We’re looking for someone with great people skills, who loves to inspire and delight by providing top‑quality experiences for volunteer and visitors, to join us as a Senior Visitor Experience Officer responsible for the house visitor operations at Dyrham Park.
This role works alongside the Collections and House team to lead for visitor experience within the house at Dyrham Park, including leading a team of over 100 volunteers, and supports the wider visitor experience team across all Bath properties in making sure everything runs smoothly in what is a complex and lively visitor business.
What it's like to work here: Dyrham Park was created in the 17th century by William Blathwayt. It is an early example of how a fortune made from empire was invested in a landed estate, transforming Dyrham into one of the most notable stately homes of its age.
Visitors can get a flavour of the life of William Blathwayt in the late 1600s by stepping into the impressive baroque mansion house with its collection of fine art and Dutch Delftware.
His years as a diplomat in Europe, and his several colonial and administrative positions in government, helped to hone and indulge his increasingly refined taste.
The 270-acre (110 hectare) ancient steep and sloping parkland is full of magnificent trees and breathtaking views and space. Splendid borders, idyllic ponds and a wildflower orchard are all features of the stunning garden, which is being sensitively developed as a 21st‑century garden with echoes of the past.
Dyrham Park is part of the Bath area of National Trust places, which includes Prior Park Landscape Garden, Bath Assembly Rooms and countryside spaces, Bath Skyline and Bathampton Meadows.
Around 100 staff and 500 volunteers come together to care and open these places to visitors, working towards the National Trust’s ambitious vision for 2050 – Restore nature, End unequal access and Inspire millions.
Dyrham Park is a vibrant place with year‑round seasonal programming and events including outdoor theatre, Easter egg hunts and Christmas festivities. The house experience is multi‑sensory. As well as the visual impact, there are objects to feel and touch and scents to take in. Music, live and recorded, rings through the Great Hall, birdsong fills the entrance hall and a short film brings to life the context of the house’s place in history. The house’s history and the purpose‑built exhibition space lend themselves to changing exhibitions that share less‑explored histories, and stories from around the globe.
What you'll be doing
As Senior Visitor Experience Officer you’ll be responsible for the day‑to‑day running of the visitor‑facing operations and experience within the mansion house at Dyrham Park. You’ll manage operations, motivate people and get things done, with an eye for detail and an audience‑first mindset, keeping high presentation standards and great customer service levels day‑to‑day. You’ll lead a team of over 100 house experience volunteers, enabling and empowering them to provide a great welcome and experience to everyone throughout the core house offer. You’ll support volunteers to adapt to change and thrive during the next exciting period for Dyrham Park as we host changing seasonal exhibitions and cultural programmes that aim to expand our reach and grow new audiences across local communities made up of people of the global majority, seniors and families.
Other responsibilities include helping to create, install and maintain the Christmas decorations and experience within the interiors of the house and basement areas, and supporting other popular programmes by managing any changes to the daily operations. You will be a team player, working alongside teams with differing priorities to deliver the National Trust and Bath properties’ strategic goals for increased visitor growth and create lasting places for people and nature to thrive through targeted conversation and care. You will sit within the visitor experience team, line‑managed by the Experience and Programming Manager, and collaborate closely with the Property Curator and Collections and House Manager to deliver a great visitor experience while enabling high‑quality care of the collection. The role also involves site duty management, VE team daily lead and house daily lead on a rota basis, and supporting the wider VE team to deliver programming in the outdoors at peak times.
Who we're looking for
We’d love to hear from you if you’re experienced in devising and running activities to inspire and engage people, skilled at communicating and building good working relationships with your team and beyond, aware of ways to interpret precious collections of art and objects to a wide variety of people, well‑organized, 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 but focused on always giving high standards of customer service, used to working with and supervising volunteers.
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