Manager Visitor Experience and Volunteers

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV) employs over 240 staff overseeing two beautiful world-class gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne.

The organisation fosters an understanding and appreciation for plants and the natural world through arts and culture and education programs, world-leading scientific research, plant conservation programs, and promotes health and wellbeing in nature.

The Manager Visitor Experience and Volunteers is responsible for innovating and leading strategy, implementation and successful execution of high-quality and world leading visitor experience and engagement at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV). The role leads and develops a large, front-facing functional area, including customer service, volunteers, tours and First Peoples guided programs at both Gardens’ sites, whilst managing a number of key relationships for RBGV including 100+ volunteers. In addition, this senior leadership position oversees ticketing and customer relationship management and RBGV’s venue bookings process.

What You’ll Do

We are seeking an experienced and customer-focused Manager Visitor Experience and Volunteers to lead the delivery of exceptional visitor service and experience and volunteer engagement strategies across both sites. In this role, you will develop and implement forward-thinking plans to enhance experiences for diverse audiences year-round, ensuring alignment with RBGV’s mission and strategic priorities. You will provide leadership and coaching to a dedicated team, build a best-practice volunteer strategy, and oversee ticketing, and venue management systems to ensure seamless operations. A key focus of the role will be fostering strong internal relationships and collaborating with onsite partners, particularly at Melbourne Gardens, to ensure a smooth visitor journey during multiple concurrent events and activities. You will also work closely with Experience and Engagement teams to support and deliver tourism initiatives, tours, and programs requiring volunteer and visitor services. The successful candidate will be responsible for gathering customer insights to assist programming, marketing, and tourism strategies.

What You’ll Bring

The successful candidate will ideally hold a relevant tertiary or industry qualification, or equivalent professional experience alongside a demonstrated ability to lead high-performing teams focused on delivering outstanding visitor experiences and achieving strategic, financial, and operational goals. You will be skilled in developing and evaluating customer service functions through innovative, audience-first approaches and have a solid understanding of volunteer management practices. A strong grasp of social inclusion, accessibility and the needs of diverse audiences—particularly in outdoor, weather-dependent settings—is essential, as is experience working in or with organisations that deliver public and cultural programs. Experience collaborating with Traditional Owners and First Peoples is highly regarded, along with knowledge of tourism trends and visitor behaviour. You will be a strategic and adaptive leader who brings creativity, sound judgment, and analytical skills to improve services and experiences. With excellent interpersonal and communication skills, you’ll confidently represent RBGV in a variety of settings and advocate for meaningful, inclusive visitor and volunteer experiences. Strong financial and budget management capabilities will support your ability to deliver impact and continuous improvement across the portfolio. All other key selection criteria can be found in the position description which is located under the attachments heading on the Victorian Government Careers website.

Working with Us

At RBGV you’ll be part of a nationally recognised organisation that makes a genuine impact on a local and international scale. As an employee you will benefit from flexible working arrangements to assist in creating genuine work/life balance, annual leave loading, access to an Employee Assistance Program and much more.

How to Apply

To apply for this role, please visit the Victorian Government Careers website at http://jobs.careers.vic.gov.au.You must submit a recent resume along with a letter (maximum three pages) responding to the Key Selection Criteria as stated in the position description prior to Sunday 13 July. Applications will only be accepted via the Victorian Government website. Enquiries can be directed to recruitment@rbg.vic.gov.au.