Build extraordinary adventures. Set the standard. Raise the bar.

Explorer Chick is entering its next chapter — and we’re looking for the person who will help define what that chapter feels like.

We operate more than 30 different women’s adventure tours across the U.S. and around the world — and we’re growing. Our guests hike mountains, paddle coastlines, rappel waterfalls, trek iconic trails, and take on adventures they may never have imagined themselves doing.

Now we’re ready to raise the bar.

We’re looking for an experienced travel industry leader with exceptional judgment, high standards, strong business instincts, and an obsessive eye for the guest experience to lead our growing trip portfolio and Destination Manager team.

Think Four Seasons hospitality meets adventure travel. Not white gloves and marble lobbies. The thinking behind it.

The welcome waiting after a long travel day. The accommodation that feels exactly right for that point in the itinerary. The meal guests talk about three days later. The guide who knows how to turn twelve nervous strangers into a group. The itinerary that has rhythm and tells a story instead of simply moving people from Activity A to Activity B.

The color that turns a well-operated tour into an Explorer Chick experience.

And then there’s the other side of the job:

Does it perform?

You’ll oversee the health of our growing tour portfolio — guest experience, pricing, margins, vendor performance, operational complexity, and product evolution — while leading the Destination Managers responsible for operating our trips around the world.

This is a leadership role for someone who can move comfortably between hospitality, adventure, people management, and P&L.

One hour you might be questioning why a destination’s costs jumped 12%. The next, you’re pushing back on a proposed hotel because technically “four-star” isn’t the same thing as right for Explorer Chick. Then something goes sideways on a tour currently operating in Utah. You make the call.

What You’ll Own

• Lead our Destination Manager team — set priorities, coach decision-making, hold standards, manage day-to-day needs, and step in when difficult situations require experienced judgment.
• Own the health of 30+ tours — and help shape what comes next. Spot trends in guest satisfaction, margins, supplier performance, and operational complexity while helping determine where and how the portfolio should grow.
• Set the hospitality and product standards for Explorer Chick — lodging, meals, welcome experiences, guide touchpoints, gifting, trip pacing, and the small details that create a premium experience.
• Own portfolio pricing and margin performance, reviewing budgets, challenging assumptions, finding cost-saving opportunities, and protecting the guest experience while improving profitability.
• Negotiate and influence. Coach DMs through supplier and vendor negotiations and step in as senior support when the stakes are higher.
• Greenlight major product changes and gate new or modified itineraries against our standards for adventure, pacing, hospitality, brand, and economics.
• Solve problems creatively. Rethink routes, suppliers, transportation, logistics, or how we spend money when there’s a smarter way to deliver the experience.
• Own the product roadmap, balancing the health of existing trips with new product growth. Help determine which trips need investment, which need rethinking, where we have gaps, and which new opportunities deserve our resources.
• Help bring new trips across the finish line, turning newly developed concepts into repeatable, scalable Explorer Chick products.
• Carry a small portfolio of destinations initially so you stay grounded in the actual work while your leadership responsibilities grow.

You Might Be Our Person If…

You already know the tourism/tour-operator industry. DMCs, supplier negotiations, group pricing, seasonality, margins, room blocks, guides, transportation, and the weird realities of moving humans around the world aren’t new vocabulary.

You’re independent, confident, resourceful, and comfortable making decisions. You gather the information you need, use good judgment, and move.

You have high standards and aren’t afraid to defend them — with suppliers or with your own team.

You can look at a budget and find the problem.

You can look at an itinerary and feel the problem.

You have genuine outdoor experience. You understand what 3,000 feet of elevation gain actually feels like, why mileage alone doesn’t determine difficulty, and how an adventure day will feel to a guest — not just how it looks on paper. You’re physically capable of participating in Explorer Chick tours, and travel will be part of this job.

You notice details other people miss. You care about design, hospitality, pacing, storytelling, and how an experience feels, not simply whether the logistical boxes were checked.

You’re also someone who finishes things.

We run on EOS/Traction, and familiarity with it is a strong plus. More importantly, you understand the discipline behind it: slow down to speed up, fewer priorities done well, clear ownership, and getting things across the finish line on time.

You’ll see plenty of things you want to improve here. We want that. But you also know trying to fix everything at once usually means fixing nothing.

You can prioritize, sequence, execute, hold people accountable, and say, “Great idea. Not right now.”

And when something goes sideways? You don’t freeze. You figure it out.

About Explorer Chick

Explorer Chick is a women-only adventure travel company built for women who want to do more than see the world — they want to experience the hell out of it.

Since 2014, we’ve grown from a handful of U.S. adventures into a global portfolio of 30+ small-group hiking, trekking, and multi-sport trips across the United States and around the world — with plenty more places we want to go.

Our guests hike mountains, rappel waterfalls, paddle coastlines, trek ancient trails, and occasionally wonder what exactly they signed themselves up for.

We handle the hard parts so they can show up for the good ones.

We’re a small, entrepreneurial, fully remote company with ambitious plans for our next chapter. This isn’t a corporate product role where you’ll inherit a 200-page brand manual and spend your days maintaining it.

You’ll help write it.

You’ll sit on the leadership team and have a direct hand in shaping what we build next, how we grow, what the Explorer Chick experience becomes, and how we deliver it profitably.

If you’ve spent your career inside adventure travel thinking, I know how I’d make this better — we’d like to talk.

Qualifications

We’re looking for someone who can step into this role with real travel industry depth and leadership experience — not someone learning tour operations for the first time.

• 5+ years of experience in the tour operator, adventure travel, or multi-day group travel industry, with progressively increasing responsibility.
• Experience in travel product management, destination management, tour operations, or a related product leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience managing and developing a team, including setting priorities, holding accountability, coaching decision-making, and managing performance.
• Strong understanding of tour economics — budgeting, pricing, margins, supplier costs, and identifying opportunities to improve profitability without sacrificing the guest experience.
• Proven supplier/DMC negotiation experience and the confidence to navigate difficult conversations, push back, and protect both quality and business interests.
• Experience evaluating and improving itineraries, lodging, activities, pacing, and overall guest experience.
• Strong project management skills with a track record of prioritizing competing initiatives and getting important work completed on time. Familiarity with EOS/Traction is a plus.
• Genuine outdoor and adventure experience with the judgment to evaluate hiking, trekking, and active itineraries beyond what’s written on paper.
• Strong eye for hospitality, design, detail, and quality — you notice the small things that change how an experience feels.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, sound judgment, and the ability to make decisions independently.
• Comfortable working in a fully remote, entrepreneurial environment where priorities are clear, ownership is high, and there isn’t a giant corporate infrastructure waiting to solve problems for you.
• Ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally and physically participate in Explorer Chick trips.

Compensation & Structure

• Full-Time, Salaried Position
• Base Salary: $85,000–$95,000, based on experience
• 3% IRA Match
• 100% Remote
• Domestic & International Travel Opportunities
• Leadership Team Position with Direct Access to the CEO

This is a senior leadership role with real ownership and influence over Explorer Chick’s growing tour portfolio, guest experience, product standards, profitability, and the team responsible for delivering it.

You won’t simply inherit a portfolio and maintain it. You’ll help decide what gets better, what gets built next, and what the next version of Explorer Chick looks like.

Compensation is aligned with experience and demonstrated ability to lead a team, manage portfolio performance, make sound business decisions, and execute at a high level.

The Application Process

1. Complete the Application Form below.
2. Complete this 10 Minute Survey.

Both must be completed to be considered for the position. They are completed separately and can be completed in any order.