People Development Advisor

Great food is part and parcel of a great National Trust experience, and the financial contribution catering generates for our work is vital.

Over the last 18 months, we have introduced a new core menu offering across all of our tearooms and restaurants – a menu with fresh, local, seasonal produce at its heart. To make sure that our catering managers, chefs and cooks know the new menu inside out and that they’re confident delivering it, we have embarked on a comprehensive programme of training. Now we enter the next phase of that training, helping to embed the cookbook to ‘business as usual.’ And that’s going to be your job. We’ll look to you to coordinate and deliver hands on, ‘on the job’ kitchen training to catering teams at our properties.

What's like to work here

We provide the best possible working environment for you throughout the building whilst also promoting and fostering a sociable Heelis Community. Do great things for us and we’ll do great things for you and your career.

Heelis is the Central Office for the National Trust; it was named after one of the Trust’s biggest benefactors Mrs William Heelis, There are approximately 500 staff from across the Trust’s directorates, including the Executive team and the Director General, are based here.

Heelis was designed to be highly sustainable and has won a number of nationally recognised awards. Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects in 2005, this architectural gem uses timber from our woodlands and wool from Herdwick sheep grazed on Trust farmlands, to help make Heelis a unique working environment.

What you'll be doing

As well as helping to improve general kitchen skills and training teams to produce core Cookbook recipes to a consistently high standard, you’ll be our food quality and cooking skills champion. Supporting our Midlands and Wales regions, you’ll work as a coach and mentor to catering managers and kitchen teams, inspiring them, instilling our food strategy and empowering them to deliver great food experiences to our visitors. While you’ll spend most of your time at your regional properties, you’ll occasionally need to be at Heelis, our central office in Swindon.

Who we're looking for

An experienced, knowledgeable and credible chef, you love great food – and you’re passionate about how it’s prepared, presented and served. But as well as being great with food, you’re brilliant with people: engaging, inspiring and persuasive, you enjoy sharing your knowledge with others and will already have plenty of practical experience of training fellow chefs and cooks. It’s also important that you understand the commercial and financial side of catering.

The package

Looking after you

• Health cash plan – from as little as £2.81 per month for you and your dependents

• Pension contribution match up to 10%

• EAP and proactive Health and Wellbeing

• Discounted gym membership

Looking after your career

• Grow your career through professional training courses across the Trust

• Develop your skills with an internal secondment

• Pay review linked to values and behaviours, commitment to progression

• Income protection due to illness

Unique to Us

• Work in some of the most beautiful, iconic and unique locations in the UK

• Free entry to NT properties for you, a guest and your children (under 18)

• 20% off in our retail and catering outlets

• Discount up to 35% off a National Trust holiday cottage booking