Volunteer Operations Manager - Guest Experience

About National Trust Queensland & the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
National Trust of Australia (Queensland) [NTAQ] is a member-based organisation and environmental charity with a portfolio of 15 heritage properties across the State, including the iconic Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. As one of Queensland’s earliest nature-based tourist destinations, the Sanctuary is a physical embodiment of everything the NTAQ represents: to protect, conserve, and celebrate the Environmental, Built and Cultural heritage of our State.

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) is one of the leading voluntary organisations on the Gold Coast, operating five specialised volunteer programs (Guest Experience, Astra Lumina, Wildlife, Wildlife Hospital and Fundraising) with over 450 passionate volunteers across our diverse programs. We have an opportunity for a hands-on, positive people leader, to join our team as Volunteer Operations Manager - Guest Experience, responsible for leading and supporting volunteers across our Guest Experience Program for CWS and Astra Lumina, ensuring they continue to deliver exceptional experiences for our guests and community.

About the Role
As our Volunteer Operations Manager, you will lead and support Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary's largest volunteer program, ensuring your volunteer team enhances the guest experience while adding value to the Sanctuary's operations. This is a dynamic and immensely rewarding role that combines leadership, operational management, coaching and volunteer engagement to foster a thriving and motivated team of approximately 230 dedicated volunteers. 

In this role, you will be responsible for volunteer recruitment, onboarding, training, rostering and performance, ensuring operational objectives are achieved while consistently demonstrating our core values. Working closely with the Guest Services and Operations teams, along with other key stakeholders, you will ensure volunteers are equipped to deliver friendly, helpful and knowledgeable interactions that enhance the guest experience.

You will also collaborate with the broader Volunteer Leadership Team, providing support and coverage across volunteer programs throughout the organisation. The role includes coordinating volunteer recognition and social events, maintaining volunteer records and reporting, ensuring compliance with privacy and WHS requirements, and overseeing safety protocols and emergency response procedures to support a safe, engaged and high-performing volunteer workforce. 

This is a role where you can see the impact of your work every day. Whether it is through positive guest interactions and feedback, creating a safe and inclusive environment where volunteers feel valued and supported, or fostering a strong volunteer community across diverse generations, backgrounds and experiences, you will play a key role in ensuring our volunteers continue to thrive while making a meaningful contribution to the Sanctuary's success. 

About You
To be successful in this role, you will be a people-focused leader with a strong background in guest services and a passion for volunteer engagement. You will be motivated, organised and community-minded, with the ability to build strong relationships and foster a positive, inclusive and high-performing volunteer culture. Other required skills and qualifications we are looking for include:

• Experience leading diverse, guest-facing teams within tourism, hospitality, attractions, events or customer service environments will be highly advantageous.

• Previous experience working with, leading or supporting volunteer or unpaid workforces is also highly regarded, along with an understanding of the unique motivations and engagement strategies that help volunteers thrive.

• Be an effective communicator, trainer and coach who enjoys connecting with people from a broad range of generations, backgrounds and experiences.

• Demonstrate the ability to build strong stakeholder relationships and foster a positive, inclusive and collaborative team culture.

• Be confident leading change while maintaining team engagement and operational effectiveness.

• Possess strong organisational, rostering and administrative skills with a high level of attention to detail.

• Able to work a set fortnightly roster, including every second weekend, to ensure regular connection with volunteer teams.

• Be prepared to work in an outdoor environment, in all weathers, in a role that requires substantial walking in a workplace that has native wildlife such as birds and reptiles

What we can offer
Just as our charter is to protect, conserve, and celebrate the Environmental, Built and Cultural heritage of our State – we also are committed to ensuring our Team Members are protected, taken care of and of course celebrated!  We offer current and future team members:

• Benchmarked Salary

• Free On-Site Parking

• Tertiary Education Partners for access to recognised Qualifications

• Flexible Working Arrangements and Study Leave

• NTAQ Team Member Card offering unlimited entry to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and other SEQ sites and generous retail & food & beverage discounts.

• Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Family & Friends Passes