Visitor Experience Supervisor

Location: West Dean, West Sussex
Salary: £27,000 per annum
Hours: 35 hours per week, 5 days over 7, including weekends and bank holidays
Contract: Permanent

About West Dean

West Dean is a truly unique place to work. Set within the beautiful 6,350-acre West Dean Estate in the South Downs National Park, we bring together creativity, heritage, arts, craft, design, education, hospitality and exceptional visitor experiences.

Our Gardens attract thousands of visitors each year, while our historic buildings, collections, events, exhibitions and creative courses make West Dean a destination with a story around every corner.

About the Role

We’re looking for an enthusiastic and inspiring Visitor Experience Supervisor to join our Visitor Experience team and help make every visit to West Dean a memorable one.

This is a highly visible, hands-on role where you’ll be at the heart of the visitor experience. Working closely with the Visitor Experience Manager, you’ll take the lead on the day-to-day operation of our Gardens Gatehouse shop, creating a welcoming, engaging and distinctive environment for our visitors.

You’ll combine your passion for people and creativity with strong commercial awareness. From helping a visitor find the perfect art material to recommending a unique gift, you’ll use your product knowledge, storytelling and enthusiasm to bring our ranges — and the wider West Dean experience — to life.

You’ll support the team to deliver excellent customer service while helping to drive sales, maximise opportunities and maintain high standards across the shop. You’ll also be involved in stock management, seasonal displays, events and peak trading periods, making sure the team is prepared and the visitor experience remains exceptional.

No two days will be the same. You’ll need to be comfortable responding to changing priorities, solving problems and getting stuck in when things get busy. You’ll also have the opportunity to contribute ideas, develop our retail offer and support the Visitor Experience Manager in creating an exciting and commercially successful shop.

As a key member of the team, you’ll lead by example, coach and support colleagues, share your product knowledge and help create a positive, collaborative environment where everyone can deliver their best.

About You

You’ll be someone who genuinely enjoys working with people and takes pride in creating memorable experiences. Warm, approachable and naturally engaging, you’ll be confident building rapport with a wide range of visitors and adapting your approach to meet their needs.

You’ll bring solid retail and customer service experience, ideally with experience of supervising or supporting a team. You’ll understand what great service looks like, but you’ll also have the commercial awareness to recognise opportunities, understand customer needs and contribute to sales performance.

A genuine interest in arts, crafts and creative practice is important to us. You’ll have practical knowledge of art and craft materials and be confident talking to customers about products and their uses. You don’t need to be an expert in everything - curiosity, enthusiasm and a willingness to keep developing your knowledge are just as important.

You’ll be proactive, adaptable and hands-on, with the confidence to take ownership and find positive, practical solutions when challenges arise. You’ll enjoy working in a busy environment where priorities can change and will bring energy, creativity and a can-do attitude to the role.

Most importantly, you’ll be a great ambassador for West Dean. You’ll be passionate about our gardens, creativity, heritage and visitor experience, and excited to share that passion with others.

Why work at West Dean?

You’ll be joining a creative and welcoming community in an exceptional setting, with opportunities to learn, develop and be part of something distinctive.

Our benefits include a generous contributory pension scheme, employee assistance programme, cycle to work scheme, free entry to West Dean Gardens, discounts in our shops, free and discounted places on short courses, and free use of facilities including the swimming pool, library and tennis courts.

If you’re passionate about people, creativity and delivering exceptional visitor experiences, we’d love to hear from you.

Applications close on 24 September 2026. We encourage early applications, as interviews will begin on 24 September and will be conducted on a rolling basis.

• Please view the Visitor Experience Supervisor Art Job Pack 09 2026 document (opens in a pop up)