Overview

The Summit at Snoqualmie and Alpental is the Pacific Northwest's premier multi mountain ski resort, located 47 miles east of Seattle at Snoqualmie Pass. The property spans five base areas and 20 chairlifts across Summit West, Summit Central, Summit East, and Alpental within the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. A four season operating model includes a mountain bike park and one of the most accessible ski destinations in North America.

The Director of Slopes & Surfaces exists to deliver exceptional guest satisfaction through the quality of the mountain terrain product at The Summit at Snoqualmie and Alpental. Every decision this role makes - how snow is groomed, how snowmaking is deployed, how parks are built, how trails are maintained - is ultimately in service of one outcome: guests experiencing a surface so consistently excellent that it becomes a defining reason they return. This is not a technical operations role that happens to affect guests; it is a guest-experience role that happens to be delivered through technical operations.

Responsibilities

Long Term Thinking

• Collaborate on development of the Snowmaking Master Plan - contributing operational expertise to long-range infrastructure, system design, and capital investment decisions in partnership with the VP of Mountain Operations, General Manager, and Planning Director

• Drive innovative solutions to ensure and insure product creation in an evolving climate - bringing a forward-looking mindset to a function where weather variability is increasing and operational resilience is a strategic priority

• Build the annual summer work plan with clear priorities, timelines, and resource allocation across grooming, trails, and slope maintenance functions - treating off-season preparation as a critical operational period that directly determines winter readiness

• Leverage Boyne network resources, peer expertise, and best practices from sister properties to lead The Summit to best-groomed-in-the-region status

• Develop annual operating and capital plans for each function in partnership with the VP of Mountain Operations

• Evaluate staffing model including the question of a dedicated Snowmaking Manager as the function and team develop

Excellence in Execution

• Own the grooming program - standards, scheduling, equipment deployment, and daily execution across all areas, with particular expertise in grooming man-made and technically produced snowmaking snow

• Develop and enforce grooming templates that deliver consistently excellent surface conditions regardless of atmospheric variability

• Drive snowmaking as a competitive advantage - optimizing a regionally leading snowmaking operation that ensures product creation regardless of conditions

• Develop the annual snowmaking production plan - aligning targets with terrain opening sequence, peak period readiness, and water and energy efficiency

• Maintain deep technical fluency in snowmaking systems - fan gun and all-weather systems - sufficient to lead the function, develop staff, and make real-time operational decisions

• Set standards for terrain park feature construction, maintenance scheduling, and daily inspection and shaping - ensuring operations meet all safety and risk management compliance requirements and industry standards

• Oversee MTB trail maintenance and construction through the MTB Trails Manager, ensuring trail product quality meets the standards of a thriving bike park program

• Ensure summer slope maintenance, brush cutting, drainage, and culvert work is planned and executed to protect terrain quality and set up winter operations for success

• Oversee 5 departmental budgets with full accountability for performance within approved parameters

• Coordinate closely with the Grooming Maintenance Manager and Sr. Manager, Vehicle Maintenance, Snow Removal & Fleet on equipment readiness - ensuring grooming machines and personal on-snow machines are serviceable and downtime is minimized through proactive scheduling

Attitude is Everything

• Model composure and solutions-focused leadership during high-pressure periods - variable weather, peak operations, and equipment challenges - setting the standard for how this department responds under pressure

• Foster a team culture of craft, pride, and genuine ownership of the mountain product across all functions - grooming, snowmaking, terrain parks, MTB, and summer terrain

• Operate as a constructive, collaborative partner across Mountain Operations, Snowsports School, Tubing Park, Mountain Bike Park, and Base Operations - particularly on shared terrain and surface responsibilities

• Understand the Mountain Bike Park's business objectives and guest experience goals well enough to direct trail maintenance and build priorities that actively serve those goals

Develop Great People

• Coach and develop managers across all functions - meeting each person where they are and building the skills, confidence, and accountability that elevate individual and team performance

• Invest equally in team members at every stage of their development - from those stepping into leadership for the first time to those deepening long-held expertise - recognizing that a strong team requires growth at every level

• Support team education on grooming techniques for snowmaking snow surfaces - building shared capability that directly improves the mountain product

• Build team depth and cross-functional knowledge so the department performs consistently through seasonal transitions, operational demands, and personnel changes

• Foster a team identity that takes genuine pride in the mountain product they deliver every day

Serve First

• Hold NPS improvement as a shared performance measure alongside resort NPS initiatives - particularly in the areas of terrain quality, snow conditions, terrain park product, and MTB trail quality

• Actively participate in cross-divisional guest experience review and contribute operational solutions to identified guest experience gaps

• Ensure snowmaking operations support Tubing Park grooming and product quality to the high standard guests expect

• Serve as a significant stakeholder in snowmaking capital planning - near and long term - ensuring the resort's infrastructure investment serves both current and future guest experience goals

Qualifications

Required

• Deep, practical knowledge of snow grooming operations, equipment, and standards - this is a dominant technical credential for this role

• Strong snowmaking fundamentals and operational experience

• Working knowledge of terrain park design, construction, and safety standards

• Demonstrated leadership of multi-function operational teams in a variable-staffing environment

• Experience owning and managing departmental budgets

• Ability to work year-round across winter and summer operational cycles

Preferred

• Deep snowmaking expertise including fan gun and all-weather systems

• MTB trail building and maintenance experience; IMBA or equivalent trail classification familiarity

• Experience managing across multiple departments simultaneously

• Familiarity with summer slope and land management operations

• Resort, outdoor recreation, trail management, or grounds operations background

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Join our team and enjoy The Summit Experience year round!

Wage and Benefit Info:

The wage range for this positions is: from $100,000 - $120,000 annually, DOE

Benefits include: health, dental, vision

Team member will accrue PTO and will earn 2 weeks or more in a 12 month period.

All individuals may contribute to the 401(k). An employee must work 1,000 hours in a calendar year to qualify for the discretionary match (there is a 2 year vesting cliff).

All individuals accrue sick time at 1 hour per 40 hours worked to a maximum of 64 hours per year.