Manager, Guest Experience

City of Philadelphia • Tinicum Township, PA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

The Manager of Guest Experience plays a critical role in ensuring an exceptional, consistent, and people-centered experience for all who pass through Philadelphia International Airport—including passengers, airlines, tenants, and PHL’s 17,000 badged employees. This role operates as a strategic leader within the Strategy Division, responsible for advancing a system-wide Guest Experience ecosystem that aligns with PHL’s enterprise strategic plan and brand promise.
The Manager leads efforts to elevate the entire PHL Airport Community, ensuring that every interaction, across every touchpoint, reflects a shared standard of hospitality, operational excellence and Philadelphia’s unique sense of place. This individual oversees guest-facing operations, stakeholder engagement and airport-wide programs that enhance both passenger satisfaction and employee engagement while leveraging data, insights and performance metrics to continuously improve the end-to-end journey. This individual also manages the PHL WORKS program—the airport-wide customer service standards: Welcoming, Ownership, Respectful, Knowledgeable, and Seeks to connect—including digital learning, in-person training, and “train-the-trainer” programming. As the airport’s enterprise-wide service culture platform, this individual needs to ensure it drives measurable impact across all stakeholders.

Requirements

• Knowledge of enterprise strategy execution and change management.
• Knowledge of customer experience measurement frameworks (NPS, journey mapping, service design).
• Knowledge of guest experience and customer service principles within aviation or large, multi-faceted public facilities.
• Knowledge of airport tenant and airline operations.
• Knowledge of workplace training, digital learning, and service skills development.
• Knowledge of stakeholder engagement approaches and partnership management.
• Knowledge of equity, accessibility, and inclusive customer support practices.
• Skills in translating strategy into execution across complex organizations.
• Skills in using data to influence stakeholders and drive behavioral change.
• Skills in managing complex stakeholder relationships with airlines, tenants, and large employee populations.
• Skills in communicating clearly, professionally, and empathetically with diverse audiences.
• Skills in leading frontline service teams in high-traffic, dynamic environments.
• Skills in coordinating programs, training, and recognition initiatives.
• Skills in problem-solving, conflict de-escalation, and improving guest-facing processes.
• Ability to lead without direct authority across a highly matrixed airport environment.
• Ability to balance operational realities with long-term strategic goals.
• Ability to build strong partnerships and represent Guest Experience with credibility and professionalism.
• Ability to lead teams in delivering consistent, high-quality service.
• Ability to navigate a fast-paced airport environment with flexibility and sound judgment.
• Ability to uphold service excellence standards and drive continuous improvement.
• Ability to work collaboratively across airport departments and with external partners.
• Bachelor’s degree in public relations, hospitality management, aviation management or a closely related field.
• Three to five years of experience in customer/guest experience, within a, hospitality, aviation, or large-scale service environments, with demonstrated experience in stakeholder management and program leadership.
• New hires must establish and maintain residency in the city of Philadelphia within 6 months of appointment.
• Current City of Philadelphia employees must maintain residency in the City of Philadelphia while employed in this position.
• Obtainment of a Security Badge is a condition of employment.
• Must pass and maintain SIDA (Security Identification Display Area) and STA (Security Threat Assessment) clearance at the time of appointment and during tenure of employment.

Nice To Haves

• We value diverse experiences and are open to flexible qualifications. If you are passionate about this role and meet some of the key criteria, we encourage you to apply.

Responsibilities

• Translate PHL’s enterprise strategic plan and brand standards into actionable Guest Experience initiatives across the airport ecosystem.
• Lead the development of a holistic, data-informed Guest Experience strategy that integrates passengers, employees, tenants and partners.
• Serve as a connector across Strategy, Operations, Commercial and external partners to ensure alignment and execution of Guest Experience priorities.
• Serve as a strategic and operational lead for terminal guest experience, ensuring alignment with enterprise priorities and service standards.
• Drive system-wide consistency and accountability in the guest experience through structured stakeholder engagement and performance expectations.
• Develop and manage Guest Experience KPIs (i.e. NPS, sentiment, journey analytics) and translate insights into actionable improvements.
• Partner with Data & Analytics to institutionalize measurement and reporting frameworks across Guest Experience initiatives.
• Support informed, knowledgeable interactions with passengers by developing expertise in airport processes and customer service standards.
• Build strong partnerships with airport tenants to ensure consistency in customer service and operational coordination.
• Design and lead enterprise-wide recognition and engagement programs to reinforce desired service behaviors and culture.
• Lead initiatives that bring “Philadelphia” into the airport experience, aligning with brand and sense-of-place strategies.
• Lead airport-wide Employee Appreciation programming as part of workforce engagement efforts.
• Develop and support initiatives that center on the experience of airport employees and aviation workers.
• Ensure stakeholders have the tools, training, and information necessary to deliver a high-quality guest experience.
• Partner cross-functionally to embed Guest Experience into operational decision-making, capital planning and commercial strategy.
• Support the Director of Guest Experience with internal and external stakeholders, including the PHL Guest Experience Stakeholder Council, PHL Stakeholder Engagement Committee, partners, and airlines.
• Ability to engage stakeholders, evaluate what will resonate with an airport-wide employee base to be an impactful leader, an authentic cheerleader, a positive representative of PHL WORKS to ensure continued success.
• Manage the contract for PHL WORKS program support.
• Own and evolve the PHL WORKS program as a measurable, scalable service culture program, including training, audits and stakeholder adoption.
• Ability to implement measurement strategies that document the effectiveness of all PHL WORKS initiatives by tracking progress, assessing outcomes, and using data to continually make improvements towards more effective and meaningful outcomes.
• Manage the PHL WORKS airport-wide journey audits, logistics, and data dissemination to stakeholders.
• Oversee the contract for PHL WORKS program support.
• All other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health coverage for employees and their eligible dependents.
• Wellness program offers eligibility into the discounted medical plan
• Paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
• Generous retirement savings options are available
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness program eligibility
• Tuition Discounts and Scholarships (10% to 40%)
• 8 weeks of paid parental leave
• Unlimited FREE public transportation all year long through SEPTA’s Key Advantage program.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager