Work With Knowmad Adventures

Knowmad is continually growing so please introduce yourself! We share job openings in the Knowmad newsletter and our Facebook page before we post them anywhere else. Sign-up for our newsletter or follow Knowmad Adventures on Facebook to get the most up-to-date information on employment opportunities.

See below to learn more about working with Knowmad.

what it means to work with knowmad adventures

Knowmad Adventures was started by husband and wife team in 2009 while they were living in Northern Patagonia, Chile and grew to a team of 13 / 7+ million in revenue in 2020. It quickly became recognized as a leader in custom and private South American travel, winning Travel & Leisure’s A-List honors, Condé Nast Experience Makers awards and being named “one of the best tour operators” by Frommer’s. We build incredible adventures for great people. We open minds. We blow minds. We collaborate, craft, and construct. We have fun. We wear jeans, any day of the week. Here at Knowmad we are dedicated to unique travel experiences and our team environment reflects that.

We love what we do – travel is exciting, fulfilling our clients’ often times lifelong dreams to travel to South America is rewarding, and bringing people together from faraway lands and cultures is a mission worth standing behind. But we have to say the best part about Knowmad is the team – it’s kind of hard to describe, but the work culture here is what we’re really all in this for; it’s familial, fun, extremely supportive. Join our team!

Knowmad Adventures is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 

OPERATIONS SPECIALIST >

WHAT Begin or advance your career in custom, experiential adventure travel with this position that gives you insight into every facet of the trip building and execution process. The Operations Specialist role assists in the confirmation and scheduling of trips once the client confirms, executing most post-sale coordination and client support. This position allows you to immediately be an important team member adding value to the company while gaining skills that allow you to take on more post-confirmation responsibilities. For those that desire to transition into the Trip Specialist role, Operations allows you to be a valuable part of the team while gaining destination knowledge, mastery of Knowmad’s processes and systems, and experience in offering the best customer service to the client.

WHEN This position has presently been filled, however we are always looking for travel talent. If you feel like you’d be an excellent fit, please inquire as to when we’ll be hiring next.

WHERE This position is work-from-home or remote. Members of Knowmad’s team work remotely in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Minnesota, Texas, Chile and Argentina.

DESIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Hard worker looking to start a career in South America travel.
• Ability to multi-task and handle a wide variety of responsibilities.
• Excellent writing skills for drafting and finalizing client documents and emails as well as contributing to other writing-intensive projects.
• Ability to be resourceful, work with little guidance and learn new skills independently.
• Knowledge of Apple computers, Word, iCal, Outlook, CSV files and Google Drive.
• Must be proficient at word processing.
• Further knowledge of WordPress, InDesign, and credit card processing portals is a plus.
• Customer service experience. The travel industry requires excellent customer services skills, including patience, enthusiasm, attention to detail, and efficient and effective follow up.
• Ability to provide strong references that will confirm previous successes in roles utilizing similar skill sets.
• Bachelor’s degree or higher.
• A passion for and travel experience in South America.
• Conversational Spanish is a plus but not required.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Include, but are not limited to:

• Process traveler registration forms.
• Assist Trip Specialists with drafting of traveler itinerary proposals and creating online registration links.
• Schedule and execute traveler management calendar items.
• Create trip invoices and payment links.
• Send passenger information, flight information, & confirmation of services to South America partners.
• Check service confirmations from South America partners.
• Assist travelers with process of purchasing flights through a flight partner.
• Draft and format client-facing final trip documents.
• Answer traveler pre-trip questions via phone and email.
• Mail trip documents to travelers, marketing materials, etc.
• General database management.
• General administrative needs, including ordering supplies (minimal errands).
• Write blog posts.
• Assist Marketing with formatting of web page (WordPress) and pre-departure materials (InDesign).
• Assist Accounting with data entry.
• Contribute to team-wide company growth initiative projects.
• Eventual periodic monitoring of the Knowmad emergency phone and email during non-office hours.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk; sit; use hands; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

This job requires the ability to use a computer for sustained periods of time – at least 8 hours a day.

COMPENSATION + JOB DETAILS

Knowmad Adventures is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

• Starting base salary of $36,000 or more depending on experience with company-wide revenue goal related bonus opportunities after 6 months. Significant growth opportunities come along with proven impact and tenure.
• Schedule & hours: Approximately 40 hour work week, Monday through Friday.
• After 3 months of employment: 50% health care premium monthly reimbursement begins, 3 weeks of annual Paid Time Off, ability to have a Flexible Schedule (with the majority of your office hours overlapping with Knowmad’s normal office hours).
• 12 weeks Family Leave, partially to fully paid depending on tenure with company.
• After 1 year of employment: 401k investment plan with company matching program.
• After 18 months of employment, 2 weeks of paid, work-related travel annually to South America.
• Additional lifestyle perks: Ability to work from home or abroad (South American locations encouraged!). Periodic Knowmad retreats. Summer hours include half-day Fridays.

