Director of North American Product & Operations

**INTERNAL CANDIDATES ONLY**

Director of North American Product & Operations- Remote

Walks & Devour is seeking a remote Director of US Product & Operations - (regular domestic and international travel is required)

About Us:
Walks is a leader in the tours and activities industry, founded in Rome, offering unique and memorable travel experiences across the globe. A member of the US-based travel group City Experiences, Walks has joined forces with Devour Tours, Europe's premier food and wine tour operator, with a shared mission to create amazing experiences for our guests across both brands.

Join us in shaping the future of tours and activities. We're seeking smart and ambitious individuals who want to be part of something fast-paced and exciting. With us, you'll have room to grow and develop. Our culture is laid-back yet professional, fostering a collaborative and approachable environment. We celebrate diversity, creativity, and dynamism.

If you're ready to embark on an exciting journey, where you can make a difference and leave your mark, we'd love to receive your application.

About You:

We are looking for an experienced leader to join our team as the Director of North American Product & Operations. You will bring excellent attention to detail, strong collaboration and delegation skills as well as innovative and dynamic ideas to the table as we aim to replicate the success we've had in the European tours and activities industry across the USA and Canada. Working with our Chief Operating Officer, you will help to create and execute a best-in-class strategy to drive growth, product quality and profitability in the region for both our Walks and Devour experiences.

About the Opportunity:

The Director of North American Product & Operations will have the ambition and vision to see opportunities across the region, identifying major attractions/museums where we can negotiate key deals to offer services our audience want; local food cultures that offer great opportunities for top-quality food tours; or synergies within the City Experience group (such as our collaboration with Niagara City Cruises) that provide a platform for upgraded experiences.

You will be responsible for leading and growing our local ground teams, helping them to manage their workload and priorities, and to troubleshoot everyday operational issues. As the person responsible for the regional budget, you will gain a detailed understanding of every aspect of our sales, margin performance, costs and operational overhead. You will be able to balance business development with detailed operations work, process redesign and administration - and will be equally excited by both kinds of work.

The perfect candidate will be fast-thinking, but strategic in their approach. Innovative and keen to try new things, but quick to recognize failure, learn and move on. They will be keen to understand every detail of the business, but completely comfortable delegating and directing when it comes time for improvement. Success in this role will be about harnessing the skills and experience of our local experts, so they will listen more than they speak, and operate at all times with respect and approachability. We have great people - they deserve great leadership.

Because most of our staff work on European hours, you should be available to take some early morning calls. Work/life balance is incredibly important to us, however as is typical in tourism, our operations run 7 days a week, 12 months a year so on very rare occasions you may be contacted to help resolve an operational emergency outside of standard office hours.

Regular domestic and international travel required.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

Be an ambassador for your region:

• Working on behalf of your team with our Central Operations, Guest Experience, Finance, Marketing and Sales teams to ensure that all deadlines are clear, projects are well-briefed and collaboration is smooth.
• Digging into our operational procedures to identify areas for improvement or efficiency.
• Working with our Central Operations team to ensure beneficial work and responsibility division - providing meaningful support to ground teams without diminishing ownership.

Learn & Adopt:

• Working with similar, more mature operations in Europe to identify processes in place there that could help our North American markets, or processes that have been applied in N. America but don't make sense in the context of a different market.
• Manage all ground staff in the USA & Canada, including regular 1:1s, performance reviews and career development.

Contracting:

• Provide oversight for all vendor contracting and negotiaton in the US & Canada, including direct involvement for our highest-volume or highest-opportunity targets.
• Budget and staff planning in cooperation with COO and Finance team.
• Financial reporting
• Through internal performance tools, recognise areas for margin improvement at a tour and market level. Work with local stakeholders to draw up plans to address these and drive accountability through to completion.

Market analysis:

• Become our internal expert on the North American market, including the competitive landscape, distribution, audience behavior and areas of future opportunity.
• Attend semi-regular industry events with our Director of Sales to stay up to speed on regional trends and to open up opportunities for collaboration. Occasional public speaking may be required to create awareness of our brands and products.

Expansion:

• Today we operate in 6 markets across the region, but we are keen to expand where opportunities exist in the US, Canada and beyond. With the right opportunities and leadership, this territory could grow in latitude/longitude as well as revenue. Your role in this will be to research and identify high-opportunity markets and put forward a compelling argument for expansion. If approved, you will be responsible for the hiring, onboarding and managing any staff; for budget planning and management; and for driving forward any key vendor contracting.
• Networking within the City Experiences group to correctly identify feasible opportunities for collaboration and product development, and
• Identifying potential targets for partnerships or acquisition.

Experience required:

• At least 5 years' in a senior people management position.
• Experience working in a complex operations role, and an ability to demonstrate involvement in process improvement.
• Experience in travel or hospitality a bonus; interest in travel required.
• Curiosity a must.

The RESPECT Service System embodies City Experiences' mission, vision, values and operating principles. By creating a company culture that puts RESPECT at its core, we believe it will drive us to achieve our goal of becoming a Global Experiences and Transportation Leader.

The Company is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We prohibit discrimination and harassment against any applicants or employees based upon their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, mental or physical disability, status as a protected veteran, or other characteristics prohibited by applicable law.

Additionally, we encourage all qualified applicants including those with past arrest or conviction records to apply. The Company participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations.

We encourage qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records to apply.