Head of Visitor Services

Val Wade Recruitment; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 54,000 - 66,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday

Pension

Sector discounts

Job summary

Val Wade Recruitment is seeking a Head of Visitor Engagement for a leading London Art Gallery. This permanent, full‑time role is hybrid and focuses on delivering an inclusive, high‑quality visitor experience across exhibitions, public programmes, events and private hires.

You will provide strategic leadership for the Visitor Engagement team, line-manage the Visitor Engagement Managers, and collaborate with the People team on performance and recruitment.

Qualifications

• Experience leading or supporting significant visitor experience, customer experience or front-of-house transformation.
• Experience translating strategic ambition into change.
• Operational understanding of visitor-facing environments.
• Ability to balance customer service with safety, staffing and efficiency.
• Leading and developing managers and teams with a coaching approach.
• Understanding of inclusive and accessible visitor experience.
• Experience identifying barriers and developing approaches for different audience needs.
• Confidence using data, feedback and insight to improve performance.
• Strong collaborative and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Developing and embedding the Visitor Experience strategy across the organisation, ensuring visitor needs inform planning and decision-making.
• Providing strategic leadership for the Visitor Engagement team, coaching and developing the Visitor Engagement Managers.
• Overseeing workforce planning and recruitment in collaboration with People team.
• Ensuring induction, training and ongoing development for staff.
• Providing senior leadership for safe and effective visitor-facing operations across exhibitions, public programmes, events and private hires.
• Ensuring Visitor Engagement staff review incidents and operational issues.
• Developing the gallery’s approach to welcome and accessibility for diverse visitors.
• Leading activities with schools, community groups and organised visits with Groups & Access Manager.
• Developing varied programmes of informal and semi-formal visitor engagement with the Programmes team.
• Develop, test and scale initiatives and use KPIs and visitor feedback to guide priorities.
• Exploring opportunities to use technology and data to improve the visitor journey and staff efficiency.
• Managing the overall Visitor Engagement budget.

Job description

Head of Visitor Engagement, permanent full time, hybrid, high profile Art Gallery, London, £60,000

Leading London Art Gallery needs Head of Visitor Engagement. Reporting to the Director of Audiences, this is a permanent role leading the gallery’s approach to Visitor Experience, translating the strategy and experience standards into an inclusive, engaging and consistently high-quality experience. You will provide strategic leadership for the Visitor Engagement team and ensures the visitor perspective is embedded across the organisation. You will line manage the Visitor Engagement Managers Access and Groups Manager.

As the team provides a 7 day operation, you will work regular weekend and evening hours. You will work from the office at least 3 days per week with the option to work from home when operations allow.

• Benefits include 25 days holiday, pension and sector discounts.

Responsibilities will include:

• Developing and embedding the Visitor Experience strategy across the organisation, ensuring visitor needs and experiences inform planning and decision-making
• Providing strategic leadership for the Visitor Engagement team, leading, coaching and developing the Visitor Engagement Managers
• Working with the People team to develop a performance management approach and oversee
• workforce planning and recruitment
• Ensuring effective induction, training and ongoing development
• Providing senior leadership for safe and effective visitor-facing operations across exhibitions, public programmes, events and private hires also working closely with Facilities, Production, and Security
• Ensuring Visitor Engagement staff are trained and oversee the review of incidents, near misses and operational issues
• Developing the gallery’s approach to welcome, responding to different visitor needs
• Championing inclusive and accessible visitor experience also supporting the Groups & Access Manager to develop the approach to schools, community groups and other organised visits
• Develop the Visitor Engagement team's role in helping audiences actively engage with exhibitions
• Leading the development of a varied programme of informal and semi-formal visitor engagement, including exhibition introductions, tours, family activity and other appropriate formats, working with the Programmes team
• Develop, test and scale initiatives
• Developing a performance and improvement framework for Visitor Experience, using KPIs, visitor feedback, staff insight, audience research, visitor figures, mystery visits and external benchmarks to understand performance and identify priorities
• Identifying opportunities to use technology, automation and improved processes to simplify the visitor journey and enable staff to spend more time supporting and engaging visitors, plus using data and insight to evaluate new approaches
• Managing the overall Visitor Engagement budget

Experience needed:

• Demonstrable experience of leading or supporting significant visitor experience, customer experience or front-of-house transformation
• Experience of translating strategic ambition into change
• Operational understanding of visitor-facing environments
• The ability to balance customer service with safety, staffing and efficiency
• Leading and developing managers and teams with a coaching approach
• Understanding of inclusive and accessible visitor experience
• Experience of identifying barriers and developing approaches that respond to different audience needs, motivations and levels of confidence
• Confidence working with data, feedback and insight to understand performance, identify opportunities and support continuous improvement
• Strong collaborative and communication skills

Due to the large number of applications that we receive, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Val Wade Recruitment are actively looking for applicants from underrepresented communities and pride ourselves as an equal opportunities’ employer and agency.