Management

Are you an ambitious and commercially minded creative professional with a passion for art and culture?

We are seeking a dynamic Commercial Manager to shape a new retail strategy that will drive our future growth for Dovecot Studios. This is a fixed term post designed for you to bring fresh perspectives and have a positive impact on one of Scotland’s most distinctive cultural institutions.

This is a fixed term post (to 31 March 2027) with the potential for extension, designed for you to bring fresh perspectives and have a positive commercial impact on one of Scotland’s most distinctive cultural institutions.

This is an opportunity to shape our retail offer, influence the visitor experience and contribute directly to Dovecot’s commercial sustainability, while working alongside artists, designers, makers and colleagues across our exhibitions and creative programmes. You will manage the Visitor Services team to deliver ambitious sales targets across retail, exhibition and event tickets.

A key focus of the role will be helping to develop and implement a new retail strategy, ensuring that our shop is commercially successful while remaining true to Dovecot’s distinctive artistic identity. You will combine commercial awareness, excellent customer service and practical management skills to improve performance and create an engaging experience for every visitor.

Key Responsibilities:
Retail & Merchandising: Oversee retail buying, stock management and visual merchandising
Visitor Experience & Sales: Implement revenue-driving initiatives to hit our ambitious financial targets across all key commercial channels of retail and exhibition ticketing
Team Leadership: Provide inspiring line management for a target-focused visitor services team, ensuring a culture of exceptional customer care and sales conversion.
Operations: Maintain high standards of health and safety across the site

Dundee Heritage Trust (DHT) is a highly regarded heritage charity responsible for some of Dundee’s most significant and internationally recognised attractions, including RRS Discovery, Discovery Point and Verdant Works. Through its heritage, collections, learning and visitor experiences, the Trust connects people with Dundee’s rich industrial and maritime history and creates opportunities for learning, inspiration and engagement.

The Trust is now seeking a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to lead the organisation into an exciting new phase of transformation, growth and development. This is a pivotal leadership role, responsible for shaping and delivering the Trust’s strategic direction, strengthening financial sustainability, growing audiences and income, and maximising the impact of its world-class heritage assets.

Reporting directly to the Board of Trustees, the CEO will provide strong, visible and collaborative leadership across DHT, working closely with the Chair, Trustees, Executive Management Team and wider staff team. They will ensure the organisation remains financially sustainable, operationally effective and focused on delivering its charitable objectives, while creating a positive and high-performing culture where people are valued, empowered and accountable.

A major priority for the incoming CEO will be leading the Trust through a significant period of transformation, including the Discovery Point Transformed project, representing an investment of approximately £11 million. This ambitious project provides an opportunity to transform the visitor experience at Discovery Point, strengthen the Trust’s commercial and learning offer, attract new audiences and help secure the long-term future of RRS Discovery. The CEO will play a key role in ensuring this investment delivers lasting heritage, visitor, community and financial benefits for the organisation.

Financial sustainability and growth will also be central to the role. The CEO will work closely with the Finance, Commercial and Development teams to strengthen and diversify income streams across admissions, commercial activity, grants, donations and high-net-worth fundraising. They will provide strategic oversight of financial performance, cash, reserves and investment, while identifying new opportunities for sustainable growth and ensuring that commercial activity remains aligned with the Trust’s charitable purpose.

To succeed in this role, you will be an experienced senior leader with a strong track record of strategic and organisational leadership, financial management, income generation and people development. You will bring the ability to balance commercial opportunities with charitable purpose and will be comfortable operating at Board level and working across a diverse range of stakeholders.

You will be a strategic and creative thinker who can translate ambition into practical delivery, combined with strong communication, influencing and decision-making skills. Experience within the arts, culture, heritage, museum, visitor attraction, charity or wider not-for-profit sector will be highly relevant, alongside experience of leading change, major projects, fundraising and developing sustainable income.

