Automotive General Manager

Job Description

Job Description

The Role

We are hiring a General Manager to run the entire Bedford Park operation — service, collision and paint, parts, mobile repair, and the front counter — with full P&L ownership and a team of 20 or more. This is a shop-floor job, not a desk job. You will set the daily operating cadence, hold the shop to turnaround and quality standards, stay close to the large fleet and transit accounts, and grow the business profitably.

The business is owner-operated with a board. You will report to the owner and the board, with regular reporting on operating and financial performance — real accountability and real autonomy in how you run the floor.

What You Will Do

• Direct daily operations across bus, truck, diesel, collision and paint, mobile service, parts, and service writing.

• Own the work-in-process board: bay capacity, technician utilization, estimate approval and turnaround, parts availability, on-time delivery, and final quality check.

• Reduce turnaround time without giving up repair quality. Drive first-time-fix rate and hold rework and comebacks down.

• Own the P&L: revenue, labor recovery, labor and parts gross margin, outside purchases, overtime, and operating expense.

• Act as the senior operating contact for transit, municipal, and large commercial fleet accounts. Protect the relationships that drive repeat work and win new ones.

• Keep estimates, purchase orders, warranty recovery, receivables, and parts inventory under control.

• Recruit, develop, and retain diesel technicians, body techs, painters, service advisors, and parts staff in a tight skilled-trades market.

• Own safety, facility condition, and compliance — OSHA, DOT and FHWA inspection standards, environmental, and paint booth requirements.

First 12 Months

By 90 days: credibility with the crew and the top accounts, validated financial and production baselines, and a daily management rhythm in place. By six months: a live KPI dashboard, real WIP visibility, and clear department-level accountability. By 12 months: measurable improvement in on-time delivery, labor productivity, repair quality, customer retention, technician turnover, and margin.

What You Bring

• Seven or more years leading commercial vehicle service, fleet maintenance, heavy-duty truck or bus repair, dealership fixed operations, or collision repair.

• P&L ownership with a track record on gross margin, labor efficiency, and customer retention.

• Enough technical depth to challenge a diagnosis and judge a repair plan across multi-make heavy-duty equipment — Freightliner, International, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Mack, Volvo, Western Star on the truck side; New Flyer, Gillig, Nova, Proterra, Bluebird, Thomas Built, IC, and cutaway builders on the bus side.

• Experience serving transit, municipal, or other public-sector fleet customers is strongly preferred.

• Working fluency with shop-management systems and comfort running the business off operating and financial data. We run Shopmonkey; experience with a comparable platform transfers.

• Bachelor's degree preferred; equivalent leadership and technical experience will be considered in its place.

Helpful but not required: collision and paint process experience, mobile repair operations, warranty recovery, Lean or continuous-improvement training, and bilingual English/Spanish.

Since 2002, Bus & Truck of Chicago has kept Chicagoland's buses and trucks on the road from a 62,000 square-foot shop in Bedford Park. We run a full multi-make heavy-duty operation — diesel and engine repair, preventive maintenance, FHWA inspections, alignment and suspension, collision and fire repair, bus rehab and overhaul, mobile fleet repair — plus a 65-foot paint booth that handles full transit buses and semi-trucks in-house.

We serve transit authorities, municipalities, and commercial fleets across Chicago and out to Joliet, Aurora, Naperville, and Gary. Our core value is simple: honest and straight to the point. Downtime is our customers' biggest enemy, and eliminating it is the job.

Company Description

Since 2002, Bus & Truck of Chicago has kept Chicagoland's buses and trucks on the road from a 62,000 square-foot shop in Bedford Park. We run a full multi-make heavy-duty operation — diesel and engine repair, preventive maintenance, FHWA inspections, alignment and suspension, collision and fire repair, bus rehab and overhaul, mobile fleet repair — plus a 65-foot paint booth that handles full transit buses and semi-trucks in-house.\r\n\r\nWe serve transit authorities, municipalities, and commercial fleets across Chicago and out to Joliet, Aurora, Naperville, and Gary. Our core value is simple: honest and straight to the point. Downtime is our customers' biggest enemy, and eliminating it is the job.