Director of Service – SiteTalent
Location: Port Coquitlam
Department: Service Operations
Reports To: Regional Manager / Senior Leadership
Employment Type: Full-Time
Position Summary
The Director of Service is responsible for the overall leadership, performance, and strategic direction of the Fire Protection Service division across British Columbia.
This position provides leadership across multiple branches and service disciplines, including fire alarm, sprinkler, special suppression, extinguishers, emergency lighting, inspections, repairs, and recurring service programs.
The Director of Service will have full accountability for the financial and operational performance of the Service division, including revenue, gross margin/contribution, labour utilization, scheduling, productivity, customer retention, repair conversion, backlog management, and employee development.
This is a highly visible leadership position requiring a strong operator who can lead through people, establish accountability, improve processes, and consistently deliver profitable growth while maintaining an exceptional customer experience.
Key Responsibilities
Operational Leadership
- Provide overall leadership and direction for Service operations across all BC branches.
- Lead and develop Branch Managers, Service Managers, Supervisors, Coordinators, Account Managers, and field leadership.
- Establish consistent operating standards and expectations across all locations.
- Ensure inspections, repairs, service calls, deficiencies, and recurring work are scheduled and completed efficiently.
- Maintain strong visibility into daily field operations, technician capacity, backlog, open work orders, and customer commitments.
- Ensure completed work is processed, documented, closed, and invoiced promptly.
- Identify operational bottlenecks and implement solutions that improve productivity and customer service.
- Build scalable processes capable of supporting continued business growth.
Financial Performance
Own the financial performance of the Service division and ensure operational decisions support company revenue and profitability objectives.
Responsibilities include:
- Revenue and contribution/gross margin performance.
- Annual budgeting and forecasting.
- Monthly financial performance versus plan.
- Labour productivity and technician utilization.
- Overtime and labour cost management.
- Service pricing and rate strategies.
- Repair and deficiency conversion.
- Recurring inspection and service revenue.
- Work-in-progress and backlog management.
- Revenue recognition and timely billing.
- SG&A management and operational efficiency.
The Director will be expected to understand the financial position of the business at all times and develop clear action plans when performance is below target.
Field Productivity & Workforce Management
- Ensure field resources are effectively scheduled and deployed.
- Establish productivity and utilization expectations for technicians.
- Monitor scheduled versus available labour hours and proactively address capacity gaps.
- Work with leadership to determine manpower requirements based on revenue and workload forecasts.
- Develop recruitment and retention strategies for technicians and field leadership.
- Ensure the appropriate mix of apprentices, junior technicians, senior technicians, and specialists.
- Develop succession plans for key operational positions.
- Build a culture where accountability, urgency, teamwork, and execution are expected.
Customer Experience
The Director of Service is ultimately responsible for ensuring customers receive a consistent, professional, and responsive service experience.
- Maintain strong relationships with key customers and strategic accounts.
- Ensure customer issues and escalations are resolved quickly.
- Establish service standards for communication, response times, scheduling, reporting, and follow-up.
- Improve customer retention and recurring revenue.
- Support Account Managers in expanding existing customer relationships.
- Ensure customers receive clear communication regarding deficiencies, repairs, recommendations, and regulatory requirements.
- Develop programs that differentiate the company through superior service rather than price alone.
Sales & Business Development
Work closely with Sales and Account Management to drive profitable organic growth.
- Establish annual and monthly service sales targets.
- Increase repair and deficiency conversion rates.
- Grow recurring inspection and maintenance agreements.
- Identify opportunities within existing customers.
- Support major account renewals and contract negotiations.
- Develop pricing strategies that maintain competitiveness while protecting margin.
- Review lost opportunities and develop strategies to improve close rates.
- Ensure operational capacity is aligned with sales growth.
Service Execution & Work Order Management
Establish clear expectations for the complete lifecycle of every service work order.
Ensure work progresses efficiently from:
Dispatch → Field Execution → Documentation → Deficiency Identification → Quotation → Approval → Scheduling → Completion → Billing
Maintain visibility into:
- Approved but unscheduled repairs.
- Completed but unbilled work.
- Technician notes and documentation.
- Customer follow-up requirements.
- Long-outstanding service calls.
The expectation is that work is actively managed through completion rather than simply passed between departments.
Safety, Quality & Compliance
- Promote a strong safety culture throughout Service operations.
- Ensure work complies with applicable codes, standards, manufacturer requirements, and company procedures.
- Maintain high standards for inspection documentation and field reporting.
- Ensure technicians maintain appropriate certifications and training.
- Work closely with Health & Safety and Technical leadership to address field risks and quality concerns.
- Support continuous improvement initiatives across the organization.
Leadership & Culture
The Director of Service must be a visible and engaged leader who sets clear expectations and holds the organization accountable for results.
The successful candidate will:
- Develop strong managers rather than personally managing every issue.
- Establish measurable expectations for leaders and teams.
- Hold regular operational and financial reviews.
- Coach managers on performance, leadership, and decision-making.
- Recognize strong performance and address poor performance quickly.
- Create accountability without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Communicate clearly and consistently across the organization.
- Maintain a strong presence in all branches and with field employees.
- Lead with urgency and follow through on commitments.
Key Performance Indicators
Performance will be measured against clearly established operational and financial KPIs, including:
- Contribution/gross margin versus budget.
- Technician utilization and billable hours.
- Repair and deficiency conversion.
- Open and aging work orders.
- Completed but unbilled revenue.
- Recurring revenue growth.
Qualifications
- 8+ years of progressive operational leadership experience.
- 5+ years in a senior management or multi-location leadership position preferred.
- Experience within fire protection, electrical, mechanical, HVAC, building services, facilities services, or a similar field-service organization.
- Strong understanding of field service operations and technician workforce management.
- Demonstrated experience managing revenue, budgets, margins, and operational KPIs.
- Proven ability to lead managers and geographically dispersed teams.
- Experience building processes and improving operational performance.
- Strong commercial and financial acumen.
- Excellent communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills.
- Experience managing significant customer relationships and service contracts.
- Fire protection industry experience is strongly preferred but not mandatory for an exceptional field-service operations leader.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate is a proven operational leader who understands that excellent service businesses are built through strong people, disciplined execution, and accountability.
They are comfortable moving between the boardroom and the field. They can review a P&L in the morning, work through technician capacity and scheduling with a Service Manager in the afternoon, and meet with a major customer the following day.
They do not wait for problems to become visible through financial results. They establish systems that identify issues early and ensure their leadership team takes action.
Most importantly, they understand how to build and lead a high-performing service organization where customers want to stay, employees want to work, and the business consistently achieves its financial commitments.
