Repair and Maintenance Manager - North America (Retail & Commercial buildings)

Lush North America supports 252 retail stores in Canada and the USA, a business based in Canada, and manufacturing centers in Vancouver and Toronto. Lush is known worldwide for our unique bath and beauty products. We pride ourselves on amazing skin and hair care, personalized customer service, environmental activism and a vibrant store atmosphere. We believe it's our responsibility to advocate for the environment, animals and people in need. We're passionate about giving back to organizations locally and around the world.

Lush is looking for a Repair and Maintenance Manager to support the North America Retail Real Estate team with all aspects of repairs and maintenance across our retail portfolio. This role will oversee an existing and expanding North America real estate portfolio of shops, ensuring our locations run efficiently and effectively, allowing them to deliver a 5 star customer experience and enabling stores to contribute to the overall Lush business strategy.  

Working within the North America Property team, the Retail and Maintenance Manager will lead the function responsible for the reactive repairs, planned maintenance, escalations, small project work, budgeting and forecasting, contractor performance, maintenance call analysis and strategy. 

In this role, you will lead a team of two Repair and Maintenance Coordinators, and collaborate with teams across the business, including the Property team, Health and Safety team, Buying, Shop Space and Planning team, Retail Operations, Earthcare and Finance team. Together, you will help strengthen building systems that support reliable shop operations that align with Lush’s sustainability commitments.

Reporting to the Head of Property, the Retail and Maintenance Manager undertakes the following RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Managing the North America Retail maintenance function across all shops, including oversight on direction, strategy, supporting workload, feedback, reviews, development, and creating and managing budgets.
• Effectively managing and developing the Repairs and Maintenance team (2) to ensure they meet the needs of the business and are effective in their work
• Project managing maintenance project works in shops across North America.
• Managing Tenders; FM providers to larger works in shops.
• Overseeing external management systems, ensuring reactive calls are logged and planned maintenance is booked and organized within service level agreements across shops.
• Targeting large monetary savings in yearly contracts and reactive vs planned costs.
• Work closely with Finance on forecasting and budgeting for North America Retail shops.
• Managing appraisal submission for maintenance CapEx works required / improvements.
• Supporting the Sustainability team in using our 3rd party remote Energy Management System with monitoring and diagnostics, where applicable.
• Main point of escalation for any issues with vendors and contractors.
• Quarterly contractor reviews to assess quality of work, share feedback and review performance.
• Contractor management; ensuring insurances, policies and standards align with company requirements and ethical standards.
• Reviewing Risk and Method Statements and supporting permits to work for contractors where required.
• Collaborating with other teams to source sundries / store design items as needed and in accordance with Lush’s ethical purchasing standards.
• Supporting larger shops and flagship locations with additional maintenance requirements and support to local teams handling day-to-day maintenance.
• Visiting shops and buildings across North America to carry out maintenance checks and provide support.
• Continuously supporting and guiding shops, buildings and and support teams, promoting a culture of accountability and continuous improvement
• Supporting core Lush sustainability goals through collaboration with the Earthcare team, including working to reduce energy and water waste, improve efficiency, decarbonize operations and support regenerative and circular materials systems.  

Required Knowledge and skills:

• 5-7 years of related experience and/or proven background in repair and maintenance management in-house for a North American retailer.
• Excellent communication skills with proven leadership and coaching abilities. 
• Written and verbal communication skills to share information across different areas of the business.
• Proven team leadership experience with specific examples of team development
• Outstanding organizational skills to manage deadlines and regular review dates.
• Proven success with negotiation skills for both internal and external negotiations.
• Confident decision-making based on experience and knowledge of the business.
• Proven relationship-building experience with shopping centers, landlords and property managers across North America.
• Experience setting KPIs and service level agreements for contractors to uphold required service standards.
• Successful background in budget forecasting, tracking, and management to forecast, track and manage budgets. 
• Self-starter and collaborative team player, able to provide off-hours emergency support as needed 
• Proactive approach to the needs of employees and legal requirements.
• Strong problem-solving skills using past retail and or commercial experience, team knowledge and external advisors when required.
• Based in the US or Canada with the ability to travel across North America regularly 
• Strong financial acumen, high-level of spreadsheet competency (Google and/or Excel) competency and CapEx planning experience.

Preferred:

• Facilities or property management qualification (IWFM,  BOMA or equivalent preferred).
• LEED Green Associate accreditation is an advantage. 

Job Type: Permanent, Full Time 

Location: North America - Remote

Travel Requirement: Remote role, with occasional travel required (up to 25%) across North America, based on business needs. Valid passport required.

Pay Range:

• $90,000 - $107,000 USD
• $95,000 - 116,000 CAD 

Recruitment Process Overview:

Application Deadline: Monday, March 23rd at 5:00pm PT

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