Operations Director

Hiddenwell is growing — and we’re looking for an exceptional Group Operations Director to help bring that growth to life. We are a collection of beautiful spa and hotel destinations created around one simple idea: giving people the space to switch off, reconnect and feel good. As we continue to evolve our existing destinations and bring new Hiddenwell properties to life, we’re looking for an accomplished hospitality leader with the energy, experience and ambition to help us build something special.

This is far more than a traditional multi-site operations role. We’re looking for someone who has ideally opened hotels, resorts, spas or complex hospitality destinations, understands what it takes to translate a brand from concept into a brilliant operational reality, and knows that the most memorable guest experiences begin with exceptional people. You’ll lead with brand, people and overall hospitality experience, while bringing the commercial discipline and operational expertise needed to deliver outstanding performance across a growing portfolio.

The opportunity

Reporting to our Chief Operating Officer, you’ll provide operational leadership across the Hiddenwell estate, working closely with our property Managing Directors and central service functions. A major part of your remit will be our overall growth of the brand and ongoing openings journey. From pre-opening planning and operational readiness to recruitment, culture, service standards and launch, you’ll help ensure every new Hiddenwell destination opens brilliantly and feels unmistakably part of our brand from day one. You’ll be equally passionate about the destinations already within our collection — supporting our leaders to continually raise standards, develop their teams and create experiences that keep our guests coming back.

Opening. Building. Leading

We’re particularly interested in leaders who can demonstrate significant new-opening and mobilisation experience within luxury hospitality, resorts, spa, wellness or a similarly experience-led environment. You’ll understand how to take a property through the entire opening journey — building operational plans, establishing standards, supporting recruitment and onboarding, creating leadership capability, embedding culture, testing the guest journey and ensuring every detail is ready before the doors open. You’ll know that a successful opening isn’t simply about being operationally ready. It’s about creating belief and excitement within a team, establishing the culture before the first guest arrives and ensuring the brand can be felt throughout the experience.

Lead the Hiddenwell experience

Our destinations are places where people come to relax, celebrate, reconnect and simply feel good. That feeling is created through thousands of small moments — a genuine welcome, thoughtful service, beautiful surroundings, brilliant food, exceptional spa experiences and people who care about what they do. As Group Operations Director, you’ll be a guardian of that experience. You’ll work across the business to ensure our brand promise translates into the everyday guest journey, while allowing each destination to retain the individuality and character that makes it special. You’ll champion high standards without creating unnecessary complexity and encourage teams to bring personality, warmth and flair to the way they look after our guests.

People first. Performance always

We believe exceptional hospitality starts with exceptional people. You’ll build trusted relationships with our property Managing Directors, creating clarity, accountability and confidence while giving talented leaders the space and support to perform at their best. You’ll help us attract, develop and retain brilliant hospitality leaders and create strong succession pipelines across the group. We want someone who is visible, approachable and comfortable spending time in our destinations — talking to teams, experiencing the operation as our guests do and understanding what is really happening on the ground. You’ll create a culture where people feel empowered to make decisions, continuously improve and take genuine ownership of the guest experience.

Commercially strong. Operationally brilliant

Alongside brand and people leadership, you’ll bring significant commercial capability. You’ll take ownership of operational performance across the portfolio, working with our property Managing Directors to drive sustainable revenue, profitability and operational efficiency without compromising the quality of the experience. You’ll use insight and data to understand performance across areas including occupancy, RevPAR, spa utilisation, treatment revenue, guest spend, payroll and productivity. You’ll identify opportunities, challenge constructively and turn insight into action. You’ll also ensure our destinations operate safely, responsibly and consistently, maintaining high standards of governance, compliance, health & safety and risk management.

What you’ll bring

• A strong track record of successful hotel, resort or hospitality openings and mobilisations
• Significant multi-site operational leadership experience
• A genuine understanding of luxury and experience-led hospitality
• The ability to translate a brand proposition into an exceptional operational and guest experience
• A highly people-focused leadership style with evidence of building outstanding leadership teams
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, including ownership of significant P&Ls
• Experience driving performance while protecting brand and service standards
• Excellent stakeholder management and the confidence to operate with boards, investors and senior leadership teams
• Experience within a Private Equity-backed or similarly fast-paced growth environment would be advantageous
• The ability to move comfortably between strategy and hands-on operational delivery
• Energy, curiosity and the desire to continuously make things better

What matters to us

At Hiddenwell, we care about exceptional hospitality, individuality, passion and positivity, teamwork, integrity, operational excellence and continuous improvement. We want our guests to feel genuinely welcomed and cared for — like a friend of the family — and we want our people to feel equally valued. That means we’re looking for a Group Operations Director who leads with humanity as well as high standards. Someone who listens. Someone who develops people rather than simply directs them. Someone who understands that brilliant commercial performance and brilliant guest experiences should strengthen one another. And someone who gets genuine energy from building teams, opening destinations and creating experiences people remember.

Why Hiddenwell? Why now?

This is an opportunity to join Hiddenwell at an incredibly exciting point in our story. Our brand is evolving. Our portfolio is growing. New destinations are coming to life. For the right person, this is a rare opportunity to influence not just how a group of exceptional hospitality businesses operate, but how the Hiddenwell brand is experienced as we grow. You’ll have the opportunity to shape openings, develop leaders, influence culture and create operational foundations that will support the next stage of our journey.

If you’re an experienced hospitality operator who loves opening exceptional places, building brilliant teams and turning a brand vision into an experience guests can genuinely feel, we’d love to hear from you.