Lodge Manager / General Manager
Visa sponsorship
Hospitality · Invercargill, New Zealand · Full-Time · Discussed at interview · Visa: Employer sponsored
Next to a national park at the southern end of New Zealand's South Island, a luxury lodge with an intimate feel is recruiting a Lodge Manager to steer its next chapter. After full reinstatement, its doors open again on 1 December 2026, offering ten suites, two log cabins and a four-bedroom house, with nine more suites due in October 2027; the estate covers about 32 hectares.
The role is general management with plenty of hands-on work: greeting guests at the door, calming the team during a full dinner service and handling the budget, the roster and the land with equal confidence. You will have real operational autonomy, a direct line to the owners and a hand in the service culture, in the opening that takes the lodge from 12 keys to 21, and in the food and beverage offer.
Suitably qualified applicants from New Zealand, Australia and overseas are welcome, and the lodge will consider sponsoring a visa for the right person.
Luxury hospitality leaders should show the properties they have run and the results delivered. Build AI CV can shape that into a polished English CV.
Key Responsibilities
- Personally greet and look after guests, guiding each stage of the stay from before arrival, through dining and guided days out, to the exclusive-use house and the goodbye
- Hold the service standard high, working shoulder to shoulder with the team wherever the day needs, and shape the culture of service
- Run the launch of nine new suites as the lodge expands from 12 keys to 21, and develop the food and beverage offer alongside the Lodge Head Chef
- Head a cross-trained team of about eighteen at reopening, managing the Assistant Lodge Manager, Lodge Host, Executive Chef, Housekeeping Manager and Maintenance & Grounds Supervisor, and hiring, training, rostering and developing people for all-year delivery
- Take charge of the lodge, log cabins, exclusive-use house, staff quarters, grounds, native bush, driveways, vehicles and infrastructure, holding the maintenance and grounds team to an annual estate plan of preventive maintenance, presentation and compliance
- Be responsible for the yearly operating plan and the lodge's profit
- Lift occupancy, rate, guest spend and direct and repeat bookings, with help from reservations and finance
- Review trading every week and report to the directors every month
Requirements & Eligibility
- Luxury hospitality leadership, ideally in a General Manager, Lodge Manager or senior operations position
- Warm, confident leadership in front of guests, driven by a real love of personal hospitality
- A record of managing budgets, forecasts and operating profit
- Experience leading people across several hospitality disciplines
- Clear, confident written and spoken communication
- Good judgement for leading alone in a remote setting, whether the road is closed or the weather has turned
- A Manager's Certificate, or eligibility to gain one before certificated duties, plus a clean full driver licence
- Highly regarded: running a luxury lodge, boutique hotel or exclusive-use property; taking part in a hotel opening, refurbishment or major development; understanding New Zealand's luxury tourism market; and handling the grounds, facilities and infrastructure of a remote property
- You must hold, or be able to obtain, the legal right to work in New Zealand
Apply: Apply by email · WhatsApp
Visa guide: New Zealand AEWV Guide