Community Manager - Ecological Landscapes

Community Manager - Ecological Landscapes

JOB SUMMARY

As Community Manager for Ecological Landscapes, you own the complete design, customer experience, and financial performance of one to two master-managed HOA communities. You are both designer and business owner creating landscape enhancements, managing the sales pipeline for homeowners and common areas, ensuring contract scope and quality, and driving P&L performance against budget. This role is foundational to proving that ecological landscaping at scale can be beautiful, maintainable, and profitable simultaneously.

Your Team

You won't be doing this alone. A production manager oversees all field operations, crew scheduling, labor management, and quality execution. A dedicated irrigation technician handles all irrigation work, checks, and reporting. Your job is to lead the customer experience, the design, and the business not to run the field. You collaborate closely with both, set the quality standard, and ensure the community experience reflects Cherrylake's mission.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES

Design, Sales & Homeowner Experience - 50%

• Design all homeowner and common area landscape enhancements - from concept to proposal - ensuring alignment with Cherrylake's standards, community guidelines and municipal requirements.
• Use Property Intel and Aspire to create designs, build estimates, generate proposals, and manage work orders efficiently.
• Design within the zone-based design protocol - breaking each single-family lot into functional zones (entry, side yards, backyard, tree canopy) and applying the appropriate plant palette and design pattern for each zone's conditions, spatial constraints, and functional requirements.
• Meet with homeowners, understand their landscape goals, present design options grounded in ecological principles, and close enhancement sales. You are a designer-advisor - not a pushy salesperson - helping people make better choices.
• Present designs in ways that build genuine buy-in - explaining ecological value, water savings, maintenance cost efficiency, and long-term resilience clearly and compellingly. Redirect homeowners from inappropriate plant choices toward ecologically superior alternatives.
• Build and manage the enhancement sales pipeline for both homeowners and common areas - forecasting pipeline, presenting proposals, closing sales, and tracking margin.
• Build community engagement around ecological landscaping - helping residents understand what's been planted, what wildlife it supports, and why their community is different.
• Own horticultural expertise for your community. Build deep knowledge of which native plants establish reliably, which support pollinator activity, and which deliver long-term resilience with minimal maintenance. Training and support in horticulture, design, and native plants are provided.

P&L & Contract Management - 30%

• Own the complete P&L for your community - tracking revenue, direct costs, labor, material costs, and margin performance against budget. You understand where every dollar goes and why.
• Manage contract scope and change orders proactively - protecting margin without sacrificing quality or customer satisfaction.
• Manage the relationship with the property management company - contract renewals, service level performance, scope management, issue resolution, and expansion opportunities.
• Report P&L performance to the head of community management and explain variances to budget. Training and support in financial management are provided.

Quality Assurance & Community Relations - 20%

• Serve as the final quality control layer for all landscape work - enhancements, common area maintenance, and homeowner maintenance scope. The production manager and irrigation technician provide the initial QC layer; you ensure final delivery meets contract specifications and Cherrylake standards.
• Escalate and resolve landscape issues - irrigation problems, plant health questions, maintenance complaints, design concerns. You own the resolution until issues are actually closed.
• Represent Cherrylake at HOA board meetings, townhall meetings, and landscape committee meetings - presenting updates, fielding questions, and building the community's trust in the ecological vision.
• Navigate Aspire and Property Intel fluently to manage task workflow, quality tracking, and proposal generation efficiently.

You're not just managing landscapes. You're proving that ecological stewardship at scale works - that it's beautiful, maintainable, profitable, and moves communities toward a healthier relationship with the living world around them. This role connects to Cherrylake's broader platform strategy and represents the leading edge of what we're building.

We're looking for someone who cares about that transformation as much as they care about running a business well.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Design capability - ability to create planting plans, specify plant materials, and design within ecological, governance, and community standards
• Horticultural knowledge - understanding of plant establishment, water needs, soil-plant interactions, and ecological function
• Genuine passion for ecological landscaping and native plants - this is mission-driven work
• Sales capability and relationship comfort - ability to close enhancement sales and build trust with diverse homeowners and property managers
• Quality orientation - high standards with the observational skill to recognize when they are or aren't met
• Written and verbal communication excellence - clear, warm, and professional across all contexts
• Comfort with technology - ability to learn and efficiently use Aspire and Property Intel

Preferred

• Landscape design experience or background in landscape installation/maintenance
• Sales or account management experience
• Horticultural or nursery background
• Property management or HOA community experience
• Prior P&L management experience (training provided if not present)
• Operational experience managing small teams or field operations

HOURS OF WORK

This is a full-time position. Days and hours of work will be Monday thru Friday start and end times vary depending on organizational needs.

NOTICE

CHERRYLAKE, INC. RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE JOB DESCRIPTION AND/OR REQUIRE ADDITIONAL DUTIES AT ITS DISCRETION.

DFWP, E-VERIFY & EOE