Visitor Welcome First Line Manager - London

Visitor Welcome First Line Manager - London

On-site, Bloomsbury
Permanent
£33,033 per annum
Application deadline: 12pm (midday) on Wednesday, 6 May 2026

About the role

We are looking for an experienced and motivational Visitor Welcome First Line Manager to help deliver an outstanding visitor experience at one of the UK’s leading cultural destinations.

You will lead frontline visitor welcome teams, ensuring every visitor receives a warm, informative and safe experience. This is a highly visible role that combines people leadership, operational delivery and visitor engagement in a fast‑paced, dynamic environment welcoming millions of visitors each year.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who thrives on balancing people and operational management, while prioritising visitor experience and everybody’s health and safety.

About you

• Customer service-related qualifications such as a Level 2 NVQ in Customer Service or Level 2 Award Welcome Host (or equivalent).
• A valid SIA licence is required for the role, however, we will provide training for this should you not already have this.
• Experience of managing others in line with operational procedures, ideally in a busy visitor environment within a similar institution.
• Strong customer service background with experience of handling complaints and challenging situations.
• Experience of cash handling and reconciliation.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and confident with employee management.
• Ability to prioritise and remain calm and decisive under pressure, including during emergencies.
• Confident using IT systems and producing written reports
• Physically able to undertake an active role involving significant walking and standing

Key areas of responsibility

People Leadership:

• Line manage and motivate a large frontline team, delivering excellent customer service standards.
• Communicate effectively with your team through regular briefings, meetings and debriefs.

Operational Delivery:

• Plan and deploy staff effectively across welcome desks, ticketing points, cloakrooms and public areas.
• Ensure smooth running of sales, booking and cash-handling operations, with responsibility for reconciling significant daily takings.
• Respond confidently to complaints, incidents and emergency situations in line with procedures.

Visitor Experience:

• Champion a welcoming, inclusive and engaging visitor experience.
• Encourage visitor feedback and contribute to continuous service improvement.

Health, Safety and Security:

• Ensure the safety of visitors, staff and collections through active supervision and compliance with procedures.
• Act as a first aider when required (training provided/maintained).

The Masterplan

The British Museum is undertaking its biggest transformation since its founding nearly 300 years ago. This physical and intellectual transformation includes large scale building and gallery transformation, new ways of connecting with audiences and different ways of working. As we look towards this exciting future, we remain guided by the words of our founder Hans Sloane - who dreamed of a museum connecting all arts and sciences, which would be accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Benefits

At the British Museum, we believe our people are at the heart of everything we do and have designed a benefits package that goes beyond the ordinary. Our full list of benefits can be found here, but we’ve outlined some highlights below:

• Free exhibition entry for you and guests, exclusive private views, ICOM and reciprocal museum access.
• 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays and 2.5 privilege days (pro-rata).
• Social and wellbeing perks including Staff parties, social clubs, CSSC sports and leisure, and support from the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship.
• Peer support and allyship with five diversity networks for community.

• Learning and development through courses, mentoring and Athena as well as support for professional qualifications.

• Civil Service Pension Scheme with a secure, inflation‑linked defined benefit.
• Interest‑free loans including season ticket, rental deposit and bicycle loans.

Our Values

Our values drive everything we do, from how we handle our objects to how we work in our team to fostering a culture where everyone feels heard and empowered:

• Care Deeply
• Embrace the Unknown
• Spark Curiosity
• Value Many Voices

These are a core part of how we recruit. Throughout the application, interview and selection process, we look for examples of how candidates demonstrate these behaviours in their own work and experiences. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with our values and reflect them in your application.

Additional details

At the British Museum, we are committed to a fair and inclusive recruitment process where every applicant has the opportunity to present their genuine strengths and experience in their own voice.

If you have any additional needs that we should be aware of to support you with your application, please provide details to bmrecruit@britishmuseum.org.

*Unfortunately, for this role we are unable to offer Sponsorship to applicants*

The Museum also adheres to the HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) for pre-employment screening of Civil Servants.