Do you love travel and spreadsheets? Boutique Japan is hiring a Full-Time Operations Specialist to join our globally distributed team.
If you are incredibly organized and detail-oriented, and passionate about immersive travel, you may be the perfect fit! Relevant experience in a comparable position in the travel industry is required.
- Who Are We?
- Who Are You?
- Essential Skills and Experience
- Tasks and Responsibilities
- Important Details
- Apply
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Who Are We?
Boutique Japan is an award-winning travel company that specializes in crafting bespoke journeys for travelers from around the world.
Along with the unique experiences we offer, it is our extreme attention to our clients’ interests, priorities, and preferences that helps us ensure that each of our travelers has an amazing trip.
Learn more about our team. We’d love for you to join us!
Who Are You?
You are passionate about travel, and realize that a huge amount of time and energy goes into planning meticulously arranged itineraries.
As an experienced and talented travel industry professional, you’re equally at ease with luxury travelers looking for white-glove service, as with adventurous high-end travelers seeking off-the-beaten-path experiences.
You will take on a challenging role at a dynamic company, work from virtually anywhere in the world, and live and breathe travel (both via Boutique Japan and our fast-growing sister company, Boutique Explorer).
Essential Skills and Experience for the Role
This role is not for everyone, and if you are not the most organized person you know, please consider applying for a different role with us in the future (bookmark our Careers page).
Assisting and communicating with clients, while coordinating the behind-the-scenes workings of complex bespoke itineraries, is no easy feat.
This position requires a uniquely keen attention to detail, and an extraordinary ability to prioritize from a big-picture perspective. Essential skills and characteristics include:
- Relevant experience in a comparable position in the travel industry
- Native-level English fluency and superb writing and communication skills
- Familiarity and ease with a wide range of software and apps (after all, this is a fully remote position)
- Outstanding customer service skills, and a refined ability to treat each interaction with a personalized approach
- Extensive world travel experience, and an authentic and palpable enthusiasm for travel and adventure
- The ability to focus single-mindedly on the task at hand, while simultaneously managing numerous projects (and the calm perspective to prioritize wisely)
- A level of attention to detail and conscientiousness that occasionally makes others wonder why you care so much, coupled with the ability to take a step back and see the big picture
- An intrinsic desire to do great work, and track record of being able to manage yourself (we will support you, but you must be self-motivated to excel)
- A constant desire to improve yourself, as well as those around you (both personally and professionally)
- The humility and honesty to admit when you don’t know something, combined with the resourcefulness to help you find solutions to challenging questions and requests
Operations Specialist Tasks and Responsibilities
As a member of our Operations team, you will help provide our travelers with a seamless, worry-free, and wonderful experience, from the moment they book their trip until after they’ve returned home.
Initially, you will play a support role as you learn the ropes. Then you will begin taking on your own clients, who you will support from the time of booking, through the pre-trip process, and finally travel itself!
You will work on a variety of tasks, depending on the evolving needs of our Operations team, and this is a sampling of the types of tasks you will handle:
- Manage complex custom itineraries to ensure seamless experiences for our clients
- Provide warm, human, and exceedingly professional customer service to our travelers (primarily via email and telephone)
- Prepare trip documents including pre-departure information, and field client questions using your expertise, research, and resourcefulness
- Proofread minutely detailed itineraries to ensure both complete accuracy and appealing trip flow
- Communicate with guides, hotels, ryokans, and other suppliers to refine and coordinate highly customized services
- Edit and compose detailed itinerary descriptions, in part by skillfully piecing together existing copy from our internal database
- Review and help manage complex trip budgets and spreadsheets, and maintain exceptional levels of organization in record keeping and updates to internal files and documents
- Collaborate closely with colleagues throughout the post-booking and pre-trip process to ensure even seemingly small details are thoroughly conveyed (and don’t fall through the cracks)
As a member of our small and tight-knit team, you will also have a chance to play an active role in continually “leveling up” the way we do things, while learning through hands-on experience.
We’re committed to always trying to refine and improve how we do things — not only when it comes to our Ops (which will be a particular focus for you), but with regard to every aspect of our company.
This applies to everything from administrative processes, to how we interact with each other as a fully distributed team, and of course our travelers’ experiences!
Important Details
This is a challenging role, but you won’t be working from a cubicle (unless cubicles are your thing) because the position is remote.
Your Location
Boutique Japan has been a completely remote company since we started in 2013, and this is a fully remote job. Our company is US-based but globally distributed, meaning you can work from virtually anywhere in the world — provided you have ultra-reliable internet.
As appealing as it can be, we won’t sugarcoat it: remote work is not for everyone. Many people prefer the structure and interaction of in-person office positions, and remote work can be lonely and challenging. So if you get the feeling that remote work might not be ideal for you, please trust your gut.
Your Schedule
This is a full-time job of 36 hours per week (8 hours per day Monday through Thursday, and half-day Fridays). We are seeking a candidate who can commit to working during North American business hours, for maximum schedule overlap.
As a close-knit team, we speak frequently using a variety of communication tools (including Zoom and Slack). You will need to coordinate your schedule to speak in real time at the convenience of colleagues and international suppliers, which (depending on your location) may require significant time-zone flexibility on your part.
You will have daily, weekly, and other regular deliverables that must be completed on time. We are results-oriented above all, and while we provide plenty of guidance and support (we want you to thrive), you must have a concrete track record of successfully managing yourself.
Compensation and Benefits
Pay will be commensurate with skills and experience.
Enthusiasm, ambition, and hard work pay off, and provided you excel you will have the opportunity to increase your level of responsibility and compensation.
BENEFITS AND PERKS
- The chance to work on a fun and dynamic team, in a company where there is room for you to grow and make a significant impact
- The opportunity to work from virtually anywhere in the world
- A schedule that prioritizes results and deliverables
- Health and dental insurance for US-based employees
- 401(k) with employer matching for US-based employees
- Paid time off, sick leave, plus national holidays
- Fun and productive in-person team meetups (past locations have included Japan, Mexico City, Joshua Tree National Park, and more)
- Annual FAM trip
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I’m Ready to Apply! What’s the Next Step?
Applications are due by no later than October 19, but we may close the application window sooner, so if you’re interested in this position please make sure to apply as soon as possible. Anywhere within your application, please make sure to use the word yukata.
UPDATE: THANK YOU TO ALL WHO APPLIED! THE APPLICATION WINDOW HAS CLOSED.
Please note that due to the high number of applications we typically receive, we may only reply to candidates advancing to the next phase of the application process.