This is an exceptional opportunity for an ambitious and values-led leader to shape the future of one of Scotland’s most distinctive heritage organisations. With significant heritage assets, a committed team and a major capital investment programme underway, the incoming CEO will have a unique opportunity to protect the past, transform the present and build a sustainable future for Dundee Heritage Trust.

How to Apply:

Please email us at recruitment@brucetaitassociates.com to request an information pack and job description. You are advised to get in touch well in advance of the closing date to give us time to consider your application and pre-interview the strongest applicants.

Closing Date: Midday, Tuesday 6^th October

Interview Date: W/C 12^th October

JOB PURPOSE
This role has two purposes:
1. To support the fulfilment of the Membership Strategy, drive and lead a membership engagement and recruitment re-focus across the region as a whole, providing support at an individual property level.
2. In support of the Membership Strategy, feed a from-the-ground perspective into current and future campaigns, initiatives and offers to optimise their success.

CONTEXT
Audiences & Support (A&S) oversees a contribution of more than 50% of the Trust’s income through membership and fundraising. It plays a vital role in managing reputation and building profile which underpins every single aspect of our activity. We have ambition for it to generate more.

Membership represents a third of our income and it is a strategic and budget priority. With around 346,000 members we are the largest membership organisation in Scotland. It is a stable base of engaged advocates who understand our purpose and mission.

In 2024, we committed to undertake a comprehensive review of membership, the first of its type for at least 12 years. The key recommendations from that review were developed into the Membership Strategy, which was approved by our Board in April 2026.

Our Strategy is to grow and sustain an engaged and loyal supporter base of members who feel connected to the Trust and a deepen their relationship to us by visiting, donating and speaking up for heritage. This will be achieved through three core pillars, aligned with the Trust’s ten-year strategy, growing our membership base to 415,000, contributing over £32m per annum to our organisation by 2031.

Below the pillars sits an implementation plan which lays out the activity required to unlock growth potential. These strategic activities require resource to plan, coordinate, implement and evaluate to ensure that the aims of the strategy can be met.

This role is to support our membership growth out at our properties in our Edinburgh & East region. This role is to pilot adding additional support and focus to drive membership recruitment and engagement, with particular focus to investigate and implement strategic changes that enable our growth plan. Its success may lead to similar roles being adopted in other regions across the Trust.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

At a property/regional level:
1. In fulfilment of the Membership Strategy, drive and lead a membership re-focus across the region as a whole. Supporting individual properties with specific action plans.
2. Understand the challenges and opportunities for membership engagement and recruitment for the region and at each property, and use this knowledge to give context to driving the pragmatic operationalisation of Membership Strategy campaigns and initiatives through bespoke property membership recruitment plans – including:
• implementation activities supporting campaigns and initiatives
• development and delivery of staff training (employee and volunteer)
• agreeing milestones for achieving agreed targets
3. Actively seek opportunities to challenge current property thinking and delivery of membership engagement and recruitment, and help the property “do things differently” if this will have a positive impact.
4. Support the Membership Marketing Manager with the roll-out of campaigns – including developing collateral to support properties achieve membership recruitment targets, local media messaging etc.
5. At a regional-level, contribute a membership perspective to cross-regional/cross-functional projects – for example in collections & conservation-in-action, events & formal learning, functions, food & beverage, gardens, holidays, nature conservation, retail, new systems and processes
6. Across the region, drive income generation in year and drive conversation of visitors to members from 2.5% towards 9%, through developing tools and practice to support and sustain income growth beyond the fixed-term period.

At a central Membership function level
7. Using insight and performance data, review target achievement, test new approaches, monitor results, evaluate effectiveness, and identify opportunities for continuous improvements – and, as appropriate, feed these back into central the Membership team to influence future approaches, campaigns, and initiatives for roll-out to other regions/properties.
8. Contribute to projects that improve the member journey at our places, including: online and in-person sign-up processes, data collection, membership administration, digital cards, and EPOS till related service improvements.
9. Build a network of peer membership organisations as a forum for exchanging initiatives, information, best practice etc.

The current duties of this job do not require a criminal records (Disclosure Scotland) check to be carried out.