Branch Manager

Sullivan's Landscaping & Maintenance Inc.; Dover (DE); On-site; USD 85,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

Sullivan’s Landscaping is seeking a Branch Manager to serve as the operational leader and Vision-Maker for a full-service branch in the Dover/Middletown area. You will translate the company's strategic goals into day-to-day execution by building a high-performing team, strengthening customer relationships, and delivering safe, profitable operations.

You will lead change with clarity, coach managers, and ensure accountability while driving growth across service lines.

Qualifications

• Five or more years of progressive leadership experience in landscaping or a comparable field-service, construction, facilities, arboriculture, property maintenance, or operational service organization.
• Demonstrated success leading operational teams through front-line managers or supervisors.
• Experience developing leaders and building high-performing teams.
• Experience managing customer retention, revenue growth, productivity, profitability, and employee performance.
• Strong operational judgment and the ability to make timely decisions in complex situations.
• High school diploma or equivalent.
• Valid driver’s license, acceptable driving record, and continued insurability under Sullivan’s vehicle insurance program.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a high-performing branch through coaching, accountability, and personal example.
• Develop managers who think independently, solve problems proactively, and make sound business decisions.
• Identify and prepare future leaders while strengthening the branch’s leadership pipeline.
• Provide regular coaching focused on leadership, business acumen, accountability, and individual growth.
• Lead change with clarity and help teams maintain momentum through adversity.
• Direct branch operations to ensure safe, efficient, profitable, and consistently high-quality service.
• Balance labor, equipment, scheduling, facilities, and operational resources to meet customer and business needs.
• Remove obstacles that prevent teams from performing at their highest level.
• Reinforce safety expectations, required training, hazard identification, incident investigation, and corrective action.
• Continuously improve branch systems, planning, productivity, and operational execution.
• Build trusted customer relationships through responsiveness, professionalism, and exceptional service.
• Resolve significant concerns while protecting long-term partnerships and Sullivan’s reputation.
• Use customer feedback and Net Promoter Score results to improve service and strengthen retention.
• Partner across the business to support renewals, identify growth opportunities, and deliver lasting customer value.
• Manage branch performance through disciplined planning, budgeting, forecasting, and operational decision-making.
• Develop and execute annual branch plans in partnership with senior leadership.
• Monitor labor productivity, equipment utilization, production efficiency, overhead, and profitability.
• Hold branch leaders accountable for understanding and contributing to their departments’ financial performance.
• Balance immediate operational needs with the long-term health and growth of the branch.

Skills

Leadership

People development

Operational planning

Safety orientation

Customer focus

Education

High school diploma

Business/landscape degree

Tools

BOSS software

Landscape software

Job description

Reports To: Vice President, or as assigned

Location: In-Person: Dover/Middletown Area

Employment Type: Full-Time, Exempt

This Career Is Not for Everyone

Sullivan’s Landscaping is looking for a leader who embraces responsibility, makes difficult decisions, develops people, and has the courage to learn through failure.

As a Branch Manager, you will serve as the operational leader and Vision-Maker for an entire business unit. You will transform Sullivan’s strategic vision into execution by building a high-performing team, strengthening customer relationships, solving complex problems, and driving sustainable business results.

This is not a role for someone who prefers to lead from a distance. When obstacles arise, you step forward. When your team needs direction, you create clarity. When difficult decisions must be made, you make them. Your leadership will establish the pace, standards, accountability, and culture of the branch.

What You Will Own

People and Leadership

• Build and lead a high-performing branch through coaching, accountability, and personal example.
• Develop managers who think independently, solve problems proactively, and make sound business decisions.
• Identify and prepare future leaders while strengthening the branch’s leadership pipeline.
• Provide regular coaching focused on leadership, business acumen, accountability, and individual growth.
• Lead change with clarity and help teams maintain momentum through adversity.

Operations and Safety

• Direct branch operations to ensure safe, efficient, profitable, and consistently high-quality service.
• Balance labor, equipment, scheduling, facilities, and operational resources to meet customer and business needs.
• Remove obstacles that prevent teams from performing at their highest level.
• Reinforce safety expectations, required training, hazard identification, incident investigation, and corrective action.
• Continuously improve branch systems, planning, productivity, and operational execution.

Customers and Growth

• Build trusted customer relationships through responsiveness, professionalism, and exceptional service.
• Resolve significant concerns while protecting long-term partnerships and Sullivan’s reputation.
• Use customer feedback and Net Promoter Score results to improve service and strengthen retention.
• Partner across the business to support renewals, identify growth opportunities, and deliver lasting customer value.
• Manage branch performance through disciplined planning, budgeting, forecasting, and operational decision-making.
• Develop and execute annual branch plans in partnership with senior leadership.
• Monitor labor productivity, equipment utilization, production efficiency, overhead, and profitability.
• Hold branch leaders accountable for understanding and contributing to their departments’ financial performance.
• Balance immediate operational needs with the long-term health and growth of the branch.

How Success Is Measured

Safety is the foundation of branch performance. A branch cannot be considered high-performing without an unwavering commitment to protecting its people, customers, and communities.

The Branch Manager’s primary success measures include:

• Lost Time Incidents: Target Zero
• Safety Training Compliance: 100%
• Customer Revenue Retention: 98% or Greater
• Net Promoter Score: 50 or Greater
• Annual Branch Revenue Growth: 15% or Greater
• Branch Gross Profit Margin: 56% or Greater
• Includes all operating divisions and excludes snow operations.

What Leadership Means at Sullivan’s

Leadership at Sullivan’s is not defined by title or authority. It is demonstrated through ownership, humility, trust, decisive action, and the example you set every day.

To succeed here, you must be willing to:

• Own outcomes rather than make excuses.
• Lead from the front and never consider necessary work beneath you.
• Listen, accept feedback, and value humility over ego.
• Move with urgency while exercising sound judgment.
• Develop people instead of solving every problem for them.
• Communicate clearly and remain steady when circumstances are uncertain.
• Follow through and deliver on your promises.

At Sullivan’s, leading from the front is not simply the best way to lead. It is the only way to lead.

What We Are Looking For

Required

• Five or more years of progressive leadership experience in landscaping or a comparable field-service, construction, facilities, arboriculture, property maintenance, or operational service organization.
• Demonstrated success leading operational teams through front-line managers or supervisors.
• Experience developing leaders and building high-performing teams.
• Experience managing customer retention, revenue growth, productivity, profitability, and employee performance.
• Strong operational judgment and the ability to make timely decisions in complex situations.
• High school diploma or equivalent.
• Valid driver’s license, acceptable driving record, and continued insurability under Sullivan’s vehicle insurance program.

Preferred

• Commercial landscaping or green-industry experience.
• Multi-department, multi-location, or business-unit leadership experience.
• Experience leading branch growth, expansion, or significant operational change.
• Proficiency with landscape business software, with BOSS experience preferred.
• Associate’s or bachelor’s degree in business, landscape management, horticulture, construction management, operations management, or a related discipline.
• Delaware Certified Nursery Professional or National Association of Landscape Professionals certification.

Why Sullivan’s?

Sullivan’s is a family-owned and operated landscaping company with more than 35 years of experience serving its communities. We are committed to improving the lives of our team members, strengthening partnerships with our customers, and continually becoming a better version of ourselves.

Our vision is to become one of the top 100 landscape companies in the United States while maintaining the quality-driven principles that built our reputation. We are looking for leaders who want to help build something greater than themselves.

Let’s Talk

This opportunity is demanding, but you do not need to arrive with every answer.

Great leaders are defined by their character, their willingness to learn, and their commitment to making the people around them better.