Overview
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About Us
Scottish Canals are the custodians of the nation's canal network and surrounding estates. Our vision is to invest in the canal network to generate lasting benefit for people and communities; celebrating their industrial heritage, ensuring they offer quality green and blue spaces for people and communities and contribute to Scotland's resilience in tackling climate change.
Our success is rooted in valuing the contributions of our entire team - we care, we create, and we collaborate to continue to deliver a whole range of activities and services, from boating, and mooring, paddling, walking and wheeling, to living and playing and improving what the canals have to offer to our visitors and communities. We also work collaboratively with our partners and stakeholders to contribute to a wealthier, fairer, greener and more resilient Scotland.
As an employer we offer a truly unique opportunity to be part of our team, help us realise our vision and contribute to safeguarding our heritage and ensuring our canals flourish now and in the future.
About the Role
We currently have an exciting opportunity for a Visitor Experiences Manager - Boat Teams to join our Destinations team in Falkirk. You will lead and manage visitor-facing operations at The Falkirk Wheel, ensuring safe, high-quality experiences, effective team performance and commercial success across tour boats, holiday hire and support associated visitor service functions.
The role is offered on a permanent basis, working 5 days out of 7, 35 hours per week.
Responsibilities
* Operational & planning lead for Tour Boat & Hire boat departments.
* Meet all MCA requirements & retain passenger certificate.
* Work closely with mechanics to plan proactive maintenance and rectify and unscheduled repairs with minimum disruption to the service.
* Ensure delivery of operational standards, routines, procedures and escalation routes.
* Lead on-the-day decision making and service recovery for Tour & Hire Boats.
* Coach managers and frontline teams to maintain high service levels.
* Deploy staff efficiently in line with visitor demand.
* Actively manage flexible payroll and resource allocation.
* Ensure compliance with H&S, food safety, marine and statutory requirements.
* Lead audit preparation, operational inspections and corrective actions.
* Drive continuous improvement of SOPs, digital tools and operational processes.
Reward
This role offers a progressive starting salary of £41,264 (£42,709 from April 2026)(Band E) plus 11.25% Variable Hours allowance.
Scottish Canals offer a generous annual leave entitlement of 32 days, plus 6 public holidays, along with enhanced sick pay, discounted shopping vouchers, health cash plan and a contributory pension scheme with up to 10% employer contribution.
About You
Qualifications and knowledge required:
* Degree-level qualification in tourism, hospitality, business or equivalent operational delivery experience in a customer facing environment.
* H&S external training such as IOSH Managing Safely.
* Visitor attraction, leisure or hospitality operational knowledge.
* Health & Safety, and operational compliance frameworks.
* Operational digital systems such as EPOS and workforce planning tools.
* Technical knowledge related to passenger and crew safety.
* Managing operational and capital budgets.
Skills and experience
* Strong operational leadership and people management.
* Excellent customer service and service-recovery capability.
* Strong organisational skills, prioritisation and problem solving.
* Ability to analyse operational performance data.
* Effective communication and cross-departmental coordination.
* Significant operational leadership experience in a visitor-facing environment.
* Managing large multi-disciplinary teams.
* Delivering operational standards and compliance.
* Working in fast-paced, high-volume environments.
* Demonstrable track record of delivering commercial income growth.
Qualities & abilities
* Commitment to continuous improvement and safety.
* Strong customer-focused mindset.
* Good problem solver
Scottish Canals reserve the right to close this vacancy before the closing date if a sufficient number of applications are received.
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