Manager - Field Operations

We carry the spirit of the great explorers, we Go Bold, we Go Together and Go for New. Polar travel is Quark Expeditions, and all of us at Quark Expeditions are committed to creating and delivering life-changing experiences for our clients. We draw on our unparalleled polar expertise to profoundly transform people’s sense of themselves — and of the world around them. AND TO ALWAYS, ALWAYS GO BEYOND

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Quark team as a Manager, Field Operations on a (1 year contract) This is a position within the Operations Department, providing field expertise and insight to various stakeholders within and across all internal departments. The Manager will be engaged with current voyage operations, providing specific shore-side support to the Expedition Leaders in the field. They will be responsible for the maintenance, management and implementation of Activity Specific SOPs, and will support projects across the Operations team to plan for safe delivery of future season programs and activities.

Quark 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.

**The key responsibilities include**:

- **Health & Safety** - work closely with the H&S team, providing specialist polar guide activity knowledge and support in order to ensure safety standards are upheld in line with Quark’s safety management system and that risks to staff/crew and passengers are managed robustly with appropriate safety measures.
- **Emergency Response** - provide 24/7 emergency support as part of the duty team, being on call from time to time, and play a key role in the incident/crisis management team.
- **Incident reviews** - ensure incident and near miss data is reviewed regularly to further improve safety measures and play a key role in serious incident reviews and implementation of takeaways identified.
- **Expedition activities** - working closely with colleagues in other areas of operations, lead operational planning to ensure successful delivery of current and new product e.g. zodiac cruising, paddle sports, camping, heli-ops, education programme, tundra to table, community events etc..
- **Charters & group bookings - **collaborating with colleagues and on behalf of operations, lead review activity and sign off vessel charter and group bookings finding the best balance of sales conversion/operational delivery within agreed timelines.
- **Sales & Marketing support **- assist colleagues in other areas of the business with field operations knowledge, handling more detailed enquiries and supporting training needs and content.
- **Support ELs **- specific support to ELs in the field on the following areas:

- **EL & EOS reports** - escalated operational feedback or trending issues from EL reports / EOS reports for ops or wider business attention - action, chase and close.
- **Activity data/insight** - gather and share data/insight on field activities (including adventure options) and associated successes/challenges - feeding into ops and the wider business for awareness/review/action/development.
- **Scheduling**:

- communicate IAATO and AECO confirmed schedules and support itinerary planning as required.
- **Industry representation** - represent Quark Field Ops in relevant IAATO/AECO committees.
- **Programming resources** - pre-season preparation of onboard programming resources - signage, expedition team bios, flags, library, photo journals, presentations and briefings, ship drives, language programmes translation etc.
- Polar Field experience and a passion for travel
- Excellent problem solver
- Ability to understand the bigger picture and make decisions quickly
- Excellent attention to detail
- Ability to handle many projects at once while responding to the current season’s demands
- Strong communication skills
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Teams, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Sharepoint)
- Available to travel
- Previous work as a senior field team member with Quark Expeditions, or work as an Expedition Leader within the Polar Travel industry
- Project management
- Negotiation skills
- Business and commercial acumen
- Possession & Acquisition Licence (PAL) an asset

**What’s** **next?**

We believe people are happier and perform best when they are able to be their true self, and that diverse teams deliver better results.

Together we will cultivate a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment, where everyone can flourish. We are committed to driving change through increasing awareness of, and counteracting, unconscious bias;