Jobs at Historic Environment Scotland (Now Hiring) — 6 open

Starting salary: £29,622
Contract type: Fixed term appointment for 18 months
Grade: 2
Location: Stirling Castle
Working Hours: Full time - 35 hours per week. 5 over 7 days including weekends and public holidays
Interviews: To be held in person at Stirling Castle on week commencing 31st August 2026.

Working within the Operations directorate at Stirling Castle you will be responsible for leading a team of Visitor Experience Assistants in delivering the highest standards of service to our visitors. You will deliver for HES an outstanding experience for visitors, enrich local communities, and run a successful commercial operation. 

Reporting to the Retail Management Team, you will be responsible for the day to day supervision of the site retail team to deliver a positive visitor experience with your strong people supervision skills. You will encourage a culture of collaboration, empowerment and innovation, with attention to detail and an enthusiasm for building sales for the site.

Working with the Retail Management Team, you’ll deliver growth of profitable sales and achievement of KPIs through effective supervision of a large retail team. You’ll also work closely with the operational castle team as well as cleaning and catering suppliers to deliver to the castle operational plan, contributing ideas and maintaining an ongoing plan of activity. 

You will know how to make the most of the resources available to you, working efficiently and effectively. 

You will enjoy problem solving, taking the initiative and working collaboratively whilst leading a team in the delivery of excellent visitor experiences. Your role is operational and will require an understanding and delivery of core Visitor Experience Assistant duties in addition to supervisory activity, such as processing till transactions, cash handling, cleaning duties, compliance and stock management.

Stirling Castle staff pride themselves on delivering a first-class visitor service. We have welcomed over 614,000 visitors from April 2025 – March 2026, visitors from many countries around the world who are all looking for a unique experience. We anticipate that we will welcome even more visitors in 2026/27 and beyond and the retail team play a huge role in the visitor experience, with the selling of retail products to the benefit of the customer a core part of visitor engagement.

For more information about the post and information about the team, please access the full job description for this post. Please note that if you don't have Office 365 installed on your device, this can be opened using your browser.

Benefits of joining us at Historic Environment Scotland

• Enrolment onto a Civil Service Pension scheme – 28% employer contribution
• 25 days annual leave, pro-rata (increasing to 30 days after 3 years) + 11.5 public holidays
• Reimbursement for relevant professional subscriptions
• Support for further education and personal development
• Study leave for work related courses
• Flexible working hours (where appropriate)
• Free entry to all of our properties (with up to three guests)
• Free entry to English Heritage, Manx and Cadw properties

Key Responsibilities of this role

• Operational duties such as processing till transactions, cash handling, cleaning duties, compliance and car park tasks.

• Ensure stock is managed in accordance with HES Stock Management Procedures.

• Motivate the retail team to promote and upsell our products.

• Support the management team in leading a team of Visitor Experience Assistants at Stirling Castle in delivering exceptional visitor experiences.

• Line management responsibility for a team of Visitor Experience Assistants. 

• Work with the management team to support developing the visitor experience at the site, including contributing to and attending any relevant team meetings.

• Support the management team in ensuring the site is properly resourced and assist with any recruitment as required.

• Act as the first point of contact for any complaints or till issues and look to resolve and escalate as appropriate. 

• Ensure compliance with health and safety, fire and security, HR and safeguarding, and manual handling procedures. Ensure health and safety processes and procedures are adhered to and assist with incident reporting.

• Support the management team in ensuring that the site is presented in a way to exceed visitor expectations. 

• Support the management team in team compliance by working within our cash office with cash reconciliation, financial compliance, banking and reporting procedures.

• Ensure appropriate processing of all retail and admissions transactions through the till. 

• Work as part of a team to ensure that the Quality Assurance grade is maintained and participate in local action plan delivery.

• Support with delivery of any other reasonable duties as requested by management team. 

   

Key requirements of the role:

In order for you to be successful in this post, we will be looking for you to submit a cover letter which addresses how you can meet each of the essential and desirable criteria (in up to 1,200 words), using examples of where you have demonstrated these criteria previously. Please ensure that you provide real life examples for each of the criteria to be considered for this post. You can use examples of how you have met this criteria from your work life, home life, education or volunteer experience. Please read our CV and Cover Letter Guidance first before completing, as you will only be eligible for selection if you use examples of how you meet the essential and desirable criteria.

Essential:

•  IT skills and the ability to use basic online functions 

• Ability to communicate effectively to colleagues at all levels 

• Passion for delivering the highest standards of customer service

• Passion for delivering sales  

• Experience in a retail/sales environment

• Cash handling experience 

   

Find out more about desirable skills and experience in our full job description.

We are dedicated to building a workforce which is reflective of diversity within Scotland. We warmly welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, regardless of age, race, gender or gender identity, religious beliefs, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, or neurodiversity. In support of our Gaelic Language Plan, we welcome applications from Gaelic speakers.

We want every candidate to have the best chance to succeed during the recruitment process. If you require your application in an alternative format, please reach out to us via email at [email protected] or call our Head Office at 0131 668 8600 and speak to a member of our People Team.

Please note that, at this time, we are unfortunately unable to provide sponsorship as part of the recruitment process, therefore you must have current right to work in the UK to be considered for a post.

To submit your application online, please read our ‘How to Apply’ followed by ‘Apply Now’ button to begin your application.