Junior Project Manager

Travalyst is a non-profit organisation working to identify – and help bring about – the systemic changes needed in order for sustainable travel to be taken out of the niche, and into the mainstream.

We believe tourism can, and must, play a key role in achieving a sustainable future for our world; so we’re convening the key players, and catalysing the necessary action, to change the impact of travel, for good. We are committed to being a driving force that redefines what it means to travel, helping everyone explore our world in a way that protects both people and places, and secures a positive future for destinations and local communities for generations to come.

We were founded in partnership with Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Skyscanner, Trip.com Group, Tripadvisor, and Visa. We now have nine of the world’s leading companies and brands associated with travel working with us to make travel more sustainable.

What does successful project management look like at Travalyst?

As the Junior Project Manager at Travalyst, you will be key to ensuring the smooth running of the accommodation workstream that sets the framework that our partners use to provide consumers with information about sustainable travel choices. You will support the management of projects that have direct impact on Travalyst Industry Relations. More broadly, you will track our progress across our key initiatives, using your project management skills to ensure we deliver our objectives. You will work closely with the Strategy, Product, Communications and Partnerships teams to ensure that our work progresses in a timely manner, and captures and addresses the issues raised by all stakeholders. Managing key internal and external stakeholders, you will liaise with our Independent Advisory Group to ensure that our sustainability frameworks are robust and implementable.

You will work closely with the Project Lead, EA to the CEO, the Product Managers and the Head of Strategy & Impact to agree weekly, monthly and quarterly priorities which will accelerate progress towards our mission, both on a strategic and operational level. In particular, you will help administer specific projects, such as our Accommodation Certifications Initiative (where you will manage submissions from and follow up with industry bodies) as well as oversee and enhance the organisation’s tools and systems to ensure the team works as efficiently as possible. You may also have a key role in organising and facilitating our Working Group meetings, which are at the heart of our work with our partners. You will have previously worked in travel, technology or sustainability and will be comfortable supporting a team across multiple time zones.

Examples of the sorts of projects you’ll be supporting on include:

• Our Travalyst Certifications Initiative within the Accommodation vertical Liaising with the certification bodies, scheme holders, and other relevant entities within the certifications ecosystem.
• Overseeing our project management software, like Notion, and building out the whole project management system including documentation libraries and dashboards for internal use and reference. 

What you’ll get to do:

• Helping set up project plans, creating workflows and tracking progress, including managing documentation
• Tracking progress and escalating any issues for resolution
• Scheduling regular meetings across the Travalyst stakeholder group and record decisions (e.g. assigned tasks and next steps)
• Preparing and providing documentation to internal teams and key stakeholders, including doing some research to help develop ideas and move projects forward.
• Acting as the point of contact for EAs and similar at core stakeholders and external partners, including gathering, documenting and updating availability from key stakeholders (e.g. working group participants) to make scheduling cross-company meetings as straight-forward as possible 
• Proactively seeking out opportunities for stakeholders (both Secretariat and wider Coalition) to meet virtually and in-person during/around scheduled events (e.g. conferences)
• Liaising with other staff members on behalf of the leadership team, when appropriate
• Work with the owners of the accommodation workstream, with more to come, to ensure that we have clear plans so that we develop sustainability frameworks in a timely manner
• Work closely with the programme and partnership managers, as well as the senior leadership team, to identify project requirements, delivery timelines and costs
• Identify and assign project tasks based on the skill sets, experience and strengths of staff and stakeholders, including teams at partner organisations
• Develop, and keep updated, project status reports
• Develop detailed project plans to guide both partner staff and the internal team, updating and revising these based on feedback and changing requirements
• Where necessary carry out risk assessments and/or identify major issues that would block further progress
• Develop appropriate systems to keep track of people and progress
• Evaluate the success of each project stage and share lessons or best practice with our partner organisations
• Work effectively with a broad range of relevant stakeholders for efficient workstream development and implementation

How do we work?

We are not perfect, and pride ourselves by driving new learnings every day. We try new things, take risks, make educated guesses and move quickly. We aren’t dogmatic, but we believe in the tenets of agile development. Excellent communication and collaboration skills are a must. Our work and focus of activity are continually evolving, and we are a small team, so you can expect your tasks and projects to change to meet evolving priorities.

What skills we’re looking for:

You might have worked in a project management role in travel before, perhaps deploying complex projects at one of our partner organisations or a similar large, multi-stakeholder environment. You will be passionate about making travel more sustainable and offering consumers informed choices.

• Project management experience, preferably within the travel and/or sustainability sector and in a multi-stakeholder context
• Experience of building and managing documentation systems
• High attention to detail and the ability to effectively manage multiple projects at a time
• Evidence of strong stakeholder engagement skills, both email and virtual meetings, and the ability to appropriately escalate issues when needed
• Ideally you would have an understanding or experience with the technology that supports the travel industry, for example the global distribution systems
• Working knowledge of accommodation sector would be an advantage (certifications industry experience would be an added bonus)
• Excellent knowledge of Notion (or similar)
• You may have a professional qualification, such as PRINCE2, 'Agile' project management etc, although practical experience with successfully delivering multiple complex projects is more important
• Exceptional organisational skills and successfully able to meet deadlines
• A good command of English is essential
• Excellent communication, diplomacy and interpersonal skills
• Self-starter with the ability to work with limited supervision, including a desire to work in a fast-paced, results-driven environment with varied responsibilities
• Comfortable working in a virtual-office environment (familiarity with Google Workspaces would be advantageous). Highly motivated and productive in that sort of remote environment
• Flexible, open to change and new information; is first to understand when team behaviours and work methods need to adapt to new information
• Recognises own strengths and weaknesses; pursues self-development and feedback
• Treats colleagues and partners with respect: considers and responds appropriately to the needs, feelings, and capabilities of different people
• A passion for sustainable travel

An ‘Open to All’ employer, we warmly welcome everybody to the team. People of colour, LGBTQIA+ people, neurodiverse people, individuals with impairments, and parents are encouraged to apply. We encourage you to notify our team of your pronouns at any stage of your application. We also welcome applications from people who come from communities that are directly affected by the impacts of travel and tourism. We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process as required. Please add any adjustment requests to your application.