General Manager

An amazing opportunity for an inspirational leader to join us as General Manager for the Central and East Lake District Portfolio, covering the Eastern shore of Windermere through to the Ullswater Valley. Reporting to the Assistant Director of Operations, you'll be supported by your property leadership team, subject matter experts, let estate and commercial teams. 

We’re looking for an experienced people leader who can collaborate and adapt through their leadership style to have a positive impact for people and places.  You will be running successful and high quality visitor operations alongside looking after some of the nations most loved Lake District landscapes. Your ability to set clear direction and deliver at a sustained pace will be essential to achieving all this in the Lake District World Heritage Site, with a rapidly changing climate, and a need to help accelerate nature recovery.

This is your chance to inspire and motivate your team across a complex range of issues and opportunities, leading not only in the National Trust but in conjunction with our partners that are vital to our joint success.

Hours: 37.5 hours per week. This is a full time role with an option for an annualised contract where it meets personal and business need. 

Provisional interviews: 23rd February 2024 or March 1st 2024.

If you have any questions about this role please contact: jez.westgarth@nationaltrust.org.uk

Please include your CV with a covering letter tailored with relevant justifications to this application.

What it's like to work here

As General Manager you’ll have the autonomy and independence to adapt our national strategy into plans for your portfolio, that also benefit the broader Lake District.

You’ll be part of a dynamic One Lakes Leadership Team, committed to providing great leadership to help our people and places thrive. Our collaborative leadership approach means you will also lead on business areas across portfolio’s as well as involved regionally and nationally in leading delivery of our strategy. Central & East Lakes is one of four National Trust Portfolios in the Lake District, and these geographical areas work collaboratively to provide a seamless experience for visitors and to manage the land at a landscape scale.

Working together in partnership is a fundamental part of the role. You'll be working regularly with other leaders across the environment and cultural sectors, with farming and land management organisations and with local communities and our farm tenants. 

What you'll be doing

You'll lead a property leadership team that covers Countryside, Facilities, Gardens and Outdoors, Visitor Operations, Volunteering and Community, House and Collections. These will be the people that you need to get the very best from to set the portfolio up for success. Your portfolio will include lakes, historic houses, collections, farms, landscapes, local communities, an active outdoor base and an iconic waterfall. Life enhancing places, where memories are made.

People leadership will be your number one priority, but you will also need to be able to draw on a broader range of expertise from across the National Trust, to help you make decisions and focus resources in the delivery of your property business plan.

Our visitor engagement, experience and growth provides the platform for us to achieve our broader strategic outcomes. Looking ahead you will need to not only focus not on traditional pay for entry offers, but thinking innovatively across our landholding, with over 20% of the Lake District National Park collectively across the four portfolio’s. 

Who we're looking for

• An inspirational people leader, experienced in leading staff, volunteers, partners and communities
• A proven ability to balance competing commitments across complex opportunities and issues including visitor operations, landscape scale management, cultural heritage, nature recovery and climate resilience
• An excellent communicator, experienced in connecting people to deliver our shared ambition
• Adept at managing organisational, political and operational risk and compliance including our commercial performance and operations Protecting and enhancing our reputation
• Knowing yourself, and how to look after own resilience.