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General Manager, Student Transportation, Kingston

Voyago1 day ago
Kingston
Senior Level
full_time

Top Benefits

Free licence upgrade
Comprehensive benefits package
Employee and Family Assistance Program

About the role

Voyago is launching an exciting new Student Transportation division in Kingston — and we’re looking for a strategic, people-focused General Manager to lead it.

At Voyago, we’re Driven to Care and Safety First Focused! That means delivering safe, reliable, uninterrupted transportation that families count on — and empowering our leaders with the tools, expertise, and support they need to succeed.

This role is perfect for an experienced, results-driven leader who thrives in a start-up environment and is energized by building something from the ground up. Backed by Voyago’s proven systems and dedicated operational support teams, you’ll create the foundation for a high-performing division that serves students, schools, families, and the broader Kingston community.

Your Role

As the General Manager, you step above day-to-day troubleshooting to focus on long-term success, operational excellence, and exceptional service delivery.

Reporting directly to the VP of Student Transportation, you provide clear direction, strengthen partnerships, drive performance, and lead a team of supervisors and frontline staff who manage daily operations. With dedicated teams in dispatch, routing, safety, training, and customer support, you’re supported by experts — allowing you to lead strategically while ensuring service runs smoothly across every route, every day.

This position is a primary point of contact for major accounts and consortium partners, requiring professional diplomacy, confidence, and strong relationship management.

Why You’ll Love This Role

  • You lead the strategy — your team executes the operation.
  • You’re surrounded by experts: of Operation Managers and a senior team of experienced staff.
  • Your work has purpose: you support students, families, and school communities across Kingston.
  • Career growth is built in: we invest heavily in leadership development and succession planning.
  • You build something new: play a key role in launching a new operation with full corporate support.
  • You drive service without interruption: a mission that defines our commitment to customers.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Operational Excellence

  • Provide overall strategic leadership for the Kingston division, ensuring service continuity, operational stability, and long-term growth.
  • Set annual performance goals, service standards, and divisional priorities aligned with corporate strategy.
  • Lead the development of operational plans, contingency strategies, and start-up scaling frameworks to support sustainable expansion.
  • Oversee execution through your leadership team (supervisors, dispatch, training, and safety), ensuring alignment and accountability.
  • Serve as the senior decision-maker for escalations, risk mitigation, and major operational issues.

People Leadership & Culture Building

  • Build and develop a high-performing leadership team capable of running day-to-day operations independently.
  • Foster a culture of safety, accountability, service excellence, and employee engagement.
  • Lead succession planning, leadership coaching, and ongoing talent development for supervisors and frontline leaders.
  • Lead complex employee relations matters in collaboration with HR, ensuring decisions align with both legal requirements and organizational values.

Community, Government & Stakeholder Partnerships

  • Act as the primary senior representative for the division with school boards, consortiums, municipal partners, and community stakeholders.
  • Represent Voyago in high-level discussions involving contract management, service expectations, escalations, and long-term partnership building.
  • Strengthen community presence, promoting Voyago’s brand, mission, and commitment to service without interruption.
  • Support future business development opportunities, RFP participation, and expansion planning.

Financial Stewardship & Business Performance

  • Own the divisional budget, financial planning, forecasting, and performance reporting.
  • Ensure financial accountability through cost management, resource planning, and strong operational governance.
  • Evaluate financial performance and implement strategies to improve margins, efficiency, and resource allocation.
  • Contribute to capital planning, including fleet lifecycle, facility expansion, and major procurement decisions.

Start-Up Governance & Organizational Integration

  • Lead the launch and scale-up of the Kingston operation, ensuring all functions (operations, safety, training, fleet) integrate seamlessly into Voyago’s framework.
  • Monitor readiness milestones, staffing levels, fleet availability, facility preparedness, and compliance requirements.
  • Work with the HR & Talent teams, ensuring leadership roles, drivers, and support teams are in place for launch milestones.
  • Oversee change management for new technologies, processes, and organizational systems introduced during expansion.

Performance Management, Analytics & Continuous Improvement

  • Oversee KPI development and reporting for service reliability, safety, customer satisfaction, and financial outcomes.
  • Lead monthly or quarterly reviews with senior leadership, providing insight, analysis, and improvement strategies.
  • Champion continuous improvement initiatives, ensuring data-driven decision-making and implementation of best practices.
  • Oversee compliance programs, audits, risk assessments, and corrective action plans.

Corporate Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • Collaborate directly with the VP and senior leadership teams across Operations, HR, Fleet, Safety, Finance, and Training to ensure corporate priorities are executed at the divisional level.
  • Provide input on policies, operational standards, and long-term strategic planning.
  • Serve as a leadership voice in shaping organizational improvements, national initiatives, and future growth strategies.

Requirements

Your Profile:

  • Strong decision-making skills — able to guide your team through challenges while keeping service uninterrupted
  • Customer and community-focused mindset — committed to building positive relationships with schools, families, and partners
  • Organizational and strategic thinking skills — able to balance day-to-day operations with long-term improvement initiatives

Qualifications & Requirements

  • University Degree, College Diploma, or equivalent
  • Minimum 3 years’ experience in a supervisory or management role in an operations environment
  • Experience in Student Transportation, Medical Transport, or Transportation industry preferred but not mandatory
  • Experience launching a start up in a new location is a definite asset
  • Ability to obtain a B Class License
  • Clean Driver’s Abstract
  • Clear Criminal Record Search including Vulnerable Sector
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Experience in a dynamic, high-demand work environment with specific deadlines, handling confidential and sensitive materials
  • Advanced skills in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and Adobe Acrobat
  • Ability to participate in and facilitate group meetings

Benefits

The perks:

  • We offer free licence upgrade

  • We offer comprehensive benefits packages for full time employees with an Employee and Family Assistance Program, a great company perks program and an Employee Referral Bonus for all staff

  • We are an Award Winning company

  • As a subsidiary of Transdev, we provide opportunities for a rewarding career with a growing, global transportation provider

  • We focus on innovation and sustainable environmental initiatives

  • We support the development, work-life balance and well-being of our employees

  • We build a supportive corporate culture that encourages diversity and enables our people to flourish.

  • We enable our employees to have a positive social impact by deploying sustainable mobility solutions.

  • We offer our employees opportunities to build their own experience within a local, global Group.

Voyago is committed to provide accommodation for individuals with disabilities throughout the recruitment process. Accommodations are available upon request of the internal or external applicant. If you require an accommodation due to a disability for an interview, please notify Human Resources directly to make appropriate arrangements when contacted for an interview.

Voyago Transdev’s Applicant Tracking System uses AI-assisted tools during the initial application and early screening stage.

We thank all applicants however only those under consideration will be contacted.

About Voyago

Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage
1001-5000

Voyago is Ontario's Mobility brand and a subsidiary of Transdev, an international leader in mobility at the service of communities. Voyago provides safe reliable transportation to Ontario's Hospitals, Schools, and Community Transit systems.

We are people serving people, and our employees are driven by the positive impact they have on people and their communities.

Transdev's Ontario brand include: Voyago NEMT, Voyago Student, Voyago Transit, Voyago Charters, East Ferris Bus Lines and Priority Patient Transfer Services. One Team, Under Transdev, working together all over Ontario!