Tour Operations Manager

Ready to take the lead in a fast-growing specialist travel business? We're excited to be recruiting for a brand-new opportunity for an experienced Tour Operations Manager to join an ambitious and rapidly growing travel organisation based in Birmingham.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an operations professional who thrives in a fast-paced environment, enjoys leading a team, and takes pride in delivering seamless experiences for customers.

As Operations Manager, you'll take ownership of the day-to-day Operations function, ensuring every departure is fully prepared, professionally managed and ready to go. From accurate and timely final travel documentation to coordinating suppliers and logistical arrangements, you'll play a key role in making sure every tour runs smoothly from start to finish.

Working closely with the Head of Product & Operations, you'll oversee the operational preparation of tours, collaborating with suppliers, the Logistics team and wider internal teams to ensure every detail is in place ahead of departure.

You’ll also lead and develop the Operations team, championing high standards of accuracy and efficiency, strengthening operational controls and identifying new ways to improve processes as the business continues to grow.

In return, our client can offer a salary of £40k, plus excellent benefits, hybrid working - 2 days per week in their central Birmingham office, with the remainder from home, as well as the opportunity to join a fast-growing, specialist travel organisation.

If you're an experienced Tour Operations professional looking for your next challenge — and want to be part of an exciting business with big ambitions — we'd love to hear from you!

Role of Operations Manager

• Lead the day-to-day Operations function, ensuring workloads, priorities and resources are effectively managed around forward departures.
• Own delivery against agreed operational deadlines, service standards and departmental KPIs.
• Own the end-to-end process for the preparation, quality checking and distribution of final travel documentation to customers within agreed timescales.
• Ensure final documentation is complete, accurate and consistent.
• Work closely with suppliers and the logistics team to ensure all necessary arrangements are confirmed and in place for each departure including re-costing where necessary.
• Coordinate and monitor operational requirements including rooming lists, manifests, transfers, transport arrangements, accommodation requirements, special requests, allocations and other tour logistics as applicable.
• Build effective day-to-day working relationships with supplier partners to support smooth and reliable tour delivery.
• Lead, support and develop the Operations team, setting clear expectations for accuracy, timeliness, ownership and operational standards.
• Manage workload allocation, priorities and cover to ensure documentation and departure deadlines are consistently achieved.
• Provide regular coaching, constructive feedback and development support, addressing performance issues promptly and appropriately.
• Identify potential operational risks affecting forthcoming departures and ensure appropriate action is taken or escalated in good time

Skills required for the role

• Proven experience in travel operations, tour operations, logistics or a similar operational environment, ideally with responsibility for managing people and departure delivery.
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to set clear expectations, coach others and hold a team accountable for delivery.
• Excellent organisation and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage multiple deadlines and competing operational demands.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making capability, with the confidence to manage supplier, logistical and departure-related issues.
• High attention to detail and a methodical approach, combined with the ability to see the wider operational picture.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and a high level of professionalism.
• Confident using business systems and Microsoft Office; experience of TMS or a travel reservation/operational platform would be advantageous.
• Flexibility to provide out-of-hours support on a rostered or exceptional basis where required by the operation, with appropriate time off in lieu in line with company arrangements.

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