The posting
ABOUT THE MAVEN The Maven is a Kentucky straight bourbon composed of six rare bourbons, curated from our library and masterfully blended — awarded 99 points and Double Gold at the 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Our home is a 325-acre campus in Shelbyville, in the heart of bourbon country, being built as a state-of-the-art whiskey excellence center: modern, elegant, and designed to blend into the Kentucky landscape while revealing layers of experience within.
This is not a high-volume trail stop. The Maven is a luxury allocated brand, and the distillery experience is being built to match — intimate, highly personalized, and reserved for those who know. The Maven Distillery will open to private walkthroughs in late 2026, with broader guest experiences and public access phased in through 2027.
To learn more about The Maven please visit our website here: https://themavenwhiskey.com/ .
THE OPPORTUNITY We are hiring the leader who will own the guest experience at The Maven Distillery from the ground up. This person is the General Manager of everything a guest touches — tours, tastings, retail, the bar program, and the events calendar — and the single accountable owner of how it feels to arrive here.
For the first nine months, every guest on this property is a VIP: industry insiders, allocated-bottle holders, trade and tourism partners, media, barrel purchasers, and invited guests of the house. This person will be responsible for hosting, troubleshooting, and executing the logistics behind each visit while simultaneously building the systems, standards, and team that let The Maven scale without losing that touch.
It is a rare combination: the discipline of an operator opening a complex hospitality business, and the instincts of a host who genuinely loves rolling out the red carpet.
WHAT YOU WILL OWN VIP Hosting & Guest Relations
Be the face of the house. Serve as the primary point of contact for high-value visitors — allocation holders, barrel purchasers, trade and media guests, brand partners, and executive visitors. Own end-to-end logistics for each VIP visit: personalized pre-arrival communication, itinerary design, arrival, pacing, food and beverage, gifting, and follow-up communication. Anticipate needs before they are voiced — considerations for dietary requirements, mobility, transportation and the personal details that make a return visit feel like a homecoming, all with the utmost discretion. Maintain accurate guest records and preferences, and partner with Sales, Marketing and Communications so that every high-value relationship is handled consistently across the business.
Resolve service issues personally and immediately, and build standards to prevent them from recurring.
Tour & Experience Program
Run the daily calendar. Own scheduling, routing, capacity, staffing and flow for all tours and experiences as the program phases up — from behind-the-scenes tours for invited guests, to standard and extended public tours, to premium experiences. Build and lead the training program for tour content, delivery and storytelling, including rehearsal and practice cycles ahead of each new offering going live. Deliver the full experience menu as it comes online: behind-the-scenes and standard tours, standard and elevated tastings, blend-your-own-bottle, cocktail classes, and private barrel selections.
Maintain a safe, compliant, and immaculate guest route across an active production campus in partnership with Production, Safety, and Facilities.
Retail
Build the retail program. Stand up and then run the retail operation — product assortment, merchandising, inventory, receiving, cycle counts, shrink control and POS. Drive retail revenue and attachment rate to experiences, using guest insights to shape buying decisions. Coordinate gifting for internal and external guests, and support bottle-engraving, personalization and barrel-related retail fulfillment. Partner on brand efforts, including front-of-house uniforms, branded merchandise and partnership items.
Bar & Beverage
Own the bar program. Operate the mixology bar and trolley service — menu execution, cost and pour controls, par levels, ordering, glassware and service standards. Partner on cocktail menu development so the bar tells the same story as the whiskey, from an approachable pour to a signature Maven serve. Hold the line on responsible alcohol service standards: server training and certification, ID verification, and compliance with Kentucky ABC and all applicable federal, state and local regulations.
Events & Special Occasions
Implement the event calendar. Support the execution of launch events, the Grand Opening, Cocktails in the Garden evenings, trade and sales events, external meetings and community events hosted on property. Coordinate with the Events, Marketing & Communications, and contracted catering and private chef partners on staffing, run of show, setup and breakdown, and day-of execution. Serve as decision-maker during events, balancing guest experience against operational and safety realities.
People Leadership
Build the team. Recruit, hire, onboard, schedule and develop experience leads and associates, bartenders and servers, retail staff and stewards as the organization phases up through 2027. Create and maintain service standards through training, coaching, feedback and performance management. Lead daily stand-ups and weekly leader meetings focused on successes and improvements. Build a cross-trained team and a culture where hospitality is a craft, not a script.
Business Operations
Run it like an owner. Manage the guest experience P&L — revenue by offering, labor model and scheduling efficiency, cost of goods, and operating expense.
Own booking, ticketing, CRM systems, reporting, forecasts, staffing plans, and operational debriefs.
Enable the tracking and reporting of metrics that matter: guest satisfaction, conversion and attachment, revenue per guest, retail and bar performance, and repeat visitation among high-value guests. Partner across Production, Marketing & Communications, Sales, Finance, Legal and Facilities as a member of the onsite leadership team.
WHAT YOU BRING Required
7+ years in hospitality, luxury guest experience, tourism, restaurant or retail operations, including 3+ years leading and developing teams.
Demonstrated ownership of a high-touch guest program, such as a luxury hotel or resort, fine dining operation, private club, winery, distillery, or comparable destination.
Direct experience running a tour, tasting or visitor program: capacity, guide training and delivery. Hands-on retail and/or food and beverage operating experience — inventory, POS, cost controls, and service standards. Proven ability to host senior, high-net-worth or high-profile guests with warmth, discretion and composure. Strong operating discipline: comfortable with schedules, budgets, staffing models, SOPs and reporting, and able to build them where none exist. Excellent written and verbal communication, and the judgment to represent the brand without supervision.
Ability to work 100% onsite in Shelbyville, including evenings, select weekends, and holidays.
Must be 21 years of age or older, and able to obtain any required alcohol service certification.
Preferred
Experience opening a new venue, property or program — pre-opening through stabilization.
Knowledge of American whiskey, bourbon production, and the Kentucky bourbon tourism market.
Track record of creating or curating new guest experiences, not only executing existing ones. Familiarity with booking, ticketing and CRM platforms, and with Kentucky ABC regulations. Existing relationships across Kentucky hospitality, tourism and trade.
THE LEADER WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Disciplined. You build systems, keep promises, and run a tight operation. Details do not slip. Genuinely hospitable. You know how to roll out the red carpet, and you do it because you enjoy it — not because the SOP says to. Every guest leaves feeling like the most important person on the property. Present. You lead from the floor. You are visible, accessible, and in the room when it matters. Poised. You are unflappable in front of guests, and you handle setbacks quietly and well. Creative. You see the opportunity for a moment that nobody asked for, and you build it. Entrepreneurial. You are comfortable in a pre-opening environment where the answer is often "We haven’t decided yet — go figure it out."
