Area Manager

BH Live; Bournemouth; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Onsite parking

Training and development

Gym membership

Health cash plan

Employee Assistance programme

Company pension matched up to 6%

Colleague discount

Colleague recognition

Birthday off

Loyalty Rewards

Job summary

BH Live is seeking an Area Manager to oversee leisure centres across Bournemouth and Corfe Mullen. This role demands strong leadership to drive the commercial performance of leisure sites, ensuring financial targets are met and operational standards maintained.

The Area Manager will also lead General Managers in delivering high-quality services while promoting community health and wellbeing. Join us in making a positive difference in the communities we serve.

Qualifications

• Experience of working within a multifaceted, multi leisure operation.
• Experience of leading, managing and motivating high performing teams.
• Strong operational focus to translate strategy to deliverables.
• Strong commercial approach including operational financial management within the sport and leisure industry.

Responsibilities

• Drive the commercial performance of the BCP leisure contract and sites.
• Create effective business and service delivery plans.
• Lead, manage and motivate Leisure Centre Managers.
• Ensure BH Live strategic objectives are achieved.
• Drive the budget performance of all leisure centres.

Skills

Team leadership

Operational management

Commercial performance

Financial management

Job description

Area Manager

Geographical Location: Bournemouth and surrounding area

Salary: Circa £50,000 per annum, dependant on experience

Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing date for receipt of applications: Sunday 11 October 2026

The role:

BH Live is recruiting for an experienced Area Manager, Multi-Site Manager or Cluster Manager to work across our BH Live Active sites covering Bournemouth and Corfe Mullen. We operate leisure centres across the BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) conurbation and into East Dorset.

You will lead our General Managers and Centre Managers for our flagship leisure centre, Littledown, along with Pelhams, Queens Park, Sir David English Centre, Stokewood and Corfe Mullen.

Our Leisure Centres are pivotal in providing activities that support sporting excellence, encourage grassroots participation, and inspire community health and wellbeing through regular physical activity.

You will:

• Drive the commercial performance of the BCP leisure contract and sites, ensuring financial income, payroll and expenditure targets are met.
• You will demonstrate the vision to create effective business and service delivery plans, tracking success and progress against targets, as well as paving the way for future growth
• To lead, manage and motivate Leisure Centre Managers in delivering high operational standards and financial performance, with a strong focus on colleague training, colleague engagement and customer focus.
• Create a strong performance culture across all BCP leisure centres, ensuring BH Live strategic objectives are clearly communicated, and outcomes are achieved.
• Drive the commercial performance of all the leisure centres ensuring budgets are achieved.

To be successful you will need:

• Experience of working within a multifaceted, multi leisure operation.
• Experience of leading, managing and motivating high performing teams.
• Strong operational focus to translate strategy to deliverables.
• Strong commercial approach including operational financial management within the sport and leisure industry.

About BH Live:

We are one of the UK’s leading leisure and event venue operators – a registered charity and social enterprise.

Our geographical reach spans across multiple venues, leisure centres and attractions across Portsmouth, Southampton, Croydon and the BCP region with millions of visits per year.

Our organisational and charitable purpose is to generate:

• More participation – through the provision of leisure facilities to encourage active communities, improved health, and wellbeing
• Higher audiences – through the provision of a diverse range of cultural and artistic events that appeal to a wide audience
• Greater economic and social benefit – through hosting major conferences, exhibitions, and events for the benefit of the local, regional, and international economies and people

We are making a positive difference across the communities we serve.

Our organisation is changing lives – placing us at the heart of the UK’s growing social economy. We host hundreds of events a year; sell more than half a million cultural, and entertainment tickets; clock up millions of leisure centre visits, and welcome thousands of conference and exhibition delegates. As well as promoting community health and wellbeing, this generates millions of pounds in economic benefit for the local economy through business and cultural tourism.

As a social enterprise, we don’t pay dividends to shareholders. Every pound we make is used to run our business and generate a surplus to reinvest and enhance our centres and facilities for public benefit.

We’re BH Live, and we make things happen.

We offer:

• Onsite parking
• Training and development opportunities
• BH Live Active - Gym membership
• Health cash plan
• Employee Assistance programme
• Company pension matched up to 6% contributions
• Colleague discount on food and drink
• Colleague recognition
• Birthday / Celebratory day off
• Loyalty Rewards