Grounds and Equipment Manager

Job Description

Why This Role Matters:
The Grounds & Equipment Manager plays a pivotal role in safeguarding a UNESCO World Heritage Site, ensuring the safety of guests and colleagues, enhancing the guest experience, developing team members, managing operational risks, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of grounds and equipment operations at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.

Reporting to the Director of Engineering, the Grounds & Equipment Manager provides strategic leadership, planning, and operational oversight for all exterior property operations, seasonal programs, and assets at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. This role is responsible for leading a diverse team, managing resources, ensuring safety and regulatory compliance, and delivering exceptional guest and colleague experiences. The successful candidate is a people-focused leader with a strong understanding of multi-season operations in a highly regulated alpine environment, including landscaping, snow management, and vehicle and equipment operations.

Start Date: September 2025
Contract Type: Permanent

• Provide visible, inspiring leadership to the Grounds team, fostering a culture of safety, accountability, and engagement.
• Define and communicate the vision for the Grounds department, translating it into actionable operational plans.
• Lead full-cycle people management, including recruitment, onboarding, training, coaching, performance management, and terminations in alignment with Fairmont policies and CBA agreements.
• Ensure all team members maintain current training and certifications, coordinating ongoing professional development.
• Manage operating budgets, payroll, and resources, ensuring cost control and optimal allocation.
• Collaborate effectively with internal departments to ensure smooth coordination of exterior operations with guest and colleague needs
  , without directing the work of other teams.
• Build leadership capacity within the team through mentoring, delegation, and structured development plans.
• Promote colleague engagement, inclusion, and alignment with Fairmont service standards.

• Direct and coordinate all daily Grounds operations, ensuring work is safely planned, prioritized, and executed efficiently.
• Lead snow removal operations across hotel and residence areas, including planning, staffing, and coordination during active weather events.
• Oversee summer operations, including landscaping, lawn care, floral displays, gravel removal, and line painting.
• Manage all commercial fleet and equipment, ensuring availability, compliance, reliability, and proper maintenance.
• Coordinate preventive maintenance, CVIP inspections, seasonal tire changes, and both on-site and off-site repairs.
• Monitor budgets, forecasts, and labor plans to meet seasonal and operational requirements.
• Ensure all Grounds colleagues are trained, qualified, and supported to perform their roles safely and effectively.
• Conduct daily reviews of safety conditions, weather impacts, and operational risks, implementing mitigation measures as required.

• Oversee the planning and execution of major seasonal features, including natural ice rinks (~120,000 sq. ft.), Ice Castle, and Ice Bar structures.
• Serve as the site champion for Motive Fleet Management, ensuring compliance, maintenance tracking, and continuous improvement across all assets.
• Maintain exterior property conditions to ensure guest and colleague safety, proactively mitigating seasonal hazards in coordination with external vendors.
• Lead "one-season-ahead" operational planning, reviewing end-of-season needs, including servicing, repairs, replacements, and readiness requirements.
• Ensure environmentally responsible landscape management aligned with alpine horticulture best practices and National Park regulations.

• Act as a visible safety leader, ensuring compliance with Alberta OHS, Parks Canada regulations, and Fairmont Health & Safety programs.
• Develop, communicate, and enforce safe work practices (SOPs) for all Grounds operations.
• Maintain accurate documentation related to safety, inspections, training, and regulatory compliance.

You may be required to work on holidays, weekends, overnights and other non-day shifts. Submission of your application to Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise indicates that you are able to meet these requirements as needed.

• High-visibility, high-altitude alpine environment.
• Requires calm, decisive leadership under extreme and rapidly changing weather conditions, including winter temperatures down to
  -40°C.

• Subsidized staff accommodation provided on-site for full time status employees
• One complimentary meal per shift in our staff cafeteria (additional meals can be purchased for $8/meal)
• Comprehensive benefits package (Medical, Vision & Dental) including extended benefits like;
  Mental Health (up to $5,000/year), Orthodontics (up to $2,500/year), Fertility Drugs and Gender…