Senior Operations Manager - RNLI College

Help us generate the income to deliver our lifesaving mission, to save lives at sea.

The RNLI is one of the UK and Ireland’s best loved charities. Every day we save lives at sea – and you can be part of our vital mission. Overseeing the hospitality and hotel operations, and commercial performance of our college in Poole, you will ensure a real focus on providing an excellent training venue, customer and guest experiences, and income generation so we can continue to strive to meet our mission to save every one.

About the job

Our crews, volunteers and staff come to the RNLI College to learn in a modern and inclusive environment.  To ensure this primary purpose is delivered you will actively manage all our stakeholder relationships that are critical to sustaining and developing the experience of visiting or staying at the RNLI college.  This includes working closely with our partner organisation who provide the hotel and hospitality services and managing the supporting contract.  You will ensure the environment is ready to consistently support the delivery of exemplary learning and training activities with its supporting hotel and guest facilities.  You will own commercial and operational budgets, drive sales and marketing activity through your teams and partnerships and ensure any non-training capacity is optimised for income generation. Additionally, you will ensure a culture of safety, inclusion, and continuous improvement is at the forefront of your leadership`. What’s more, your responsibilities will extend to be an active representative of the College in various internal and external forums, and the wider community of Poole, so you will require exceptional communication skills, commercial acumen, customer experience skills and attention to detail.

About you

To be equal to the challenge of this extremely wide-ranging position, you will require:

• Extensive experience in senior management within hospitality settings.
• Proven flair for developing and delivering commercial strategies and supporting operating models.
• Exposure to controlling significant budgets.
• Innate ability to manage both internal and external stakeholders at the most senior levels, coupled with a passion for customer excellence.
• Real flair for driving positive and profound change.
• A deep commitment to our crucial work.

Your rewards

At the RNLI, we’re passionate about looking after our staff, so you can expect:

• Parking space (as it is a site essential role)
• Excellent pension scheme, with an up to 16% employer contribution.
• 26 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing to 30 days over time.
• Health and dental cash plan.
• Investment in your professional development.
• Life assurance.
• Season ticket loan and cycle to work scheme.

Your future

A career with the RNLI could take you anywhere in the UK and Ireland. Along the way, you will have the personal satisfaction of knowing that you’ve helped to save lives and the fun of operating within a team with exceptional camaraderie. What we do really matters, and this is your chance to help us to continue with our lifesaving mission.

Safeguarding

The RNLI is committed to safeguarding; protecting a person’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment and have a zero-tolerance approach. The suitability of all prospective employees and volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment. This will include relevant criminal record checks being carried out dependent on the eligibility of the role. (England & Wales; DBS check, Scotland; Disclosure Scotland PVG, Northern Ireland; Access NI, Republic of Ireland; Garda Vetting; International, International Child Protection Certificate process).

Diversity at the RNLI

Our staff and volunteers have been saving lives at sea without prejudice for 200 years. We respect and value diversity of background, skills and perspectives within our teams, and consider it essential to help us deliver a world-class lifesaving service. We are an inclusive organisation and welcome applications from everyone. In addition to having the skills needed for the role, we also look for applicants who share our commitment to living our RNLI values (trustworthy, courageous, selfless, and dependable), and helping us work towards Our Vision: To save Every One.