Senior Visitor Experience Officer

National Trust; Sevenoaks; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 42,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Free entry to NT places

Deposit loan scheme

Season ticket loan

EV car lease

Perks at work discounts

Holiday allowance 32 days

Flexible working

Employee assistance programme

Free parking

Job summary

National Trust in Kent is seeking a Senior Visitor Experience Officer for Ightham Mote. You will lead on delivering creative programming and events, coordinate with teams to ensure smooth visitor experiences, and support budgeting and marketing for upcoming events.

You will also cover duty management and weekends on a rota, while supervising volunteers. Based at Ightham Mote with occasional work at Knole, you’ll inspire visitors with engaging activities and maintain high standards of customer

Qualifications

• Experience in devising and running activities to inspire and engage people.
• Excellent communication and ability to build relationships within a team and with stakeholders.
• Ability to interpret fragile collections for diverse audiences.
• Well-organised, able to work quickly and manage time effectively.
• Confident handling a variety of people in different situations.
• Flexible, with a commitment to high standards of customer service.
• Experience supervising volunteers.

Responsibilities

• Lead on delivery of creative programming and events at Ightham Mote.
• Coordinate activities with other teams to ensure smooth visitor experiences.
• Plan and monitor budgets and support marketing of upcoming events.
• Carry out duty management and weekend rota coverage.
• Supervise and manage volunteers and a small team.

Skills

Inspiring activities

Strong communication

Interpreting art/objects

Organised and fast-paced

People-facing resilience

Customer service focus

Volunteer supervision

Job description

Summary

We’re looking for someone with great people skills, who loves to inspire and delight by providing great experiences for visitors, to join us as a Senior Visitor Experience Officer at Ightham Mote.

Summary

We’re looking for someone with great people skills, who loves to inspire and delight by providing great experiences for visitors, to join us as a Senior Visitor Experience Officer at Ightham Mote. This role supports the Visitor Experience Manager in making sure we deliver engaging and high quality events and programming, and ensuring everything runs smoothly in what is a complex and lively visitor business.

Interviews will be held on Wednesday 7th October 2026

This role is required to work with vulnerable groups including children and any offer of employment or volunteering is subject to a satisfactory enhanced DBS check.

What it's like to work here

Ightham Mote is a beautiful 700-year-old moated manor house, surrounded by stunning gardens and over 500 acres of freely accessible estate. Romantic and picturesque it is nestled in the Kent countryside between Tonbridge and Sevenoaks. You'll be part of the Visitor Experience team and will based at Ightham Mote but from time to time you'll work at our neighbouring site, Knole.

Knole sits proudly in the heart of Sevenoaks. The estate boasts a 1000-acre medieval deer park, historic showrooms with a world-class collection of paintings and furniture, sprawling courtyards, gatehouse tower and conservation studio.

We are passionate about caring for these wonderful properties and visitors are central to everything we do. We are a busy team, who like a challenge and deliver at pace. We work collaboratively as a large portfolio team across two historic sites.

We are hands on and work together to get the job done and create exceptional visitor experiences.

What You'll Be Doing

As part of the Visitor Experience team, you will lead on the delivery of creative programming and events at Ightham Mote. You’ll work with other teams to co-ordinate activities and ensure everything runs smoothly for our visitors. Alongside this you’ll be planning, monitoring budgets and support the marketing of upcoming events. You'll carry out duty management as needed and will work weekends on a rota basis. Sometimes you may need to get stuck in and help wherever you’re needed, to keep the whole place running smoothly. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to talk to visitors, introducing them to all that makes Ightham Mote so special. You'll also be managing and supervising others, including a team of volunteers. 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 For

• experienced in devising and running activities to inspire and engage people
• skilled at communicating, and building good working relationships with people in your team and beyond
• aware of ways to interpret precious collections of art and objects to a wide variety of people
• well-organised, and able to work at pace and keep to time
• confident that you can deal with all kinds of people in all kinds of situations
• flexible, yet with a focus on always giving high standards of customer service
• used to working with and supervising volunteers

The package

The 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
• Season ticket loan
• 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

National Trust place

Ightham Mote, Mote Road, Sevenoaks, TN15 0NT

Documents

Senior Visitor Experience Officer - Career Level B.pdf

Requirements

Compliance.Eligibility to Work in the UK

Closing Date: 27th September 2026

Equal Opportunities Statement

The National Trust celebrates diversity and is committed to creating a fair and equal society, free from discrimination. You can read more about our commitment to inclusion and diversity here.

Safeguarding Statement

The National Trust is committed to a safe recruitment processes to help the organisation attract and appoint the right staff/volunteer for the role and responsibilities as set out in the vacancy advert. We will not accept applicants who are not suitable to work with children, young people or adults at risk. If you have any questions around your suitability for this vacancy, please contact the people service centre.