Recreation Superintendent

Job summary

The Recreation Superintendent provides strategic leadership for the Recreation Section, overseeing facility operations, program development, and community initiatives. This role is responsible for managing budgets, contracts, and staff while ensuring compliance with safety and legislative requirements.

Job details

About Red Deer Red Deer sits at the heart of Central Alberta along the QEII corridor, perfectly positioned between Calgary and Edmonton. With more than 100,000 residents and a regional reach of over 300,000, it’s a growing hub for business, services, and opportunity. Here, big-city amenities meet small-city ease. Enjoy abundant parks and trails, vibrant arts and culture, excellent recreation and education, and a strong sense of community. With easy access to lakes, outdoor adventures, and the mountains, plus a thriving economy and high quality of life, Red Deer is an inviting place to live, work, and grow. About The City of Red Deer Municipal Government The City of Red Deer is a dynamic municipal organization with a $480M operating budget, a $60M capital program, and a workforce of nearly 1,700 employees. It is focused on growing with purpose by attracting talented, community-minded people who want to make a difference. Guided by the vision “Our City, One Voice,” Red Deer is building a thriving, inclusive, and connected community, with priorities centered on a vibrant economy, community wellbeing, and strong engagement. At its core, the City values its people, embracing diverse perspectives and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and shared success. The Opportunity: The Recreation Superintendent is responsible for the overall leadership and supervision of the Recreation Section. This position focuses on overseeing community development initiatives and overall leading and planning of programs, services and facility management for the Section. While managing a number of projects, this position is responsible for communication and public relations, risk and safety management, and a number of other administrative responsibilities include contract management, budgeting, and policy development. Responsible for multiple assets valued at approximately $60 million that are complex, diverse and technologically unique. Responsible for the successful operation of these programs, services and facilities as well as the successful partnering with community agencies in order to leverage The City’s ability to offer services. Top Key Responsibilities: * Provide strategic leadership for recreation. * Lead operational planning, service delivery, and long-term program development. * Oversee facility infrastructure, asset management, and capital improvement projects. * Build and maintain partnerships with community groups, stakeholders, and government agencies. * Lead, coach, and manage staff, including recruitment, performance management, and workforce planning. * Develop and manage operating and capital budgets, ensuring fiscal accountability. * Oversee contracts, procurement processes, and major projects to ensure timely and cost-effective delivery. * Ensure compliance with policies, legislation, risk management, and health and safety requirements. * Lead communications, public engagement, stakeholder relations, and reporting to senior leadership and Council. As our preferred candidate, you will have: * Related university undergraduate degree such as Recreation Administration, Physical Education, or Business Administration. * Minimum of five years experience at a management level in a recreation setting management and program service delivery that must include a demonstrated community development approach to service delivery. * Experience in senior management in a recreation, parks or culture delivery system with demonstrated ability to put together successful delivery teams and to facilitate community development approach to service delivery. * Thorough knowledge of the principles, practices, methods and procedures used in the administration of recreation facilities, operations, projects, programs and services. * Thorough understanding of the concept of and application of marketing principles and practices to ensure a high degree of public accessibility to programs and services. * Ability to develop and maintain sound operation and maintenance procedures and systems, policies and procedures, and operations manuals. * Ability to establish cordial relations with all major facility user groups, retail service providers, tenants, a staff, community partners, department staff, City officials, other City departments, professional consultants, school boards, business community, service clubs, institutions and the general public. * Knowledge of Federal and Provincial legislation and City by-laws governing the operation of public buildings. Affiliation: Exempt Status: Regular Full-time Remuneration: $62.53 to $78.16 per hour $122,402.48 to $152,998.20 per annum Hours of Work: 75 hours biweekly; Monday to Friday. Some evening and weekend work may be required. The City of Red Deer does not permit the use of unauthorized internet resources or Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools (for example, Copilot, ChatGPT or any other form of AI) during interviews or any supervised or timed assessments. Any violation may be investigated and result in serious consequences, including the rejection of your application. We thank you for your application. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted. We are a municipal government, eager to meet tomorrow's challenges. Our employees are the cornerstone of our organization. We are always seeking creative and skilled individuals with the ability and desire to lead in our dynamic workplace. Each of our employees brings diverse experiences and perspectives, as well as unique skills and talents to the job. Our diverse employee base ensures an environment where individual, team, and organizational successes are embraced and celebrated. We strive to ensure a supportive and respectful work environment for all. Employees are treated fairly and have equal opportunity within the organization to thrive and attain their highest potential. We welcome your application and look forward to discussing how The City of Red Deer can become your next career choice.

What you’ll do

The Recreation Superintendent provides strategic leadership for the Recreation Section, overseeing facility operations, program development, and community initiatives. This role is responsible for managing budgets, contracts, and staff while ensuring compliance with safety and legislative requirements.

Requirements

Candidates must possess a university undergraduate degree in a related field such as Recreation Administration or Business Administration. A minimum of five years of management-level experience in a recreation setting with a focus on community development is required.

Listed skills

• Budgeting · Preferred
• Policy development · Preferred
• Asset Management · Preferred
• Risk Management · Preferred
• Project management · Preferred
• Community development · Preferred
• Procurement · Preferred

Other relevant skills

Identified from the job description. Confirm important requirements above.

• Strategic leadership
• Operational planning
• Facility management
• Budgeting
• Community development
• Project management
• Public relations
• Risk management
• Contract management
• Performance management
• Stakeholder engagement
• Policy development
• Asset management
• Procurement
• Workforce planning
• Safety management
• ChatGPT
• Stakeholder Communications
• Accountability
• Policy Development
• Planning
• Physical Education
• Program Development
• Business Administration
• Management
• Communication
• Community Development
• Public Relations
• Contract Management
• Economics
• Performance Management
• Facility Management
• Leadership
• Marketing
• Innovation
• Infrastructure Asset Management
• Risk Management
• Operating Budget
• Operational Planning
• Operations
• Strategic Leadership
• Workforce Planning

Job areas

• Management & Leadership
• Sports & Recreation
• Government & Public Sector
• Administrative
• Superintendent of Recreation
• Education Superintendent
• Education Managers
• Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary

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