Executive Director, Resort Services

Description

Sugar Bowl Resort is seeking an exceptional operator for the broadest leadership role on the mountain. The Executive Director of Resort Services owns the full sweep of the guest experience - sport programming, event delivery, on-mountain food and beverage, retail, rentals, guest services, and the operational infrastructure that runs beneath them all. Seven functions, one shared team, one standard.

This is not a role for a specialist. It calls for a rare combination: authentic snow sport credibility and proven senior leadership across multiple guest-facing, revenue-generating operations. If you have spent your career mastering both - the sport and the business - this is the role those years were building toward.

The timing is rare. With a major capital program complete, the next chapter belongs to the guest experience - and to the person who leads it. You will shape how every guest, from a first-timer to a fourth-generation family, experiences this mountain. Done well, that work compounds across seasons.

Why Sugar Bowl?

Sugar Bowl is a proudly independent resort at the top of Donner Summit - the closest major mountain resort to the Bay Area. For 87 years it has been a place of heritage, community, and genuine alpine character: 1,650 acres of terrain, exceptional snowfall, Austrian alpine roots, a storied relationship with Walt Disney, and 170 shareholder families who have made this mountain the center of their lives.

We are a public resort with a private soul. The Silver Belt Race is one of the oldest ski competitions in California. The SnowSports School has shaped generations of skiers. This is not a blank-canvas operation - it is a living program with history, character, and a community that is watching closely.

The Portfolio: Seven Functions, One Team

• Guest Services - ticketing, hosting, arrival experience, and paid parking; the front door of everything Sugar Bowl delivers

• Sport & Instruction - the SnowSports School across all ages and abilities, advanced and backcountry programming, SBSTA liaison, and Nordic collaboration with Royal Gorge

• Events - delivery of every event on the calendar, from the Silver Belt Race to summer weddings, corporate events, and concerts

• On-Mountain Food & Beverage - Main Lodge, Mid-Mountain, and Royal Gorge; three venues, one standard

• Retail - the Sports Shop and satellite outlets across the resort

• Rentals - the on-hill fleet and workshop operations: boot fitting, tuning, and repair

• Operational Infrastructure - resort-wide shipping and receiving, building standards, and supply chain coordination

A note on events: Marketing owns event sales and the commercial client relationship. This role owns everything from contract handoff through guest departure. Both sides work in close coordination; neither owns the other's function. Candidates should be genuinely comfortable in that split.

Who You Are

• A portfolio operator who sees the connections between functions - how instruction feeds rental, how rental feeds retail, how events animate F&B, and how a unified team serves all of them better than silos ever could

• A leader who builds leaders - recruits strong direct reports, gives them real authority, and holds them accountable to outcomes

• Genuinely in love with sport - not as a credential, but as a lived orientation that shows in everything you build, everyone you hire, and every guest you serve

• A creative, entrepreneurial program builder who sees opportunities in empty calendar space, underused terrain, and off-season months others treat as downtime

• A talent magnet - instructors, coaches, event professionals, F&B leaders, and guides want to work for you

• Guest-lens are always on: every program, every event, every menu, every terrain feature is evaluated through what it delivers to the person experiencing it

Skills & Qualifications

Required:

• Exceptional snow sport credentials as an athlete, instructor, coach, guide, and/or event professional - authentic expertise in the sports this role leads is non-negotiable

• Senior leadership experience across multiple guest-facing or revenue-generating resort functions - demonstrated multi-portfolio operational depth

• Proven event delivery leadership across multiple event types - sport, weddings, corporate, and/or entertainment - at meaningful scale

• Proven ability to build and develop high-performing teams across diverse departments, including unified staffing and cross-training models

• Experience recruiting and developing a senior leadership layer beneath the executive level

• Experience overseeing F&B operations in a resort, hospitality, or outdoor venue context

• Sound business judgment: able to own budgets, drive revenue, manage costs, and make resourcing decisions across a complex portfolio

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills across guests, athletes, staff, sponsors, sales teams, and resort stakeholders

• Ability and willingness to work weekends, holidays, and extended hours during peak season

Strongly preferred:

