Visitor Sales and Operations Manager

Welcome to Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, the world's largest fully fenced ecosanctuary located 30 minutes from Cambridge, Te Awamutu and Putaruru. Ever wanted to work for nature, to hang around native wildlife and to experience what Aotearoa New Zealand looked like 1000 years ago, then this could be the role for you!

We have been operating for 25 years and are on a journey to grow our tourism business in leaps over the coming years. We are on the hunt for a commercially astute, strategically focused people leader who has demonstrable experience in developing and sustaining a high-performing team culture to ensure we hit growth targets.

About the role

Our biggest shareholder is nature, meaning that being our Visitor Sales and Operations Manager comes with the daily pressure to do everything we can to grow our brand and increase revenue so the sanctuary thrives for generations to come.

The key deliverables for the role include actively growing revenue, ensuring that Visitor Operations are resourced within budget, and leading the customer-facing team to drive growth and customer engagement. You will report to the CEO, be part of the Senior Leadership Team, and lead up to 15 FTEs (current team is 6 FTE) across all customer-facing areas of the tourism team, including Education, Guiding, Visitor Reception, Cafe and Accommodation.

There are a bunch of key responsibilities in the job description; in summary, you need to be able to move the organisation forward, solve problems, and build a fun, engaged team that consistently goes above and beyond to deliver lasting memories for our visitors.

If you are looking at the job description and thinking, "I've got all the right attitude but not all of the commercial experience" then we may be prepared to train the right person.

About you

Before discussing your experience, let's discuss you. This role takes grit, curiosity, an entrepreneurial mindset, and the ability to GSD (get sh@t done). If you have an inherent love of problem-solving, thrive on people leadership, are a change-maker, and are prepared to have difficult conversations to move the business forward, then apply.

In an ideal world, you have a background in people leadership in retail, sales, and/or tourism. You know how to manage budgets and read a P&L. You know how to build a great roster, and setting and achieving sales targets is what floats your boat. If you speak Te Reo, that's a huge bonus (but not a deal-breaker if you don't).

About us

We are a small but mighty team. The visitor centre operates 364 days a year, and we currently have around 22,500 visitors annually, with the need to increase this to 109,000 over the next 3 years. We are mavericks and lead the way in conservation both nationally and internationally. We have a fail fast approach to life and are deeply committed to delivering intergenerationally for the maunga. We are a co-governance organisation with deep ties to iwi, which will continue to strengthen over the next few years.

This role is a 40-hour-a-week position running Tuesday to Saturday, and is based at our visitor centre in Pukeatua.

Applications close at 5pm on the 26th of August 2026.