Head of Sectoral Development

Main Duties

Working alongside the Director of Client Engagement the Job Holder will be responsible for the following areas and activities:

• A stronger, more productive, resilient and competitive tourism industry.
• Improved commercial capability and growth among tourism businesses.
• Increased digital maturity, innovation and adoption of sustainable business practices.
• A more focused and impactful approach to client engagement and business support.
• Consistently high standards across the tourism accommodation and visitor economy.
• Stronger alignment between business development activity, consumer demand and market opportunity.
• Improved coordination across Tourism NI and the wider business support ecosystem.
• Measurable economic and visitor impact from Tourism NI’s interventions and investments.

Strategic Leadership and System Integration

• Provide strategic leadership for Tourism NI’s approach to sectoral and enterprise development, ensuring that the industry is equipped to support future tourism growth.
• Translate organisational strategy into a coherent portfolio of business-led interventions that improve competitiveness, productivity, profitability, resilience and visitor impact.
• Connect Tourism NI’s client engagement, business support, quality, experience development, investment and marketing functions to provide businesses with a coordinated pathway to growth.
• Identify systemic challenges and opportunities affecting tourism businesses and mobilise the appropriate internal and external partners to address them.
• Ensure that Tourism NI’s support does not operate in isolation, but complements the work of government departments, councils, economic development agencies, education providers, sector bodies and other partners.
• Contribute actively to the Senior Leadership Team, bringing industry insight and commercial understanding into corporate strategy, planning and decision-making.
• Act as a strategic connector across the tourism system, joining up intelligence, expertise, relationships and interventions to achieve greater collective impact.

Industry Leadership and Client Engagement

• Lead the delivery of Tourism NI’s Client Engagement Promise, positioning the organisation as a trusted, proactive, credible and commercially focused partner to tourism businesses.
• Lead the development and implementation of the Client Engagement Framework, ensuring that every tourism client receives guidance and support appropriate to their ambitions, capability, growth potential and stage of development.
• Own Tourism NI’s client segmentation model and use it to prioritise resources and target interventions where they can generate the greatest economic and visitor impact.
• Build and maintain strong senior-level relationships with tourism operators, sector bodies, representative organisations and strategically important businesses.
• Lead the client management of an agreed portfolio of high-growth and strategically significant businesses through senior relationships, tailored development plans and bespoke interventions.
• Act as a visible advocate for the tourism industry, ensuring that business needs, operating realities and growth opportunities inform organisational strategy, policy and programme design.
• Embed a client-centred culture focused on responsiveness, trust, impact and the long-term sustainability of the industry.

Tourism Business and Enterprise Development

• Lead the design and delivery of a comprehensive and integrated business development programme for the tourism sector.
• Ensure that business support interventions improve commercial capability, competitiveness, productivity, profitability, resilience and capacity for sustainable growth.
• Develop differentiated programmes for businesses at different stages of maturity, from emerging enterprises to high-growth and strategically significant operators.

Champion the development of capability in areas including:

• Commercial and financial management.

• Digital adoption and data use.

• Innovation and product development.

• Leadership and workforce development.

• Sustainability and resource efficiency.

• Sales, distribution and market readiness.

• Investment planning and business resilience.

• Accessibility, inclusion and visitor service.

• Ensure that support is evidence-led, responsive to consumer and market demand and aligned with wider economic and regional development priorities.

• Establish clear pathways through which businesses can progress from initial engagement to more intensive development, investment and market access.

• Ensure that Tourism NI’s interventions build sustainable capability within businesses rather than creating dependency on public support.

• Develop strategic partnerships that increase the scale, reach and specialist expertise available to the tourism industry.