• Deep understanding of international SnowSport trends and an extensive industry network

• Experience in a sales/delivery split model - receiving booked events from a commercial team and owning execution from handoff

• Experience structuring multi-outlet retail, guest services, or operational support functions in a resort context

• Experience with competitive racing programs, including FIS or USSA-sanctioned events

• Familiarity with backcountry and uphill access programming and relevant safety frameworks (AIARE, AMGA, or equivalent)

• Experience developing year-round or summer mountain programming

• Existing relationships with athletes, coaches, event organizations, F&B operators, entertainment promoters, and industry partners

What You'll Do

Lead the portfolio:

• Set and enforce guest service standards across every touchpoint, from the drop-off zone to the last run of the day

• Oversee the SnowSports School Director and all programming - and develop innovative curriculum from first-timer progression to guided backcountry and uphill offerings

• Lead all event delivery from contract handoff: sport events, weddings, corporate events, concerts, and summer activations - including re-activating and elevating classic Sugar Bowl events like the Silver Belt Race

• Oversee all three on-mountain F&B venues, driving service quality, revenue performance, and integration with events and peak-day operations

• Lead the Retail and Rental Managers, setting standards for commercial performance, equipment availability, and guest experience

• Run resort-wide shipping and receiving, building standards, and supply chain coordination across the portfolio

Build the team:

• Build and manage a unified staff pool across all portfolio departments - cross-training, flexible scheduling, and real career pathways

• Set performance expectations, development plans, and accountability standards across all direct and indirect reports

• Build Sugar Bowl's reputation as an employer of choice in the mountain resort community

Grow the business:

• Work with the CEO to research and develop summer sport, year-round business opportunities, and right-sized staffing to match

• Drive revenue performance and operational efficiency across the full portfolio

• Identify and pursue partnerships - athletes, event organizations, F&B operators, sponsors - that strengthen the year-round offering

• Contribute to resort-wide strategic planning as a senior member of the leadership team

Performance Metrics

Success in this role will be measured by:

• Revenue and cost performance against budget across the full portfolio

• Guest satisfaction scores and feedback across all functions

• Event delivery quality - client feedback, repeat bookings, and execution standards

• Employee retention, cross-training uptake, and stability of the unified team

• Strength and development of the senior leadership layer beneath this role

• Progress on year-round programming and off-season revenue

Why This Role

Sugar Bowl has the terrain, the snowfall, the heritage, and the infrastructure to be one of the finest mountain resort experiences in California. This is the role that delivers it. The opportunity to shape how an entire mountain is experienced - for thousands of guests, across dozens of programs, in every season - does not come along often. The right person will feel that, and bring the full weight of their ability to it.

Physical Requirements

This position requires the ability to work and perform physical tasks in a mountain resort environment, including but not limited to:

• Moving between multiple venues, buildings, and on-mountain locations across the resort year-round

• Working and skiing on varied terrain and snow conditions for extended periods

• Lifting and carrying equipment and supplies up to 50 lbs.

• Working in cold temperatures, wind, and variable mountain conditions

• Working extended hours during peak season, events, and race weekends

Benefits:

• Generous flexible and paid time off

• Employer sponsored 401k plan after 1,000 worked hours and one (1) year of service

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits

• Employer paid life insurance

• Additional voluntary benefits (AD&D, critical illness, etc.)

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

• Professional development opportunities


• Free ski and tubing passes for employees


• Free ski passes for dependents


• 50% off food at our restaurants

• Free group ski and snowboard lessons for employees


• Employee discounted lift tickets for family and friends


• Lift ticket discounts at multiple resorts including 24 Mountain Collective destinations

• Hotel discounts


• Employee ski reciprocal programs


Sugar Bowl Resort believes that all persons are entitled to equal employment opportunity and does not discriminate against its employees or applicants because of race, color, hair, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender orientation, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, national origin, citizenship, veteran status, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, or any other status protected by federal, state or local law, ordinance or regulation. Equal employment opportunity will be extended to all persons in all aspects of the employer-employee relationship, including recruitment, hiring, upgrading, training, promotion, transfer, discipline, layoff, recall, and termination.