Visitor Experience Officer at RSPB Pulborough Brooks

Job Description

Introduction

This is a great opportunity to work at one of the RSPB's most visited reserves, inspiring those visitors about nature. Set within the beautiful landscape of the South Downs National Park, the reserve has a mosaic of habitats and wonderful wildlife throughout the year.

What's the role about?

We want all of our visitors to feel inspired by the landscape and wildlife of RSPB Pulborough Brooks.

You will help to deliver this vision by ensuring a high quality visitor welcome, maintaining and enhancing visitor infrastructure and by creating exciting activities and events for people to enjoy and learn from.

You'll take the lead on our visitor welcome hub, engaging all our visitors and getting them excited about what they can explore and do and supporting a team of welcome volunteers.

You'll support the Visitor Experience Manager (VEM) in the development and delivery of the reserve's promotion plan, posting on social media, updating event listings and working on audience development projects to introduce a wider and more diverse range of people to the benefits and beauty of nature.

Alongside the VEM and our learning team you'll create engaging and memorable experiences for visitors, ranging from school group visits, family events and trails to bespoke experiences such as dawn chorus walks, night-time safaris and reptile surveys.

This role plays a vital part in our visitor operation supporting the team, including our retail and catering colleagues, by helping to increase visitor numbers, generate income for nature conservation and by supporting the day to day operation of a busy reserve.

Essential skills, knowledge and experience:

• As Visitor Experience Officer you'll need a flair for engaging people and an ability to perform across a wide variety of tasks.
• You'll have experience delivering a high quality visitor or customer offer, preferably having contributed to a successful visitor engagement project or visitor attraction.
• You will have shown the ability to manage and respond to customer needs and feedback.
• You'll have working knowledge of visitor engagement techniques including the delivery of activities or events.
• Previous experience delivering against targets and maximising opportunities for income generation.
• You will be computer literate and have excellent verbal and written communication skills, preferably with some experience using social media.
• You'll have abundant enthusiasm, being a team player who can motivate and inspire people, building strong working relationships.
• Proven ability to prioritise work loads and to work on your own initiative.

Desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• You do not need to be a wildlife expert but you will have a passion for nature conservation and ideally some natural history knowledge.
• You will ideally have experience working with children and families and demonstrate an ability to communicate with people of all ages.

This is a Permanent, Full-Time role for 37.5 hours per week. Working days can be variable but will include regular weekend working and occasional early morning and evening work to support events.

We are looking to conduct interviews for this position on 1 March or 2 March 2023. For further information please contact anna.allum@rspb.org.uk.

As part of this application process you will be asked to complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above.

We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we are particularly interested in receiving your application. Contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application.

The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship - the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.

Before applying for this role, we recommend reading through the candidate guidance notes attached to the top of this advert.