Quality, Standards and Certification

• Provide strategic leadership for all Tourism NI quality, standards and certification functions.
• Ensure Tourism NI fully discharges its statutory and legislative responsibilities relating to accommodation certification and associated quality assurance activity.
• Maintain robust, efficient and credible certification and quality systems that protect the visitor, support business improvement and reinforce confidence in the Northern Ireland tourism offer.
• Use quality and standards as strategic tools to improve competitiveness, visitor satisfaction and destination reputation.
• Ensure that quality frameworks remain relevant to changing visitor expectations, business models, accessibility requirements and market trends.
• Develop a clear progression from minimum compliance to continuous quality improvement and business excellence.
• Benchmark Northern Ireland’s standards against national and international best practice and recommend improvements where required.
• Use insight from certification, grading and quality assessment to identify recurring sectoral issues and inform wider business development programmes.

Knowledge Acquisition, Intelligence and Best Practice

• Establish and maintain a structured approach to acquiring, sharing and applying tourism sector knowledge across the function.
• Ensure that staff have sufficient knowledge of tourism businesses, visitor behaviour, distribution channels, commercial models and market dynamics to provide credible and informed guidance.
• Work closely with Tourism NI’s research, insights, marketing, strategy and international market teams to translate intelligence into practical advice and business interventions.
• Build regular opportunities for staff to engage directly with tourism businesses, destinations and visitor experiences to deepen their understanding of the operating environment.
• Monitor emerging trends, technologies, business models, policy developments and international best practice relevant to tourism enterprise development.
• Develop external networks with industry experts, academic partners, economic development organisations and leading tourism destinations.
• Ensure that intelligence and best practice are systematically shared across the team and embedded within programme design, client engagement and investment decisions.
• Create a culture of professional curiosity, continuous learning and evidence-led challenge, ensuring that Tourism NI’s advice remains current, credible and commercially relevant.

Performance, Impact and Evaluation

• Establish a clear performance framework for sectoral development, linked to business growth, revenue, productivity, employment, sustainability, quality and visitor impact.
• Ensure every programme and intervention has clearly defined outcomes, eligibility criteria, measures of success and arrangements for evaluation.
• Use data and client intelligence to assess the effectiveness of support and redirect resources where required.
• Demonstrate how Tourism NI’s interventions contribute to wider organisational and Programme for Government outcomes.
• Provide clear and timely reporting to the Executive Team, Board, Department and other stakeholders on delivery, impact, risk and value for money.

Corporate Leadership, People and Governance

• Lead and develop high-performing, commercially aware and client-focused teams with a strong culture of accountability, collaboration and delivery.

• Ensure that strategic priorities are clearly communicated, understood and translated into individual and team objectives.

• Take responsibility for workforce planning, capability development, succession planning and the effective deployment of people resources.

• Build the tourism and commercial knowledge of the team, ensuring staff have the credibility and confidence to engage with businesses at all levels.

• Manage significant budgets, investment programmes and contracts in accordance with public-sector governance, procurement and value-for-money requirements.

• Maintain effective systems for risk management, assurance, performance management and financial control.

• Contribute to a positive, integrated organisational culture and role-model Tourism NI’s leadership values and behaviours.

Additional Duties

• Ensure that all activities are managed in line with Tourism NI policies, procedures, values, and behaviours.
• Act as a central point of contact, including communicating with other Tourism NI teams and external stakeholders as appropriate.
• Contribute to the development of the sub-division Plan, the achievement of tourism targets, and promote the corporate values and behaviours within the team and across the organisation.
• Provide briefing material and draft responses and reports/emails as and when required by Tourism NI’s Senior Leadership & Management/Employees, the Board, the Department for the Economy, the NI Assembly, members of the tourism industry, and the general public within specified timelines and in an appropriate format.
• Ensure that sub-division processes adhere to the Tourism NI/Public Sector financial governance, policy and procedure, the FAM Framework and audit recommendations.
• Attend training as and when required and keep abreast of current developments in your area of work.
• Maintain, store, and dispose of sub-division records in accordance with Tourism NI’s information governance policy including the use of record management systems including Microsoft Teams, Dynamics 365 and SharePoint.
• Assist in the delivery of project work within the sub-division and across Tourism NI including representation at working groups and meetings.
• Provide cover for the Director of Client Engagement when required to include decision making and attending meetings in their absence.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade of the post as required by Tourism NI.