Workshop Manager

The company

Our client runs small-group photography workshops across the US and abroad. Trips are all-inclusive, groups are small, and the company sits at the high-touch end of its market. It is owner-led, long established, and fully remote.

The role

Every trip moves through three stages. The photographer partners design each new itinerary, because the route depends on light, tides, moon and terrain. Once a trip is scoped it moves into workshop management. The logistics coordinators then make the bookings.

The Workshop Manager owns the middle stage. You run a portfolio of around 30 trips a year and are the one person thinking end to end about each of them: is everything in place, is it on budget, is the trip leader equipped, has anything been missed. Today the partners do this work themselves. You take it on alongside them, learn their trips and their outfitters, and grow into running more of the portfolio over time.

This is a desk-based role. The trips happen without you.

What you'll do

• Run a portfolio of about 30 workshops a year across the US and abroad, switching between trips every week: Alaska one day, France the next.
• Keep a running check on every trip. Hotels booked, guest counts, passports, early arrivals, group dinners, airport pickups, the leader's briefing pack.
• Make budget calls that protect the guest experience. Spending more so the group gets somewhere earlier is the right call. Saving money for its own sake is not.
• Find, compare and negotiate with outfitters, charters and vendors, then hand the arrangement to the coordinators to execute.
• Work with ground teams in country and check that their invoices are right.
• Direct the logistics coordinators. Set the task, review what comes back, and make sure it got done.
• Make sure each trip leader has everything they need before departure.
• Improve how the work is done as the portfolio grows.

What you won't do

• Design new itineraries. That stays with the photographer partners.
• Make the bookings yourself. The coordinators do that.
• Lead trips. Occasional scouting travel may come up, but this job is run from a desk.

Who we're looking for

Must have

• Managed trips and logistics for group travel, with a portfolio of 10 or more trips running at once.
• Owned a trip budget and can walk through the trade-offs you made.
• Managed people, or coordinated work across several teams and vendors.
• Not a professional photographer, and have not led photography trips.
• Based in the US. Anywhere is fine.

Strong signals

• Promoted from within at an established group or adventure travel company, for example coordinator to regional or program manager.
• Have run a region spanning several countries or trip types.

Who this isn't for

• Someone whose first instinct is to cut cost.
• Someone who wants the job for the travel.
• Someone who lives in the details and loses sight of the whole trip.

What makes this different

One person owns the guest experience across dozens of trips, inside a small company where the partners are generous with their time and context. The role is being shaped around the person who takes it, and the company is planning for a long handover rather than a fast one.

Team and timing

• You work directly with the partners and direct the work of the logistics coordinators.
• Target start is early 2027. For the right person, later is fine.