LivTours Guide Operations Manager

LivTours is a fast-growing business providing exceptional travel experiences across 25+ cities in Europe. We are looking for an experienced Guide Operations Manager to lead and continue developing our Guide Operations function across all regions. Reporting to the Director of Operations and working closely with the company owners, you will manage a team of regional Guide Managers and oversee local coordination teams, ensuring we have the guide capacity, quality, engagement and operational responsiveness needed to deliver exceptional experiences at scale. This is not purely a business-as-usual management role. As LivTours continues to grow, you will play a key role in strengthening how we recruit, onboard, develop, engage, assign and work with our guides; improving the systems and processes that support the function; and helping us solve complex operational and people challenges along the way.

Key Responsibilities
• Lead, coach and develop regional Guide Managers and oversee local coordination teams across multiple locations, building strong alignment, connection and accountability within a geographically dispersed team.
• Oversee guide capacity, pre-scheduling, assignment and coordination strategies, ensuring reliable coverage, effective handling of last-minute operational needs and minimal wastage.
• Own the development and performance of the guide community, working closely with the Client Experience team to strengthen guide onboarding, training, quality standards and ongoing development.
• Develop guide engagement, communication and recognition strategies that build a strong, connected guide community and support guide retention and performance.
• Lead seasonal guide fee and incentive reviews in collaboration with executives, balancing competitiveness, guide motivation and commercial sustainability.
• Lead the continued build-out and development of Guide Operations, designing and implementing the structures, processes and ways of working required to create a scalable, high-performing function.
• Lead significant cross-functional improvement projects from scoping and planning through implementation and adoption, coordinating stakeholders, dependencies and timelines to ensure successful delivery.
• Drive the development of systems, automation and data capabilities for Guide Operations, partnering closely with IT to define requirements, project-manage solutions and ensure they deliver meaningful operational improvements. What We're Looking ForRequired
• Strong people leadership experience, ideally managing managers and geographically dispersed teams.
• Strong project leadership and project management capability, with demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives from definition and planning through implementation and adoption.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability, with the ability to understand complex operational and people challenges, competing needs and dependencies and develop practical, human-centred solutions.
• Experience designing or significantly improving processes, systems and ways of working, with a focus on both operational effectiveness and the people affected by change.
• Experience planning capacity, resourcing or coverage in a variable-demand operation, with the ability to balance service reliability and operational efficiency.
• Excellent interpersonal judgement, with the ability to build strong working relationships and navigate difficult conversations and differing perspectives constructively.
• Strong commercial judgement, with the ability to evaluate costs, trade-offs and business impact when making operational decisions.
• Comfortable with technology, data and automation, including working with technical teams to translate operational needs into effective solutions and using AI and other emerging tools responsibly.
• Relevant experience in the travel, tourism or hospitality industry is essential, ideally within a tour operator or another operationally complex, people-intensive environment. Advantageous
• Experience working directly with tour guides or another dispersed, freelance or self-employed workforce, including engagement, retention and performance.
• Experience leading technology, automation or systems implementation projects within an operational function.
• Experience leading technology, automation or systems implementation projects within an operational function.
• Experience using AI or emerging technologies to improve operational processes, with a strong awareness of appropriate handling of personal and commercial data.
• Experience leading significant cross-functional operational improvement or transformation projects. Position DetailsType: Full time, Monday to Friday 9am
- 5:30pm CET, with flexibility as required for successful execution of role.

Location:
Fully remote, with opportunity to work from our Dublin or Rome offices.

Salary:
50-60 K gross, based on experiences