Skip to main content

Working at Dart Harbour

Scroll to the bottom for current vacancies.

Do you have what it takes to help manage one of the world’s most beautiful estuaries?

We are a small and close knit team, with a big job.  We need to look after the thousands of vessels – from paddleboards to cruise ships – that use our harbour, delivering great customer service whilst keeping everyone safe.  Just as importantly, we have around 12 miles of estuary to take care of, from the weir at Totnes all the way to the sea at Dartmouth, meandering through the heart of the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  As a trust port, we do this for the benefit of our stakeholders and future generations – all of our income is reinvested in running, conserving and improving the harbour.

To do this, we have a team of around 20 permanent staff, along with yacht taxi drivers.  All of us are passionate about what we do and eager to get involved in the wide range of tasks that come our way.  Dart Harbour are committed to looking after and developing our staff – we offer a good package including a generous defined contribution pension and private healthcare benefits to our permanent staff, but more importantly provide training and coaching to give a great career.  As a small team, we are good at looking after each other – teamwork is one of our core values, and we make sure to have fun along the way.

We have a number of groups of staff

The river team have a role that changes with the seasons.  In the summer they patrol the river, assisting visitors and long term customers alike.  In the winter they switch to overalls, and maintain the moorings and other infrastructure.  This is a mainly outdoors job – our fleet of vessels from patrol ribs to our impressive workbarge Hercules are their home, as well as our well equipped maintenance facility at Hoodown.

Our office team support the operation, looking after everything from finance to communications from the stunningly located office in the heart of Dartmouth.  Being the first point of contact for customers, friendliness and great service is key to what they do.

Our fleet of four yacht taxis are skippered by our team of yacht taxi drivers, many of whom believe they have the best job in the world – manoeuvring these handy little craft and taking happy customers out to their yachts.

Our teams are supported by the Harbour Master, Assistant Harbour Masters and Commercial Manager.  These are more hands on than most management roles, getting stuck in to whatever is going on, rather than stuck in the inbox!  The management team are guided by the board – eight volunteer members who, along with the Harbour Master, are the Duty Holders – responsible for everything that goes on in the harbour.

As you might expect, our seven day operation means that many roles have an element of weekend and/or evening working from time to time.

Dart Harbour are proud to be an equal opportunities employer – with a diverse team and recruitment and promotion based entirely on merit.

Share