WHY THIS Position Could Be A Great Fit For You

This is a great opportunity to join a passionate, close-knit team dedicated to creating incredible adventures in South America. In the Operations Specialist role you’ll learn about each department within Knowmad Adventures from the ground up. This position has a clear growth trajectory into travel planning. If you’re passionate about travel and South America, are a quick learner and hard worker, but don’t have much direct experience with custom South American travel planning, this could be a great fit for you.

HOW TO APPLY

Please send an email titled ‘Operations Specialist Position’ to [email protected], with the following four items attached: resume, cover letter, list of references willing and able to be contacted. Additionally, we encourage applicants to also include a one-page creative letter explaining why you are a good candidate for the position.

TRIP SPECIALIST >

WHAT Trip Specialists work with travelers to build custom itineraries in South America. Utilizing their niche South America knowledge base, they work with travelers from their initial inquiry through the planning process, creating trips that reflect their travel styles and interests, coordinating logistics with our South America partners, and executing the pre-departure logistics in collaboration with our Operations Specialists.

WHEN This position has presently been filled, however we are always looking for travel talent. If you feel like you’d be an excellent fit, please inquire as to when we’ll be hiring next.

WHERE This position work-from-home or remote. Members of Knowmad’s team work remotely in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Minnesota, Texas, Chile and Argentina.

DESIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Past professional travel planning experience with South America focus.
• Excellent verbal and phone communication skills, to interact with a variety of clients and meet demanding expectations for a high level of personalized service.
• Detail-oriented and hard working.
• Excellent writing skills in order to quickly and effectively communicate with clients via email, finalize client documents as well as contribute to Knowmad’s blog, itinerary creation and other projects.
• Exceptional customer service skills.
• Advanced knowledge of Word and Google Drive as well as excellent general computer skills.
• Ability to multi-task and handle a wide variety of responsibilities.
• Ability to work with little supervision and use sound judgment.
• Ability to provide strong references that will confirm previous successes dealing with challenging, detail-oriented work.
• Conversational Spanish a plus but not required.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Include, but are not limited to:

• Follow up with potential leads by phone and email to guide clients through our custom trip planning process.
• Educate potential clients on the destination, excursions and accommodation options while making suggestions for their trip based on what you’ve learned of their travel style and wish list. Determine whether someone is a good fit for Knowmad Adventures and the style of trips that we create.
• Create a custom itinerary, prepare the trip outline in a Google Drive document, work together with suppliers on the logistics of the itinerary, pay close attention to details at all times, finalize traveler itinerary proposals, and use efficient and effective follow-up throughout the sales cycle.
• Answer client pre-departure questions and continue to be a resource to them until they return from their trip.
• Prepare final trip documents, paying close attention to all details of the trip.
• Communicate with suppliers and partner network.
• Assist when issues arise while a traveler is on the ground.
• Contribute to team-wide company growth projects. Ideal candidates will have unique abilities that will be harnessed in growth initiatives and special projects. Projects are a part of all Trip Specialist positions.
• Periodic monitoring of the Knowmad emergency phone and email during non-office hours.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk; sit; use hands; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

This job requires the ability to use a computer for sustained periods of time – at least 8 hours a day.

COMPENSATION AND JOB DETAILS

• Salary and compensation depends on experience and performance. Knowmad Trip Specialists generally earn above industry averages, and high-performing Trip Specialists have considerable earning potential. Inquire for details when applying.
• Schedule & hours: Minimum 40 hour work week Monday through Friday.
• After 3 months of employment: 50% health care premium monthly reimbursement begins, 3 weeks of yearly Paid Time Off, ability to have a Flexible Schedule (with the majority of your office hours overlapping with Knowmad’s normal office hours).
• 12 weeks Family Leave, partially to fully paid depending on tenure with company.
• After 1 year of employment: 401k investment plan with company matching program, ability to Telecommute or Work from Home one day per week.
• Initial exploration trip to South America to aid in travel planning knowledge after 2 to 3 months of employment. Thereafter, 2 weeks of paid, work-related travel annually to South America.
• Additional lifestyle perks: Ability to work from home or abroad (South American locations encouraged!). Periodic Knowmad retreats. Summer hours include half-day Fridays.

WHY THIS Position Could Be A Great Fit For You

Trip Specialists coming from other companies have commented on the incredible culture, improved earning potential, organized processes, and better work/life balance at Knowmad. We are a fun-loving, smart, motivated group of travel obsessed individuals working together to grow the Knowmad family and company. If you are a talented Travel Planner with significant South America experience and are looking for a place where you can grow and improve your career and happiness, we would be pleased and honored to hear from you!

HOW TO APPLY

Please send an email titled ‘Trip Specialist Position’ to [email protected] that includes your resume and cover letter. Additionally, we encourage applicants to also include a one-page creative letter explaining your professional travel industry experience, knowledge of high-quality South America travel, and why you may be open to a job change.