Adventure Product Operations Manager

We're an ambitious, remote-first travel scale-up, looking to expand our operations team with 2 x Adventure Operations Managers. If you're passionate about small-group adventure travel and partnering with local travel companies, and the detailed inner workings of adventure travel operations get you excited, then this is the opportunity for you!

Read more about working at Much Better Adventures.

The Role

We are on the lookout for 2 x Adventure Operations Managers to join our fast-growing, ambitious team here at Much Better Adventures. Working in our Host Operations team, under the guidance of our Senior Operations Managers, you'll be responsible for the day-to-day management of a portfolio of trips run by our international host partners. You'll work in partnership with our local hosts to ensure the successful commercial performance and high operational quality of these trips.

We operate trips in over 65 different countries (and growing) so you need to be comfortable managing trips in any destination. One of the two positions requires specific knowledge and experience of adventure travel operations within Latin American destinations, and a good working knowledge of European destinations is also desirable. Most importantly, you'll need a meticulous eye for detail and a natural aptitude for remote relationship building.

Why you'll love it here

We're driven by a shared passion for unleashing the transformative power of adventure and making a positive local impact in destinations visited. As a dynamic online agency, our Operations team embrace the challenges of organisational growth, finding effective ways to manage an increasing volume of trips without compromising on service or quality. Within our team you'll find a supportive, collaborative environment where clear and ambitious goals are set, everyone's ideas are valued, and critical thinking is encouraged.

Key Responsibilities

• Host Relationship / Trip Management:
  • Managing a growing portfolio of trips and hosts - acting as the primary point of contact for hosts, and ensuring the smooth running of all departures.
  • Onboarding new hosts to the MBA platform and our way of working. Nurturing strong relationships with hosts and helping them to become self-sufficient. Note: all new trips are created by a different team, so new product development is not part of this role.
  • Ensuring that hosts are confident using the MBA bookings management platform and associated resources.
  • Updating trip pages for accuracy, and adding new content when required.
• Commercial performance of your trips:
  • Setting dates and selling prices
  • Capacity management to ensure the optimisation of all trips and room for projected growth
  • Seasonal re-contracting and negotiation of rates with hosts
  • Monitoring booking patterns
• Operational Quality & Safety of your trips:
  • Assisting with desk-based safety assessments; ensuring host compliance with our safety requirements and incident reporting protocols. Assisting with incident response coordination, and escalating when necessary.
  • Collaborating with our Customer Experience team to help with complaint resolution and customer questions.
  • Ensuring that safe and high-quality operations are being delivered by our host partners. Under guidance from the Head of Operations, Safety and Quality teams.
  • Reviewing product performance, and responding to feedback from hosts and customers to continually improve the quality of our trips.

In addition to the above core elements of the Operations Manager role, you will be encouraged to contribute to the evolution of the MBA operations team and work processes to assist with our efficient growth. Thinking smart, systematically and in a logical way about how to refine our systems and processes for working with our ever-expanding team of local hosts, and contributing to project work as and when required.

Requirements

Essential 'must haves':

• You have relevant experience (3+ years) in Adventure Operations and / or Product Management within the active adventure travel sector.
• You have previous commercial experience, including contracting and negotiating with suppliers within the adventure travel industry.
• You constantly strive to make improvements to systems, workflows and processes.
• You pride yourself on your meticulous attention to detail.
• You are a self-starter who can make decisions and confidently manage your own workload with minimal supervision.
• You are an effective communicator with excellent written and spoken English and strong interpersonal skills.
• You are able to work under pressure, learn and adapt quickly, and adhere to tight deadlines.
• You are flexible, thrive on change, are self-driven and able to work independently as part of a remote team.
• You pick up new systems quickly and are always striving to be as efficient and autonomous as possible.
• What we’re doing here at MBA excites you!

We’re a bunch of team-players, so it’s important you’re happy getting involved in tasks (big or small) outside your remit when required. As a fast growing business your responsibilities may change but we always look to promote from within and provide opportunities to develop your career based on your personal ambitions.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of, and experience working with Latin American destinations. This will be a requirement for one of the two available roles.
• Language skills valued, particularly Spanish.
• Experience working within a fully remote organisation.

Benefits

• An entrepreneurial and creative environment where great ideas are actively encouraged, and taking responsibility for them is expected
• The warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing you are making a huge difference to small independent businesses, local economies and communities.

• 38 days holiday (inclusive of public holidays) - to be used when you like
• Annual company performance-based bonus
• Company-wide, adventurous meet-ups
• Flexible hours and remote working (within +2/-2 GMT)
• Generous Pension scheme (UK employees only)
• Experience what we do: everyone goes on a free MBA trip within their first year
• A £500 annual travel voucher to spend on an MBA trip/s
• 30% employee discount, plus 15% friends and family discount for MBA trips
• Free access to private GP, and unlimited mental health support and counselling via our partner at BHSF.
• Budget to set up a remote working space and access to co-working spaces
• Supportive Maternity and Paternity pay: we offer 16 weeks full pay if you're the primary caregiver & 4 weeks full pay if you're the secondary caregiver.

What does the typical interview process look like?

• Stage 1: CV submission and completion of screening questions.
• Stage 2: Short video call, approx 30 minutes. A 'get to know each other' interview, to find out more about your experience and personal passion for active adventure travel.
• Stage 3: Prepare a written assignment to present in an interview.
• Stage 4: Attend a video interview with two senior members of the MBA team

Job 'Need to Know' Details:

• Salary: £35,000-£45,000 depending on experience, plus benefits listed above
• Closing date for applications: 12pm on Monday 3rd February, however we reserve the right to close to new applications before this date.
• Preferred start date: March / April 2025
• Working Hours: a full time role is 40 hours per week, with core hours being 1000 - 1500 GMT (regardless of where you are based), and a flexible hours policy for the remaining time. We also welcome applicants from those wanting to work part-time, but we require an 80% (32 hours) minimum committment, spread over 4 or 5 days / week.
• Location: you must be resident in either the UK or in Europe (max +2 hours GMT). Note: Contract and benefits will vary depending on which country you are based in - this will be discussed at an appropriate stage in the interview process.

We are an equal opportunities employer and strongly encourage applicants from a diverse range of backgrounds. Our flexible working arrangements are designed to support everyone in the team to achieve that all-important work/life balance in a way that works for their particular circumstances.