Choose a Challenge
Senior Operations and CX Manager
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Salary: Dependent on experience
Location: Central London, with hybrid working (2 days in-office, 3 days from home)
Contract: Full-time, permanent
Reporting to: CEO
Start date: ASAP
Help students turn an ambitious challenge into an experience they can be proud of.
Choose a Challenge is looking for an Operations & Customer Experience Manager to take ownership of the participant journey: from registration and fundraising preparation through to safe trip delivery, successful challenge completion and post-trip follow-up.
This is a hands-on management role for someone who combines strong group-travel operations experience with a proactive approach to participant support. You’ll organise the details, spot problems early and make sure the right action happens.
About Us
We organise adventure and fundraising challenges for university students across the UK and Ireland, working with charity partners, student groups and suppliers around the world. Our programme includes overseas treks, marathons and UK challenges.
We’re a certified B Corp and a small, ambitious team. Our work helps participants take on demanding experiences while raising money for charitable causes. You’ll have the opportunity to influence how we operate, improve the participant experience and see the results of your decisions.
The Role
Reporting directly to the CEO, you’ll lead our operations and customer experience function, supported by an Operations & CX Coordinator whom you will line manage.
You’ll be accountable for keeping participants engaged and prepared throughout the year, as well as delivering well-organised trips during our busy departure periods. That means combining supplier management, logistics and incident response with systematic monitoring of fundraising, group engagement and trip readiness.
You’ll also own operational systems, budgets and reporting. We’re looking for someone who can make sound decisions independently within agreed limits, keep colleagues informed and escalate significant risks promptly.
What You'll be Doing
1. Own participant engagement and trip readiness
Build a consistent support journey from registration onwards. Regularly review each cohort’s fundraising progress, social activity, Challenge Leader involvement, cancellations and preparation milestones.
Identify individuals and groups that need support, investigate what is going wrong and organise targeted interventions. These might include individual follow-up, fundraising guidance, Challenge Leader coaching or activity coordinated with a charity partner.
Track actions and follow-up dates, assess whether support is working, and ensure participants meet payment, documentation, medical-review and preparation requirements before departure.
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2. Plan and deliver our trips
Manage the practical detail of group travel, including departure planning, airline group bookings, ground suppliers, passenger information, contractual deadlines and supplier payments.
Negotiate good-value arrangements while maintaining appropriate service and safety standards. Recruit and prepare trip staff and medics, coordinate participant briefings and airport meet-and-greets, and ensure everyone has accurate information.
Monitor supplier performance, resolve delivery issues and use feedback to improve future itineraries and operations.
3. Manage safety, incidents and customer escalations
Maintain operational risk assessments, emergency arrangements and readiness checks, working with our medic and suppliers where specialist advice is required.
During live trips, you'll coordinate responses to incidents with suppliers, medics and trip staff. Keep clear records, follow escalation procedures and ensure lessons translate into practical improvements.
Handle complex participant enquiries, complaints, booking changes and refunds professionally, applying participant terms fairly and making decisions within agreed authority. Safety and appropriate medical advice must guide decisions about participation.
4. Own budgets, forecasts and reporting
Manage trip and departmental budgets, monitor committed supplier costs and maintain rolling forecasts.
Work with the Finance Controller to reconcile actual expenditure, explain variances and recommend corrective action. Understand how changing participant numbers, cancellations and supplier commitments affect trip finances.
Produce clear reporting on cohort engagement, fundraising, readiness, service performance and financial outcomes. Highlight exceptions early and give the CEO and colleagues a practical view of what needs attention.
5. Improve systems and processes
Take ownership of the operational use and improvement priorities of our bespoke registration and participant management system.
Investigate issues, reproduce problems, explain business requirements to our technical lead and developers, and test fixes before they are adopted. Maintain accurate data and reliable registration and payment workflows, document processes and train colleagues.
You’ll need strong systems literacy and confidence with spreadsheets and data. Developers will handle technical implementation; your responsibility is to make the system work effectively.
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6. Collaborative Working
Set priorities, delegate effectively, provide training and feedback, and ensure reliable cover during busy periods and absences.
Work closely with Sales, Growth Marketing and charity partners, sharing patterns in cancellations, participant difficulties and cohort numbers, and agreeing clear actions and follow-up.
Support essential business administration, including information for ATOL and ABTA reporting, while keeping participant support, readiness and safe delivery at the centre of your workload.
What We're Looking For
You’ll bring experience independently managing group-travel operations, including airline group departments, overseas ground suppliers, trip preparation and delivery. You should have handled overseas incidents and escalated customer issues, and understand the contractual and operational safety considerations of adventure travel.
You’ll also have experience proactively supporting customers or participants over an extended journey, spotting disengagement and taking action to improve retention or completion.
Strong budgeting, forecasting, spreadsheet and systems skills are essential, alongside experience troubleshooting operational issues and improving processes. You’ll have supervised a colleague or small team and be comfortable setting priorities and supporting performance.
You’ll be organised, detail-oriented, calm under pressure and clear in your communication. Experience with student travel, fundraising challenges, bespoke registration systems or ATOL and ABTA requirements would be an advantage.
What We Offer
- Salary that matches your experience
- Hybrid working: normally two office days and three days working from home.
- 32 days’ annual leave including public holidays, with additional long-service days.
- A central London WeWork office.
- Opportunities to travel on company trips.
- An external training budget and team away days.
- A progression pathway to Senior Operations & Customer Experience Manager and potentially Head of Operations, based on performance.
Working Arrangements
Some flexibility is required during peak periods. You’ll manage and participate in an agreed on-call rota during active trips, with an allowance paid when you're on rota. Peak-season leave restrictions apply; details will be explained during recruitment. Occasional UK and overseas travel may be required.
Our recruitment process is a short video screening call, followed by an online application and assessment, then an in-person interview for shortlisted candidates. Interviews are planned for the week commencing 19 October 2026.
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