THE SCHOOL OF ARTISANFOOD

Guest Experience & Communications Manager

1 FTE (permanent)

40 Hr per week, typically 08:30-17:00 Monday to Friday with a 30 min break (unpaid for lunch on days exceeding 6 Hr), with some weekend work.

Predominantly on site, with hybrid working possible up to 1 day per week.

Location

The School of Artisan Food, Lower Motor Yard, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, S80 3LR

Salary and benefits

Between £32,332-£37,099 p.a. dependent on qualifications and experience.

Holiday entitlement: equivalent to 33 days inclusive of bank holiday entitlement. The Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day bank holidays will form part of the Christmas closure period for all employees. The School will gift additional days leave to employees for the period following Boxing Day up to and including New Year’s Eve (Christmas closure). Days will be allocated based on normal days worked.

Contributory company pension plan

Opportunities to access School of Artisan Food courses, additional professional development opportunities, and to gain certifications

The Welbeck Card – 9% staƯ cash discount plus ‘savings points’ at Welbeck Farm Shop, The Harley Gallery and The Portland Collection

Access to various discounts across the estate throughout the year, including School of Artisan Food Friends and Family Discounts, and discounts at Welbeck Holiday Cottages, Cuckney House, and Lady Margaret Hall bookings

Opportunity to join Westfield Health

Employee bike scheme

Monthly free drink at The Welbeck Abbey Brewery on the last Friday of every month for all employees. Family and pets welcome!

Role Description

The School of Artisan Food is seeking a capable, organised and thoughtful Guest Experience & Communications Manager to join our team in a key delivery role at the heart of the organisation. The role holder will be responsible for ensuring that our courses are clearly presented and promoted and easy for customers to understand and book, while supporting a start-to-finish, outstanding experience for all who engage with The School.

The School of Artisan Food oƯers inclusive food education and bespoke baking, butchery, cheese-making, curing, patisserie, vienoisserie and other food-related training, favouring real, seasonal and local food and ingredients, and ‘slow’ processes, such as fermentation. As a charity, we advocate for high-quality food education, particularly in secondary schools and for healthcare professionals. We work with a range of partner organisations and other charitable bodies.

Our portfolio includes short and longer courses for food-lovers and professionals, a very-popular summer school, validated courses including our Higher Diploma in Artisan Baking and Business Skills, and an FdSc and BSc (Hons) in Artisan Food Production (delivered in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University).

This is a customer facing role that would suit an early-career professional who is ready to take ownership, work with increasing autonomy and contribute across a small, committed team. Working closely with the Director of Food Education and wider colleagues, the successful postholder will be responsible for sales and wider course recruitment, updating our website and communications channels (social media, newsletter and print assets), and ensuring clarity and consistency across the customer journey.

As a small charitable organisation, we value individuals who are grounded, proactive and willing to contribute to the wider functioning of The School. It is expected that the successful candidate will have line management responsibility for a small number of reportees.

Duties

Lead the planning, set up, sales and review of short and professional course and commercial/ private bespokes, maintaining excellent relationships with our valued tutors, innovating and monitoring relevance.

Manage The School’s tone and brand, working with all stakeholders to ensure a commitment to enduring consistency.

Create and maintain well-presented marketing assets and digital content that promote the whole School oƯer and communicate our wider social impact by:

o Developing and maintaining course webpages using our WordPress and WooCommerce platform, ensuring all content is accurate, clearly structured, and presented in a compelling and accessible way that supports bookings.

o Managing The School’s social media channels, maintaining a regular and purposeful presence to support engagement, communicate our oƯer, and encourage course uptake.

o Preparing, delivering and monitoring high-quality newsletters, targeted email campaigns and appropriate print assets, ensuring consistency of tone, clarity and engagement.

Respond to customer enquiries in a timely, professional and knowledgeable manner, supporting the eƯective conversion of interest into bookings.

Manage the marketing budget, ensuring value for money and working closely with finance colleagues to support the management of customer accounts and related communications.

Manage PR, customer queries and complaints with care, sound judgement and attention to detail, contributing to a positive and well-managed customer experience.

Support the delivery of all aspects of our high-quality and welcoming customer journey, including welcoming School visitors to site. Evaluate and report on customer experience across all touchpoints.

Maintain accurate and up-to-date information across relevant systems, including CRM, supporting eƯective coordination and communication.

Contribute to the development and maintenance of dashboards (e.g. Excel or Power BI), monitoring and reporting on key information relating to bookings, engagement and performance.

Provide clear written and oral updates for management and trustees meetings, to support informed decision-making and ongoing improvement.

As a member of the leadership team, respond with flexibility and professionalism to busy periods and evolving organisational priorities, contributing to the smooth running of the organisation, sometimes in a ‘handson’ manner.

Lead and manage reportees, fostering a proactive culture of excellence and innovation.

Contribute, as a School of Artisan Food employee, to the day-to-day workings of The School as required, including monitoring central inboxes and as a primary call handler, and acting as Manager-in-Charge on select days (shared across the leadership team, by negotiation) across the calendar year.

Application Process

To apply for this position, please send maximum 2-page CV, and a tailored, personal and succinct cover letter explaining how you meet the person specification to

recruitment@welbeck.co.uk no later than 5pm on Monday 3rd August 2026, however we reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications ahead of the advertised deadline.

If you would like to discuss this post informally, please call Jenny Paxman, Chief Executive OƯicer, or Chris Jones, Director of Food Education on 01909 532171 or email jenny.paxman@schoolofartisanfood.org or chris.jones@schoolofartisanfood.org.

Person Specification

Qualifications and/or experience

Example		Essential/ Desirable
Batchelor's degree, ideally in a relevant subject	A degree in a related field (e.g., marketing, communications or PR, hospitality or business management)	E E
Relevant marketing, sales and/ or customer engagement experience.	E.g,. Experience in sales and communication (incl. content creation, website or digital platform management) and/ or customer service
Experience of working with websites, project management/ data tools Experience in a	E.g, WordPress, WooCommerce, Monday.com or similar, and Power BI E.g., front of house experience in	E E
customer-facing, education or small organisation environment	hospitality or events, business management within an educational setting, or customer facing in a charity, start-up or SME
Experience of managing/ leading others	E.g., direct line management of others, mentoring, coaching or similar	D

Skills and behaviours

	Example	Essential/ Desirable
Outstanding written and	Ability to adapt tone, style and	E
spoken communication	content appropriately across a
skills	range of platforms including in-
	person, telephone, email and
	social media, and to produce
	high-quality written copy. Attention to detail.	E
Ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a team, demonstrating autonomy and initiative.	Highly organised with the ability to manage workload autonomously. Strong teamwork skills, able to coordinate with other staff, and provide guidance and support to students	E
Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple tasks, meet deadlines, and maintain a high level of attention to detail.	Hitting deadlines, actively managing wide and varied activities/ tasks, punctuality, reliability etc
Digitally confident.	Experienced user of MS Suite, Canva, Instagram and LinkedIn, with experience of editing media, populating and managing webpages, data dashboards and more	E
Ability to work with data and present information clearly	Confidence in interpreting data and translating/ summarising information into clear, structured and accessible reports/ insights for management and Trustees	E
A genuine interest in and knowledge of food and food culture	E.g., significant and demonstrable personal and/ or professional curiosity and understanding of food, the food system and food culture, including an ongoing willingness	E
High standards of professional conduct with flexibility and willingness to support broader School activities	to learn Reliable, proactive and grounded approach with a willingness to engage with wider School of Artisan Food activities, such as supporting events, on or off-site	E

THE SCHOOL OF ARTISAN FOOD

1 role available