The Children’s Snowsports Manager is responsible for leading the overall guest and employee experience, safety, operational performance, and financial success of Taos Ski Valley’s Children’s Snowsports School. This position provides leadership and direction for children’s ski and snowboard programs and ensures experiences are safe, engaging, age-appropriate, and consistently delivered at a high level.
The Manager leads and develops the Children’s Snowsports team while overseeing daily operations, instructional quality, staffing, training, program development, guest service, and financial performance. This position works closely with the Director of Snowsports and other resort leaders to continually elevate the experience for children, families, and employees.
This job description is intended to be a broad description of duties. You will be asked to carry out all responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws. Specific information on duties and policies can be found with your supervisor or in the Employee Reference Guide. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions.
Essential Job Responsibilities:
- Lead the daily and seasonal operations of the Children’s Snowsports School, including program quality, safety, guest experience, employee experience, and financial performance.
- Oversee children’s group and private lessons, local and seasonal programs, specialty offerings, childcare, sales, and associated support operations.
- Recruit, hire, schedule, coach, develop, evaluate, and retain a high-performing team. Develop supervisors and emerging leaders through clear expectations, feedback, accountability, training, and professional growth opportunities.
- Oversee and develop the supervisory team responsible for key areas of Children’s Snowsports, including rentals, childcare, Pre-K, operations, specialty programming, administration and payroll, training, and scheduling. Ensure supervisors have clear expectations, accountability, and support in leading their respective areas.
- Foster a positive, inclusive, and professional employee culture focused on safety, teamwork, guest service, development, and accountability.
- Lead a strong culture of safety and ensure appropriate child supervision and accountability, child protection practices, background checks, emergency procedures, incident response, and compliance with applicable policies and regulations.
- Partner with Snowsports leadership and training staff to implement training strategies and maintain high standards for instruction, teaching methodology, employee development, guest service, and PSIA/AASI standards.
- Maintain a visible presence in daily operations both in facility and on mountain to monitor program quality, coach employees, engage with children and families, gather feedback, and resolve guest concerns.
- Manage budgets, staffing, labor, revenue, expenses, productivity, and key performance indicators to achieve established operational and financial goals. Use forecasts and business levels to make appropriate operational adjustments.
- Work closely with the Administrator/Payroll Supervisor to ensure payroll is completed accurately and on time, including reviewing timecards, resolving discrepancies, and ensuring employee hours are properly recorded.
- Evaluate existing programs and recommend new or improved products and experiences based on child development principles, guest and employee feedback, operational performance, industry trends, and business opportunities.
- Maintain the quality, safety, organization, and appearance of Children’s Snowsports facilities, teaching terrain, equipment, signage, and operational areas.
- Collaborate across Snowsports and resort departments to provide a safe, seamless experience for children, families, and staff.
- Partner with the Director of Snowsports on annual planning, pricing, staffing, financial goals, program development, and the continued evolution of Children’s Snowsports.
- Stay current on industry trends and best practices and serve as an engaged member of the Snowsports leadership team, supporting broader Snowsports operations as needed.
- Maintain reliable attendance and flexibility based on operational and business needs.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Personal Skills:
- Strong, approachable leader with the ability to motivate, develop, delegate, and hold employees accountable.
- Excellent interpersonal communication, problem-solving, and conflict-resolution skills, with the ability to build productive relationships and make thoughtful decisions.
- Demonstrates sound judgment and remains calm, professional, organized, and adaptable in stressful or rapidly changing situations.
- Passionate about creating exceptional experiences for children and families while maintaining a strong focus on guest and employee safety.
- Strong personal character and commitment to Taos Ski Valley, Inc.’s Vision, Purpose, and Values.
- Provides a guest experience that exceeds the guest’s expectations.
- Ability to accept criticism and opportunities gracefully and humbly for growth.
- Ability to stay positive, focused, and constructive when faced with setbacks, challenges, and while working in an ever-changing environment.
Qualifications/Knowledge:
- Three or more years of leadership or management experience preferred, ideally within a ski and snowboard school, resort, youth programming, recreation, hospitality, or similarly complex guest-service operation.
- Previous experience working with children or managing youth-focused programming strongly preferred.
- Ski and/or snowboard instructional experience required; professional PSIA/AASI certification strongly preferred.
- PSIA/AASI Level 2 or higher and/or Children’s Specialist certification preferred.
- Strong knowledge of children’s ski and snowboard instruction, child development, age-appropriate learning, and guest service best practices.
- Demonstrated experience hiring, leading, coaching, and developing employees and frontline leaders.
- Strong business acumen with experience managing labor, staffing, budgets, revenue, expenses, and operational performance metrics.
- Experience developing or improving programs, products, operating procedures, or training programs.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and ability to learn and effectively use resort-specific scheduling, point-of-sale, reservation, and operational systems.
- Ability to ski or snowboard at an advanced level appropriate for observing, coaching, and supporting Children’s Snowsports operations.
- Must successfully meet all company requirements applicable to working with and supervising programs for children.
- Ability to work a flexible schedule including weekends, holidays, and evenings.
Work Environment:
Taos Ski Valley, Inc. is often a fast-paced work environment, especially during Holidays and Peak days. TSVI is in a high-altitude alpine environment. Position may require travel on uneven, snow-packed, or icy terrain and may be exposed to wet, cold, and/or humid conditions. Must be able to work in close quarters and with other staff.
Physical Demands of Position Include:
Ability to ski and/or snowboard at a level sufficient to safely navigate the ski area, observe and coach employees, and accurately demonstrate appropriate skiing or snowboarding techniques.
Ability to teach and coach skiing or snowboarding in a professional and exemplary manner, including demonstrating appropriate techniques and instructional standards.
Must be able to ski or ride, walk, kneel, crawl, carry, reach, stand, stoop, squat, and lift equipment or students up to 35 lbs. while actively teaching, coaching, and performing daily job duties.
Ability to work at a computer for extended periods to complete administrative, scheduling, communication, reporting, and other management responsibilities.
Background Check:
Positions dealing with children, of safety-sensitive and/or confidential nature, require driving or positions that handle cash may require a background check and MVR check. Employment is contingent upon a favorable background check and MVR check.
