At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead daily operations, ensuring exceptional guest experiences and team performance.
- Company: Hunter Valley Wildlife Park, a captivating destination near NSW's wine region.
- Benefits: Staff discounts, career progression, and a picturesque working environment.
- Other info: Flexible hours, including weekends and public holidays, in a vibrant park setting.
- Why this job: Join a dynamic team and make a real impact in wildlife conservation and guest satisfaction.
- Qualifications: Experience in hospitality or customer-facing roles, strong leadership and organisational skills.
The predicted salary is between 49500 - 60500 $ per year.
- Hunter Valley Wildlife Park | Operations
- Hunter Valley Wildlife Park is looking for an enthusiastic and commercially minded
Duty Manager to help lead our daily operations across admissions, food and beverage, retail and workplace health and safety.
Hunter Valley Wildlife Park is home to a captivating and engaging collection of exotic and native animal species and is located just minutes from NSW’s premier wine region.
The park is very popular with local families as well as school excursions from across the Hunter region and the Central Coast.
About the role
As Duty Manager, you’ll oversee and coordinate day-to-day operations across multiple guest-facing departments.
You’ll lead by example, support your team to achieve business objectives and continually look for ways to improve the guest experience and operational performance.
Reporting to the Manager of Operations and Compliance, you’ll play a key role in ensuring our teams deliver outstanding service, maintain high operational standards and create memorable experiences for every guest who visits the park.
This is an exciting opportunity for a proactive leader who enjoys balancing people management, customer service, operational performance and revenue growth in a unique visitor attraction environment.
Key responsibilities include
- Lead and develop the team: Provide clear direction, coaching and support, assist with recruitment and training, and manage performance to build a motivated, high-performing team.
- Deliver exceptional guest experiences: Oversee guest interactions and service delivery, maintaining high standards of presentation, product quality and customer satisfaction.
- Drive revenue and commercial performance: Monitor performance against budgets, identify opportunities to increase sales, promote effective upselling and implement initiatives that grow revenue.
- Oversee daily operations: Coordinate activities across admissions, food and beverage and retail, ensuring departments operate efficiently and consistently meet brand standards.
- Manage stock and merchandising: Oversee inventory, stocktakes, supplier invoices, replenishment and retail presentation, maintaining appropriate stock levels and minimising waste.
- Maintain food safety and workplace safety: Ensure compliance with food safety requirements, hygiene standards, workplace health and safety legislation and park procedures.
- Coordinate rostering and payroll: Manage rosters, timesheet approvals and payroll requirements in line with budgets and applicable industrial obligations.
- Improve and innovate: Identify cost‑saving opportunities, refresh services and facilities, support marketing promotions and introduce ideas that enhance guest satisfaction and commercial results.
About you
You’re a confident, practical and customer-focused leader who can motivate a team, manage competing priorities and keep operations running smoothly.
You understand that excellent guest experiences come from engaged employees, consistent standards and strong operational management.
You will ideally bring
- Experience in a supervisory or management role within hospitality, retail, tourism, attractions or a similar customer-facing environment.
- Proven leadership skills, with the ability to coach, motivate and manage team performance.
- A strong customer service mindset and a commitment to creating positive guest experiences.
- Commercial awareness, including experience monitoring budgets, sales performance, costs and revenue opportunities.
- Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage staffing, rostering, stock control and operational priorities.
- An understanding of food safety, hygiene and workplace health and safety requirements.
- Clear communication skills, sound judgement and the ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with other managers.
- Flexibility to work a roster that includes weekdays, weekends and public holidays.
- What you’ll bring to the team
- A hands‑on approach and a willingness to lead by example.
- A proactive mindset, with the confidence to identify problems and implement practical solutions.
- A focus on accountability, continuous improvement and operational excellence.
- The ability to balance guest satisfaction with business performance and budget expectations.
- A genuine commitment to maintaining a safe, clean, welcoming and well‑presented environment.
Why it’s great to work here!
- Staff discounts at our 3 Wildlife Parks
- Experienced senior leadership team
- Career progression opportunities
- Picturesque working environment
Australian Wildlife Parks is an equal opportunity employer and consideration will be given to all applications.
However, due to the high level of applicants, only those progressing to the interview stage will be contacted.
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Duty Manager in Cessnock employer: Australian Wildlife Parks
Australian Wildlife Parks offers a vibrant work environment where employees can engage with native wildlife and contribute to guest experiences. The company values friendly and confident team members who thrive in customer service roles, providing opportunities for professional growth and development. Employees enjoy a supportive culture that emphasizes teamwork and operational excellence.
