Guest Experience Director

Position Title: Guest Experience Director
Functional Ministry Area(s): Serve With Compassion
Church: Hillside Community Church
Location: Rancho Campus
Reports to: TBD
FLSA Classification: Full-Time
Position Schedule: Sunday–Thursday; full Sunday presence required
Salary: $45,000-$65,000

OVERVIEW

The Guest Experience Director leads Hillside’s Guest Experience ministry and helps create welcoming, organized, and relational environments where every person is seen, valued, and connected. This role provides hands-on leadership for Guest Experience teams, including Parking, Ushers, Greeters, First Responders, Safety Team, Start Here, Info Desk, Communion Prep, Gathering Section Leads, and other guest-facing teams as assigned.

In partnership with the Volunteer Engagement Pastor, the Guest Experience Director also provides hands-on execution of Hillside’s volunteer engagement pathway. This role serves as the first point of personal contact for all new volunteer applications, ensuring every prospective Team Member receives timely follow-up, relational connection, clear next steps, and an effective handoff to the appropriate ministry.

CORE STAFF VALUES

• Christ-centered: I choose to seek Christ and His kingdom above all else. I will keep the main thing the main thing and strive to love, trust and follow Jesus, stay grounded in Scripture and keep in step with His Spirit day by day.

• Compassionate: I want to be marked by the compassion of Jesus in how I relate to others. I choose to be a proactive initiator of care, remembering that Jesus is a friend of sinners like me and reaches out to the suffering.

• Collaboration: I choose partnership with God and with others over individual achievement and effort. I want to work with God and His people on His mission of transformation that is bigger than any one of us.

• Community: I will devote myself to and faithfully cultivate friendships with others at Hillside. Growing with Jesus always involves being with friends who pray, serve and follow Jesus together.

• Commitment: I will wholeheartedly and sacrificially devote myself to God and one another in a world of busyness and overcommitment. In my heart, home, neighborhood and church I will be a devoted follower of Christ.

• Courageous: Our faith calls us out of our comfort zones and invites us to live with boldness and resiliency, filled with God's Spirit and power. I will seek first the kingdom of God, being a servant and witness to Him daily.

• Celebration: I will choose to be thankful and joyful in the goodness of God and His salvation. Even when sorrowful I will seek to be grateful for the gifts of God. I also choose to rejoice with others as they rejoice.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Guest Experience Leadership & Sunday Execution

• Lead Guest Experience teams, environments, and operations for Sundays and major church-wide events.

• Ensure teams are appropriately staffed, prepared, welcoming, and aligned with Hillside’s standards and culture.

• Provide visible, proactive Sunday leadership by anticipating needs, solving problems, supporting leaders, and creating an excellent guest experience from arrival through departure.

• Continually evaluate the guest journey and identify opportunities to remove barriers and strengthen connection.

Team Building, Development & Care

• Recruit, equip, develop, and care for Guest Experience Team Members, Team Leaders, and Coaches.

• Build healthy leadership depth so teams are increasingly led and developed by capable volunteer leaders.

• Establish effective rhythms for communication, training, huddles, feedback, care, appreciation, and celebration.

• Identify emerging leaders and intentionally move Team Members toward greater ownership and leadership.

Prospecting, Recruitment & Pipeline Development

• Provide personal first follow-up for every new volunteer application across Hillside, connecting with prospective Team Members within the established follow-up standard.

• Conduct initial connection conversations to learn each person’s interests, gifts, experience, availability, and potential areas of service.

• Ensure prospective Team Members receive clear next steps and a warm, timely handoff to the appropriate ministry leader.

• Build and maintain an active Guest Experience prospect pipeline and coach ministry leaders to maintain active prospect lists based on current and future team needs.

• Equip leaders to practice relational recruitment by noticing potential, making personal invitations, following up consistently, and creating opportunities to try serving.

• Identify stalled prospects and work with ministry leaders to remove barriers and move people toward meaningful service.

Volunteer Pathway Implementation & Ministry Partnership

• Implement Hillside’s volunteer engagement pathway and follow-up standards in partnership with the Volunteer Engagement Pastor.

• Help execute recruitment, onboarding, training, and other church-wide volunteer engagement initiatives.

• Maintain consistent communication and handoffs between the centralized volunteer process and ministry-specific onboarding and training.

• Help ministry leaders consistently use Hillside’s volunteer systems, tools, and practices to strengthen their teams.

Tracking, Follow-Through & Continuous Improvement

• Maintain accurate application, prospect, follow-up, placement, and Guest Experience information in Planning Center.

• Monitor application response times and movement from initial interest through ministry handoff, onboarding, first serve, and placement.

• Monitor Guest Experience staffing, serving frequency, retention, leadership development, and prospect pipeline health.

• Identify staffing gaps, stalled prospects, and follow-up breakdowns and provide actionable information to the Volunteer Engagement Pastor.

• Ensure no prospective Team Member is lost in the process and every person knows their next step.

A WIN LOOKS LIKE

Guest Experience is welcoming, organized, fully staffed, and increasingly led by healthy Team Leaders and Coaches. Guests experience genuine hospitality and clear opportunities for connection. Every volunteer application receives timely, personal follow-up and a clear next step. Guest Experience teams maintain active prospect pipelines, and ministry leaders across Hillside consistently identify, invite, and follow up with prospective Team Members. People move measurably from prospect → application → connection → first serve → consistent Team Member → leadership.