Product & Operations Executive - Travel

We have a unique opportunity for a highly organised and quality-driven individual to create and deliver World Challenge trips for Australasian schools_

**About Us**:
Experience Education is part of the Travelopia group, which is one of the world’s leading specialist travel groups providing customers with a diverse range of unique travel experiences. This includes adventure travel, safaris, private jet and polar expeditions, tailor-made luxury holidays, yacht and river boat charter holidays, educational and sporting based school trips, corporate hospitality and sporting event fan travel. Private equity owned by KKR, Travelopia is headquartered in the UK with offices and marine bases all over the world.

Experience Education is a unique collection of brands including SkiBound, Travelbound, Edwin Doran & Masterclass, World Challenge and JCA Adventure, leading the way in global educational travel across Europe, Australia, Dubai and the US and we’re on a mission to create the most inspiring experiences for our guests, with memories that last for a life time

Over the last 4 decades, more than 3000 schools across the UK have entrusted Experience Education (part of the Travelopia group) to facilitate educational travel experiences for more than 1.5 million travellers, throughout 1000+ incredible destinations.

**About World Challenge**:
Operating school travel across the globe from Australia and New Zealand, we’re passionate about enriching young people’s lives through sustainable student-led travel and delivering experiences that create lifelong memories.

World Challenge is part of the Travelopia Group, a KKR owned company, and is a leading provider of educational travel - offering a wide range of experiences for students: including expeditions, within Australia and overseas, and now expanding into a broad range of international trips covering core curriculum topics, sports tours and learning service journeys. Our people are at the centre of the organisation - we operate an open, candid, and positive environment where personal development is encouraged and facilitated. Blended working opportunities, a global recognition scheme, and travel opportunities are among the benefits we include as standard.

**What you will be doing**:
The Product Manager (Product & Operations Executive - Travel) for Australasia will be responsible for the creation and delivery of a wide range of school trips, from Expeditions travelling within the Australasia region to Curriculum and Sports Tours travelling to select countries around the world. Supported by our Head of Product (UK) and Operations Manager (Aus), our Product Manager will be expected to onboard new ground partners where necessary and develop outstanding supplier relationships to create and deliver exceptional trips for schools, at market competitive rates.

**Ground Team Management**:

- Act as the main point of contact for our Ground Teams, responding to queries, providing detailed information about upcoming trips, and gathering information required to support trip sales and pre-departure support
- Work with the Product Team Manager to strategize rates for in-country services below budget, enhancing forecasted margins for every trip
- Conduct feedback reviews with Ground Teams after each departure
- Liaise with Ground Teams to lead destination capacity and ensure availability for prospective bookings
- Collaborate with Ground Teams to create and price custom Tour itineraries aligned to school requirements on a needs basis

**Trip Delivery**:

- Ensure trips in-country are booked and suppliers are briefed to deliver to a high standard
- Deliver high quality customer experience by continually reviewing all aspects of trip planning and delivery, evidenced through a customer feedback net promoter score (NPS) above 60
- Partner with the Community Partnership Coordinator to ensure initiatives meet the highest standard of quality and ethics, maintaining a positive NPS score for this element of the trips
- Create and share supplier reports and participant details prior to travel
- Conduct flight checks to ensure arrival and departure times align to in-country services

**Product Development**:

- Establish relationships with DMCs in destinations where we wish to develop and expand the product range
- Work with DMCs to design and price new products as required by market demands
- Collaborate with marketing to design collateral for new itineraries
- Collaborate with the safety team to ensure new activities are signed off for use
- Collaborate with the Sustainability Coordinator to ensure new itineraries align to our commitments in this area

**Sales Support**:

- Respond to enquiries from the Sales Team regarding trip itineraries and logistics
- Work with the sales team to develop custom itineraries for Tours aligned to school requirements

**Product Inventory Maintenance**:

- Build a product inventory for Tours in the reservation system to allow creation of itineraries