Assistant Store Manager - Chelmsford

Audley Travel; West of England; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Medical Insurance

Holiday - 25 days rising to 30 days

Birthday day off

Volunteer day off

Healthshield health plan

Enhanced family leave & pension

Life insurance

Staff travel discounts

Wellbeing platform access

Retail employee discounts

Job summary

Audley Travel is expanding into UK Retail stores and seeking an Assistant Store Manager to support performance and lead a team of Personal Travel Experts. You will drive sales, maintain service standards, and own client relationships while stepping in for the Store Manager when needed.

The role requires strong leadership, customer-focused selling, and collaboration with Country Specialists to deliver premium holidays and tailored experiences.

Qualifications

• Experience in a sales or service-led environment is essential.
• Proven leadership and coaching abilities to develop the team.
• Ability to balance personal sales with team and store responsibilities.
• Excellent communication and collaboration across teams and with customers.
• Organised, proactive, and able to prioritise in a fast-paced retail setting.
• Proficient with Office 365 tools such as Word, Excel, SharePoint and Outlook.

Responsibilities

• Support overall store performance, including sales, conversion, service standards and pipeline.
• Proactively convert footfall into high-quality opportunities and future pipeline.
• Actively sell holidays and role model high-quality sales behaviours.
• Coach, onboard and develop Personal Travel Experts.
• Lead the store in the Store Manager's absence and manage rota planning.
• Deliver a seamless end-to-end client journey aligned to Audley Way.
• Collaborate with Country Specialists when required to maintain client relationships.
• Ensure consistently high standards of client experience and service delivery.

Skills

Sales leadership

Customer service

People management

Communication

Team collaboration

Problem solving

Tools

Office 365

Excel

SharePoint

Outlook

Job description

As Audley Travel celebrates 30 years of creating extraordinary journeys, we’re opening a brand-new chapter as we expand into UK Retail stores. We’d love you to be part of this exciting journey, helping shape this milestone retail experience from the very beginning.

Your Journey Starts with Us

For over 30 years, we’ve been crafting tailor-made travel experiences that reflect each client’s unique perspective of the world, helping them create truly unforgettable memories. Behind every exceptional trip is a team of passionate experts, and this is your opportunity to be part of it.

When you join Audley Travel, you become part of a supportive, collaborative community that’s invested in your success. We empower our people to thrive through meaningful development opportunities, a culture that celebrates individuality, and an environment where your ideas are heard, valued, and make a real impact.

The Opportunity

As an Assistant Store Manager, you will support the Store Manager in delivering overall store performance within an Audley Travel concession in a retail store. You will combine strong personal sales performance with day‑to‑day leadership, helping to drive conversion, service standards, and operational consistency.

As a key deputy, you will step into the Store Manager role when required while maintaining ownership of your own client base and delivering a seamless, premium client experience.

Key responsibilities include:

Store Performance & Sales

• Support delivery of overall store performance, including sales, conversion, service standards and pipeline
• Proactively convert retail footfall into high‑quality opportunities and future pipeline
• Actively sell holidays and role model high‑quality sales behaviours

Team Management

• Support coaching, onboarding and development of Personal Travel Experts
• Provide regular feedback and in‑the‑moment coaching to improve performance
• Act as a visible leader in store, role modelling behaviours and standards
• Create a collaborative, engaged team environment

Client Experience

• Deliver a seamless end‑to‑end client journey aligned to the Audley Way
• Maintain ownership of your client base, from first interaction through to post‑trip engagement
• Balance delivery of both fully transactable products and more complex, tailor‑made Audley holidays, using judgement to determine the right approach for each client while ensuring a premium experience throughout
• Work collaboratively with Country Specialists where required, while retaining ownership of the client relationship and overall experience
• Ensure consistently high standards of client experience and service delivery
• Resolve client issues confidently and efficiently within agreed authority

Commercial & Local Growth

• Support local business generation through events, partnerships and in‑store activity
• Build long‑term client relationships to encourage repeat business and future travel planning

Operations & Leadership

• Act as deputy to the Store Manager and lead the store in their absence
• Support rota planning, coverage and daily operational effectiveness
• Contribute to a consistent, well‑run store environment
• Collaborate with team members and Country Specialists to deliver a seamless client experience

This is a full time opportunity with flexible shift patterns across the week. You'll work 37 hours per week, worked across 5 days out of 7, including evening and weekend shifts as part of a rota, and colleagues will typically enjoy one full weekend off each month.

Store opening hours: Monday–Saturday: 9:00am–6:00pm | Sunday: 10:30am–4:30pm

What You’ll Bring to the Team

You’ll bring experience from a sales or service‑led environment, ideally within premium or travel‑related sectors - alongside a strong track record of personal sales performance and commercial awareness.

Additional experience required:

• Developing leadership capability with confidence to support and coach others
• Able to balance personal sales with team and operational responsibilities
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with a proactive mindset
• Organised and able to prioritise effectively in a fast‑paced environment
• Good understanding of Office 365 including MS Word, Excel, SharePoint and Outlook
• Embodies the Audley values of being positive, being the difference, being one team and being passionate about travel

Why Audley Travel

Alongside competitive salaries and benefits that support your well‑being, you’ll find a role that inspires you, challenges you, and connects you to something bigger. If you’re passionate about travel and seeking a career that excites, rewards, and grows with you, Audley Travel is where your journey begins.

There’s more:

• Private Medical Insurance
• Holiday - 25 days rising to 30 days with length of service
• A day off for your birthday
• A day off for volunteering to support a charity, local support group or community work of your choice
• Access to Healthshield health cash plan - money back for costs associated with everyday healthcare (including optical, dental, medical, prescriptions, physio), and access to medical and wellbeing resources such as a GP service, employee assistance programme and counselling
• Enhanced family leave & pension scheme
• Life insurance
• Discounted Audley trips (for you and your friends & family) and exclusive access to staff travel discount websites
• Wellhub – a wellbeing platform that gives you unlimited, discounted access to top gyms, studios, and wellbeing apps
• Benefits Platform – a reward scheme that gives you discounts and cashback with hundreds of retailers

We believe it’s our people that make the difference and who build Audley into the success it is today. We pride ourselves on enabling people to reach their full potential through promoting and celebrating a diverse and inclusive working environment and encourage you to let us know if there's anything we can do to make your application process easier for you for any reason to help you shine!