Area Manager – Landscape Maintenance

Ruppert Landscape is a family and employee-owned commercial landscape construction and management company headquartered in Montgomery County, MD with operations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Delaware and Tennessee. Our mission is to provide opportunity for our people, take excellent care of our customers, and be good stewards of the environment and our community.

The Area Manager is responsible for the sale, renewal and production of a portion of the branch’s landscape management work, selling enhancement work on contract maintenance jobs and for insuring the satisfaction of customers.  In addition, this position must develop the supervisors and others below it.  Satisfactory performance at this level is indicated by high renewal rate, acceptable volume of enhancement sales and low, negative turnover.  Area managers must cooperate with fellow area managers in their branch to ensure that the branch’s goals are met.  They must also cooperate with others at the same level in the company to help meet the overall objective of the organization.

• Communicate to all of your field managers the philosophies, policies and procedures by which the company operates
• Clearly communicate the branch’s annual and long-term goals to those supervised, motivate them in an acceptable fashion to “exceed our expectations” and monitor progress towards these objectives through timely formal reviews and regular informal evaluations.
• Develop a clear understanding of your field manager’s strengths, weaknesses, professional and personal goals.  Based on this knowledge, take an active role in their development within the company in an effort to respond to personnel needs in and out of your branch.
• Maintain a constant recruiting effort to address personnel needs in the production area company-wide.
• Develop a clear understanding of the hourly and cost budgets for each of your jobs.  Monitor by reviewing job costs regularly and taking action as needed.  Communicate job cost information to field managers on a regular basis to control hours and costs.
• Prepare seasonal job packages (mulching, annuals, etc.) for all assigned jobs.
• Review all facets of your assigned jobs with the appropriate field manager including, but not limited to, contract documents, margins aggression plans and customer contacts.
• Monitor the quality of our service through bi-monthly jobsite visits (weekly if necessary).  Evaluate site performance by completing one field report/inspection report per month for the last three quarters of the year.  Insure a renewal rate in excess of 90 percent through this monitoring and contact by addressing any customer concerns within 24 hours.
• Manage all sales activity related to the renewal of existing landscape management contracts.
• Schedule production activities of assigned crews weekly.
• Monitor the AM and PM routines of your crews.
• Help to maintain a branch facility that reflects our corporate image and provides a safe, comfortable environment for all employees and visitors.
• Help to maintain branch fleet and equipment that reflect our image and provide a safe operating environment for our employees.
• Prospect for leads and make sure they get included in the branch’s prospecting system

• Demonstrated ability and two years of experience managing others on the production level, including recruiting and hiring, performance evaluation and training and development.
• Knowledge of all associated machinery and trucks involved in a landscape management branch.
• Demonstrated skill and ability in the area of sales and customer service.  Must have at least two years of experience dealing directly with service customers.
• Ability to do takeoffs and estimate maintenance jobs.
• Demonstrated skill and ability managing the production of service work.  At least two years of experience running more than one project at a time.
• Demonstrated ability and at least one year of experience selling enhancement type work and doing contract maintenance takeoffs.
• Demonstrated ability to design small landscape projects.
• Experience with, and basic knowledge of, computer operation.
• Two-or four-year horticultural or related degree and two years industry experience.  Additional industry experience or industry certifications can substitute for non-related degree, two-year degree or no degree.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, in English.
• Valid drivers license with a clean record over the last three years.

What we provide:

• Competitive salary
• Medical benefits with dental and vision
• Flexible Spending Account
• 401(k) plan
• Flexible work/life balance
• Family-oriented company culture

Ruppert Landscape is an Equal Opportunity and E-verify Employer