About the role
As a Retail & Visitor Information Assistant, you will play a key part in creating a positive and memorable experience for every visitor to our Kielder sites.
You will provide a warm, professional, and knowledgeable service across all customer touchpoints, whether you are selling retail goods, managing bookings, or offering guidance on the full range of leisure opportunities around Kielder Water & Forest Park.
You will take ownership of the day‑to‑day running of our retail spaces, ensuring displays are engaging, stock levels are maintained, and shops are clean, safe, and welcoming.
In this role, you will be responsible for supervising the retail team and supporting the wider leisure operation and will contribute to meeting commercial targets by actively promoting products, upselling where appropriate, and seeking opportunities to grow sales.
You will also manage stock control processes, complete financial reconciliations, maintain the ferry booking system, and ensure all income accounting is completed accurately and support group visits through “Meet & Greet” activity, work flexibly across regional sites when required, and respond to customer needs with a professional and solution‑focused approach.
Everything you do will help strengthen the image of Northumbrian Water and enhance the experience of our visitors.
About you
You will bring a strong customer‑focused approach, excellent interpersonal skills, and confidence in dealing with the public both face to face and over the phone.
Ideally you will have experience working in a retail environment, including handling cash and operating tills or PDQ systems, and you will be comfortable working towards commercial targets.
Your approach to work will be flexible and proactive, with the ability to think on your feet, prioritise tasks, and take initiative when needed.
You will have a good standard of education, sound literacy and numeracy, and a working knowledge of computer systems including basic Word and Excel.
A Full UK manual driving licence is required, as you will be travelling between sites depending on operational needs.
Knowledge of local facilities, visitor attractions, and products such as leisure goods or angling equipment is helpful, as is experience working with QA systems or health and safety procedures.
Above all, you will bring enthusiasm, a commitment to delivering excellent service, and a desire to contribute positively to our team, our visitors, and our business performance.
You will participate in an annualised hours rota for which you are paid a 12% salary enhancement in order to meet the peaks and troughs of the business. This includes working increased hours in the summer months, offset by fewer hours in periods when our sites are less busy during the winter months.
Here at Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water, we embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, and encourage all colleagues to bring their most authentic self to work.
Our colleague network groups include our Rainbow Support Network (LGBTQIA+), REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage), WiSTEM (Women in STEM) and Thisability (disability and neurodiversity) networks. They provide a safe space for colleagues from diverse backgrounds, welcoming all colleagues regardless of their personal characteristics to participate in valuable conversation that improves our organisational awareness, understanding and inclusivity.
We encourage and welcome all applications, as we strive to be an equal opportunity employer, committed to having diverse communities represented within all our teams, structures, and organisation.
Please note this role will require a DBS to be completed prior to employment
NWG are an inclusive employer who support the rehabilitation of offenders, we will not, however consider candidates who have certain unspent convictions to ensure our commitment to fostering a safe and secure working environment for all OR colleagues, suppliers, customers and third parties.
Kielder Waterside:
Kielder Water & Forest Park is unique. The fourth largest place in the world with Dark Sky Status, Northern Europe’s largest man-made lake and England’s largest working forest. It’s the best place for an escape to the great outdoors.
As well as our location, our people are what makes us who we are. Many employees within our onsite teams have lived in the area for years and know everything there is to know about what you can do and see and the history. Their knowledge is unrivalled and proves invaluable to visitors.
Kielder Waterside sits within the larger Kielder Water & Forest Park. The Park is ran by a number of stakeholders and partners. Our aim is to give you the visitor the most special and unique trip you can have.
We are part of Northumbrian Water who are more than just a water company. We are one team, fulfilling many roles, working together to ensure our customers have clean, fresh, running water, whilst providing great customer service, protecting the environment, and supporting local communities.
We Live Water, all our amazing people are helping us become the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services.
About us
Here are NWG we strive to make Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) a Great Place to Work, for all. We embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity and encourage you to bring your full self to work. As an equal opportunity employer we’re committed to having a diverse community represented across our business.
We’re aware that not everyone will have every skill listed in the job description, however if you have some of the skills listed, we'd encourage you to apply
NWG at a glance:
Our purpose at NWG is caring for the essential needs of our communities and environment, now and for generations to come.
We do this by providing reliable and affordable water and wastewater services for our customers.
We make a positive difference by operating efficiently and investing prudently, to maintain a sustainable and resilient business.
Our vision is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services. To support us in achieving our vision, we have five core values which are the guiding principles, defining who we are, what we do and how we do it.
Our benefits
We’re a Great Place to Work because of the amazing people who work for us, and to say thank you we offer a range of benefits to colleagues. Our ‘Tap Into’ benefits include:
1. Generous holiday entitlement starting at 23 days plus bank holidays and additional time off on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. There’s also the option to buy or sell holidays.
2. Company pension scheme, where we’ll double match your contributions up to an employer contribution of 11%.
3. Free access to local attractions.
4. A fantastic discount scheme, with savings on days out, shopping, travel and more.
5. Award winning ‘Living Well’ wellbeing support, including access to a digital GP service for you and your family members.
6. Support with sustainable travel – through salary sacrifice cars and a cycle to work scheme.
7. Financial wellbeing support – access our community savings scheme, financial education and low cost loans through Salary Finance. We also provide 4 x Life Assurance and an Income Protection Scheme.
8. Support with your development – we offer a range of development opportunities, can support you through an interest free qualification loan and we’ll even pay for any relevant professional body subscription.
This role has also been defined as a safety or security critical role and as a condition of a formal offer of employment you’ll be required to undergo a drug and alcohol test.
Prospective employees and agency workers in defined safety and security critical roles will be required to undertake a drug and alcohol test after the job offer has been made. This will be prior to or within four weeks of their start date.
Prospective employees and agency workers who fail a pre-employment urine drug screen will have their sample analysed by the Company appointed laboratory as a matter of course. Failing a pre-employment drugs or alcohol test may lead to the job offer being revoked.