General Manager & Head of Customer Experience in Esher

Job title: General Manager & Head of Customer Experience

Based at: Sandown Park Racecourse

Contract type: Permanent

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

About the role

We have a fantastic opportunity for an experienced and customer-focused leader to join Sandown Park Racecourse as General Manager & Head of Customer Experience. Responsible for leading the customer experience strategy across the London Hub while providing overall leadership of Sandown Park, you'll play a pivotal role in creating exceptional raceday and non-raceday experiences that drive loyalty, engagement and commercial success.

As a member of the Hub Leadership Team, you'll champion a one-team approach across the London racecourses, using customer insight, feedback and performance data to continuously raise standards across service, hospitality, entertainment, memberships and community engagement, ensuring every experience reflects excellence

About The Jockey Club

The Jockey Club stages thrilling sporting occasions and live events nationwide including The Grand National, The Cheltenham Festival & The Derby. Owning & operating 15 courses, millions of people every year enjoy the special experiences we offer through racing, music, food and entertainment on racedays and beyond.

As the largest commercial group in British racing, we are guided by our mission to act for the long term good of the sport. Every penny we make goes back into racing to promote excellence within Britain’s second biggest spectator sport. Our people are what makes this possible

At The Jockey Club people are at the heart of what we do and drive our success. We are inclusive and actively seek to attract people with unique backgrounds and perspectives. Diverse, collaborative teams are pivotal to our success and support the potential and growth of all our people.

The General Manager & Head of Customer Experiencewill

• Lead Sandown Park Racecourse, driving exceptional raceday and non-raceday experiences while contributing to the success of the wider London Hub.
• Champion a Hub-first approach, ensuring decisions support the collective objectives and performance of all London racecourses.
• Lead, inspire and develop high-performing teams, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Oversee customer experience, community engagement, owner and trainer relations, memberships and entertainment strategies across the London Hub.
• Develop and deliver customer experience initiatives that improve satisfaction, loyalty and NPS performance.
• Shape and implement the business strategy for Sandown Park, aligning customer experience, commercial performance and operational excellence.
• Drive revenue growth and business performance, identifying commercial opportunities while maintaining strong financial discipline and operational efficiency.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with racing authorities, local stakeholders, industry partners and committee members.
• Lead community engagement activity across Sandown Park and the London Hub, strengthening local relationships and enhancing reputation.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the Hub to deliver a genuine One Team culture and outstanding experiences for customers, participants and stakeholders.

About you

• Proven senior leadership experience within customer experience, hospitality, leisure, sport, events or a similarly customer-focused environment.
• A track record of leading high-performing teams and delivering outstanding customer and participant experiences.
• Passionate about creating memorable experiences and embedding a customer-first culture across every aspect of a venue or business.
• Skilled in using customer insight, NPS and feedback data to drive continuous improvement and measurable results.
• An inspiring people leader who motivates, coaches and develops teams to achieve their full potential.
• A collaborative relationship-builder, able to influence and engage a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Commercially astute, with experience managing budgets, resources and performance to deliver business objectives.
• Strong understanding of premium hospitality, customer service excellence and venue presentation standards.
• Resilient, adaptable and solutions-focused, with the ability to balance strategic priorities and operational demands.
• A credible and values-driven leader who champions high standards, accountability and a One Team approach.

What we offer in return

• Competitive salary, aligned to experience, skills and market benchmarks, together with a comprehensive benefits package.
• All colleagues can go along to any of our race day or music events free of charge – along with 3 friends or family with our TeamPass Ticket scheme.
• An award-winning pension scheme provider with a generous employer contribution
• A healthcare cash back plan enabling you to claim money back on health & wellbeing services.
• 25 days annual leave
• A whole host of other benefits including free eyecare vouchers, a ride to work cycle scheme & discounts across varying retailers & services.

If you think you have everything we’re looking for and more, then we’d love to hear from you. Don’t hang around, our closing date for this vacancy is 26th October but we reserve the right to bring this forward if we have many applications.

This role may be subject to a criminal record check, standard or enhanced DBS check or BHA Suitability Check. By applying you confirm that you are happy for these checks to be carried out.