Operations Manager - ArborTrek

Description & Details:

The Company

Site: ArborTrek Canopy Adventures (“ArborTrek”) offers a thrilling tree-based aerial adventure near beautiful Stowe, VT. This gorgeous site includes a top-notch canopy tour, treetop obstacle course, climbing adventure, and team building. The canopy tour includes 8 ziplines, rappel, and 2 sky-bridges. The treetop obstacle course includes 80 unique elements, where you can slide, balance, jump, crawl, climb and stroll on your adventure. The climbing adventure offers more than a dozen different adventure routes, from individual challenges and partner activities. The site operates May-October.

Management Team: ArborTrek is managed by Applied Adventure Consulting (AAC). AAC is a team of industry professionals with decades of experience in the field. AAC provides support and advising for the ArborTrek team. The AAC team works remotely, but regularly visits the site in-person.

The Culture: ArborTrek and AAC teams highly value the benefits of recreating and getting people outside. We offer the highest quality safety and professionalism to get the general public engaged with the outdoors. We want our guests, and our staff, to have fun! We strive to foster a culture of professionalism, support, creativity, and innovation.

Position Description

The Role: The Operations Manager is responsible for the management and success of the business. As the Operations Manager, you will have the opportunity to function as an effective leader to operations, community involvement, and all management; while at the same time, creating, implementing, and driving innovative solutions for everyday business needs. You will be responsible for leading, developing, and engaging a team of exceptional talent that continually adds value to the business.

To achieve this, you are a creative problem solver who is able to dream in immense scale, interpret data that helps to deliver meaningful results that keenly drive productivity and efficiency. The Operations Manager will coordinate with the Managing Partner often to achieve these tasks.  

Operations Manager position key responsibilities include but not limited to:

Management/Operations:
• Foster and lead a culture of professionalism, teamwork, quality, and fun!
• Provides oversite of day-to-day operations
• Responsible for all aspects of the guests’ experience
• Lead and develop management team and 15-30 hourly staff
o Mentor, train, and develop the team for career progression, performance improvement, and recognition purposes
o Provide overall direction and leadership to all on-site staff in line with the company vision
o Perform HR duties under the direction of the AAC team, including payroll, hiring, advancement, reviews, discipline and termination
o Always make your team look good by helping them in any way needed to achieve their goals and responsibilities
• Manage the seasonal schedule ensuring staffing levels are appropriate daily in a way that is efficient and economical
• Manage reservation system and front desk staff to ensure optimum guest experience
• Works with AAC Retail Manager to coordinate retail inventory and facilitate and track retail sales
• Clearly communicates standard operating procedures and local operating procedures guidelines to all staff and ensure operations are conducted in accordance with safety standard.
• Create, build, and maintain a maintenance plan and ensure maintenance is completed in collaboration with the AAC course services team
• Train staff, or oversee training of staff, on all day-to-day operations and rescues in collaboration with the AAC training team

Business Strategy:
• Oversee the implementation of an annual strategic plan provided by AAC
• Critically review and analyze practices to recommend, implement, and manage changes leading to best-practice operations
• Proactively identify and lead process improvement initiatives that increase overall business revenue
• Generate new ideas, brainstorm with all levels of management to create new revenue generating processes and ideas at the site and in the community
• Assist with key sales initiatives including holiday sales, retail products, and special events
• Communicates on the ground all business needs to executive management and propose innovative solutions to these needs

Budgeting/Financial:
• Assist AAC CFO with site-specific financial management, planning, systems, and controls  
• Assist with receivables and payables as needed
• Work with the CFO reviewing assessments and forecasts of the site’s financial performance against budget and operational goals
• Assist the CFO in management of all expenses relative to the yearly budget
• Ensure that accounting requests are resolved and communicated in a timely manner to both internal and external parties

Marketing/Community:
• Coordinate with the AAC marketing team to generate sales and successfully grow the company
• Ensure marketing initiatives are implemented on-site as directed by the marketing department  
• Support all media related visits and events with direction from the marketing department
• Be the face of ArborTrek for local community events and business functions by creating and fostering new business relationships that help build intrinsic value for the ArborTrek brand

Qualifications
• 3 years’ experience in tourism/service industry or similar
• 2 years’ experience managing a staff of 15+
• Demonstrated vision and leadership in managing staff  
• Excellent computer skills with proficiency in Excel, Word, and Outlook
• Excellent communication skills both verbal and written
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a collaborative management style
• Excels in working in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to delegate responsibilities effectively
• Outdoor industry experience is a plus, outdoor enthusiasm is required  
• Risk management and experience working at height a plus

Compensation Details
March-November seasonal employment
$35,000-$40,000/base salary
Seasonal, Salaried employee, exempt
40+ hours/week. Work hours may be variable.

Benefits
• Additional bonus structure
• Paid Time Off – 40 hours accrued seasonally from start of your employment
• Retirement Simple 401k Plan after 6 months of employment with 5% company match