
- Effective communication with visitors, service users, volunteers, and the wider staff team
- Capturing visitor feedback to feed in to a wider Castle evaluation strategy.
- Advocating for our charity and the work that we undertake in line with our charitable objectives
- Occasional cash handling in relation to out of hours events.
- Occasional appearances within social media and marketing campaigns.
- Working within the Visitor Experience Team to deliver the wider Castle and departmental strategy.
- Maintenance of all personal issue uniform and/or costume.
- Compliance with all Castle risk assessments and policies including Health and Safety, Safeguarding and others.
The Candidate
Knowledge skills and experience needed
- Demonstrable practical experience in the delivery of events and activities (ideally in a tourist or cultural venue)
- Strong verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate in an engaging and informative manner to a diverse range of visitors and service users
- Experience of working with a wide range of audience, including assessing individual needs and responding in an appropriate manner (particularly in relation to children, individuals with SEND, and non-native speakers)
- Experience of working within a team
- Ability to build strong relationships with both the wider Castle Team and visitors and service users
- Ability to demonstrate strong customer service ethos
- Ability to demonstrate an understanding of volunteer motivations and succeed in supporting volunteers on a day to day basis
- Knowledge of Health and Safety compliance and best practice
- Knowledge of Safeguarding compliance and best practice
- Well organised and able to manage time effectively
- Should be proactive, creative and energetic
Desirable attributes
- Current clean DBS certificate
- Multilingual and/or competency in British Sign Language
- Experience in delivering tours
- Interest in the heritage of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Timeline
Please submit a CV and Cover Letter (no longer than one side of A4) to [email protected] no later than 5pm on Friday 12 June.
Interviews will be held week commencing 22 June 2026, with intended start dates for both roles around 13 July 2026.
Please note that due to the high volume of applications expected, we will only be able to get in touch with successful applicants. If you have not heard from a member of the team by the 19 June 2026, then unfortunately your application has been unsuccessful.
Job Types: Part-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 6-24 weeks
Pay: £12.71 per hour
Work Location: In person
