Position Title: Assistant General Manager
Department: Guest Experience
Reports To: General Manager
Classification: Exempt (Salaried)
Location: 79 Carriage House Lane, Philipsburg, MT 59858
Travel Requirement: Occasional travel is required for brand alignment meetings, industry conferences, and talent recruitment initiatives
POSITION SUMMARY
The Ranch at Rock Creek is a 6,600-acre Forbes Five-Star guest ranch and member of The Leading Hotels of the World, delivering an all-inclusive luxury experience to a small number of guests at a time. The Assistant General Manager is the second-ranking operational leader on property and the accountable executive for the guest journey from first inquiry through departure.
This role directs five interdependent divisions — Prearrival, Front Office, Transportation, Spa, and Mercantile — and is charged with converting the promise made during prearrival into a flawlessly sequenced stay. The Assistant General Manager owns the Forbes Five-Star standards performance of these departments, develops the leaders who run them, and serves as the senior manager on duty in the General Manager’s absence.
Success in this position is measured by standards compliance, guest satisfaction and return intent, departmental profitability in spa and retail, and the strength of the leadership bench developed underneath it.
DEPARTMENTAL SCOPE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Prearrival and Reservations
- Direct the prearrival team in itinerary design that strategically balances guest intent, activity capacity, dining, spa, and transportation logistics.
- Establish and strictly audit the pre-stay communication cadence, ensuring accurate capture of dietary needs, allergies, special occasions, and VIP recognition.
- Guarantee that guest profiles are complete, accurate, and consistently maintained within the property management system according to documented preference-capture standards.
- Partner closely with Sales and Marketing on group, wedding, and buyout handoffs to ensure operational commitments are clearly understood and adequately staffed before contract signature.
Front Office and Guest Services
- Set and actively enforce arrival, in-stay, and departure service sequences that consistently meet or exceed Forbes Five-Star and Leading Hotels of the World standards.
- Oversee daily room assignments, inventory strategy, length-of-stay controls, and upgrades in direct coordination with Housekeeping and Engineering.
- Ensure complete accuracy of the night audit, cash handling controls, and folio integrity, while expertly managing in-stay service recovery and rate adjustments within authority.
- Maintain a highly cross-trained guest services team capable of seamlessly covering concierge duties, transportation dispatch, and activity coordination during peak periods.
Transportation
- Oversee all guest transportation logistics, including airport transfers from Missoula, Butte, and Bozeman, as well as on-property movement and off-property excursions.
- Ensure strict compliance with all applicable DOT, state, and insurance requirements, while maintaining flawless driver hiring, licensing, certification, and training records.
- Manage the comprehensive vehicle fleet program, prioritizing preventive maintenance, seasonal and winter readiness, strict cleanliness standards, and capital replacement planning.
- Build highly efficient transfer schedules that protect the luxury arrival and departure experience while rigorously controlling labor and mileage costs.
Spa and Wellness
- Direct daily spa operations through associates, actively upholding treatment protocols, therapist certification requirements, product standards, and treatment-room presentation.
- Drive treatment utilization, therapist productivity, average treatment revenue, and retail attachment to successfully meet or exceed departmental budgets.
- Own the spa standards audit process, verifying execution of intake, consultation, hand-off, and post-treatment follow-through.
- Develop and implement seasonal wellness and fitness programming that strongly supports the ranch experience and overall all-inclusive value proposition.
Mercantile (Retail)
- Lead the retail buying calendar, vendor relationships, assortment strategy, and logo program development to align with the property's brand identity.
- Strategically manage open-to-buy, profit margins, sell-through rates, markdown cadences, and shrink to consistently deliver retail revenue and gross margin to budget.
- Set and enforce visual merchandising and display standards, actively refreshing presentations on a defined seasonal schedule.
- Ensure highly accurate inventory counts, receiving controls, and point-of-sale hygiene across the department.
GENERAL LEADERSHIP AND FINANCIAL DUTIES
- Own the end-to-end guest journey, ensuring prearrival intelligence is captured, transmitted, and acted upon by every downstream department.
- Establish and maintain objective accountability across all departmental key performance indicators and guest service metrics.
- Partner strategically with the Financial Controller and the General Manager to build annual operating and capital budgets for all assigned departments.
- Deliver monthly departmental results to budget, authoring detailed variance commentary and corrective plans for any labor, cost of sales, or revenue shortfalls.
- Recruit, onboard, develop, and retain department leaders, building a documented succession bench for every assigned leadership position.
- Serve in the manager-on-duty rotation and confidently lead the property emergency response in the General Manager's absence.
QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
- Minimum of three to five years in a divisional leadership role at a Forbes Four- or Five-Star, Leading Hotels of the World, or equivalent ultra-luxury property.
- Bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- Demonstrated ownership of measurable standards results with evidence of score improvement under the candidate's leadership.
- Substantial multi-departmental management experience with full profit-and-loss accountability, including budget construction and labor management.
- General proficiency as an administrator within a Human Resources Information System (HRIS) for labor management, scheduling, and performance tracking.
- Strong communication and leadership skills with the ability to translate complex data into clear operational strategies.
- Valid driver's license and an insurable driving record.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT
- Ability to stand and walk for extended periods and to move throughout a 6,600-acre property in all weather conditions, including winter.
- Ability to lift and carry up to 40 pounds, including guest luggage and retail inventory.
- Work is performed indoors and outdoors at approximately 5,300 feet elevation in a remote setting roughly one hour from the nearest regional airport.
- Schedule includes early mornings, evenings, weekends, and holidays; on-call availability is required.
COMPENSATION
- Competitive base salary commensurate with experience and market standards.
- Participation in the property annual incentive plan.
- Comprehensive property benefits package including medical, dental, and vision coverage and retirement plan participation.
- Housing or housing assistance, meals while on duty, and property and partner-hotel privileges.
This job description is not an exhaustive list of all functions that the employee may be required to perform, and the employee may be required to perform additional functions. The Ranch at Rock Creek reserves the right to revise the job description at any time. Employment with the company is at-will. The employee must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily and, if requested, reasonable accommodations may be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job, absent undue hardship. The Ranch at Rock Creek is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
