City Cruises London UK, Cherry Garden Pier, London, London, City of, United Kingdom
Job Description
Posted Friday, March 20, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Senior Guest Experience Manager – £ 41,079.50 per year
You will work five days out of seven, with an average of two weekends per month (with flexibility around working days). The role requires availability to work across all four of our piers: Tower, Westminster, Greenwich and Waterloo.
Company Summary
City Cruises UK is part of the City Experiences division of the Hornblower Group, a global leader in world-class experiences and transportation services. We operate public dining and sightseeing cruises as well as private charters for corporate events, birthday parties, weddings, or other special occasions across London and York.
Position Summary
As Senior Guest Experience Manager (known internally as the Senior Pier Manager) you will lead the guest experience and colleagues across our London piers, ensuring safe, seamless, and welcoming journeys. You will set service standards, coach and develop the Pier Team, drive on time departures, and deliver commercial results through world class customer service. Working across Tower, Westminster, London Eye and Greenwich piers, you ‘ ll build a culture of operational excellence, continuous improvement, and safety first operations in partnership with our key stakeholders.
Customer Experience Leadership
- Lead the delivery and continuous improvement of pier guest experience standards, using customer satisfaction and revenue insights data
- Be a visible leader, empowering teams to proactively support guests, resolve issues, and uphold exemplary customer service behaviours
- Deliver budget and revenue targets through effective staffing, service quality, and upsell execution.
People Management
- Lead, develop and motivate Pier Managers, Team Leaders, and Crew, fostering a high-performance and supportive culture.
- Ensure optimum staff coverage levels and strong service standards through recruitment, onboarding, and training.
- Manage performance, including ER case management, in collaboration with HR.
Operational Excellence
- Deliver on time departures and safe vessel dispatches across all piers
- Oversee ticketing/POS systems, cash control, stock, and accurate operational record keeping.
- Collaborate closely with wider Operations team to manage schedules, disruptions and contingency plans.
Safety & Compliance
- Champion a safety first culture through adherence to SMS standards and proactive safety leadership.
- In collaboration with the Safety and Compliance team, lead risk assessments and crowd safety planning, ensuring safe guest movement and emergency readiness.
- Ensure compliance with TfL/LRS procedures; oversee incident reporting and corrective actions.
Stakeholder Engagement
- Maintain strong relationships with external stakeholders, including LRS and trade unions.
- Promote cross departmental collaboration and communication.
Requirements & Qualifications
- Proven leadership of customer facing teams in high footfall, fast paced environments (for example, transport, attractions, retail, hospitality, or tourism).
- Track record of driving NPS/CSAT improvements and commercial outcomes (conversion, retail, or ancillary revenue)
- Rostering and dynamic resource management experience
- Training, coaching, and performance management across multi-site operations.
- Proficient in MS Office and familiarity with retail software platforms.
- Budget management and ability to interpret and use data effectively.
- Excellent communication, problem solving, and analytical abilities.
- Experience in unionised environments and employee relations (desirable)
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