General Manager - Fairmont Niseko (Pre-Opening)

As General Manager, you will hold full ownership of the resort's strategic, operational, and financial performance — leading a diverse, multicultural team to deliver an uncompromising luxury experience across all seasons. You will play a central role in shaping Fairmont Niseko's positioning as a true year-round destination, balancing the intensity of the winter season with the opportunity to build a compelling, revenue-generating offering in the warmer months.

Given the resort's mixed-use structure, you will also serve as the key liaison between hotel operations, individual residence owners, and the rental pool, ensuring alignment between guest experience, ownership interests, and commercial performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide visionary, hands-on leadership across all aspects of resort operations, from rooms and F&B to wellbeing, residences, and back-of-house functions.
• Develop and execute strategies to drive year-round demand, mitigating the effects of seasonality while protecting the resort's premium winter positioning.
• Build, lead, and inspire a diverse workforce, fostering a culture of service excellence, cultural sensitivity, and operational discipline.
• Oversee operational planning and logistics specific to extreme winter conditions, including staffing, supply chain, guest safety, and facilities management.
• Act as the primary interface with the homeowners' association / condominium body, balancing owner interests with hotel and rental pool performance.
• Own the resort's sales and marketing strategy, with a strong focus on driving demand from key Pan-Asian source markets alongside global luxury travel audiences.
• Uphold brand standards and guest experience expectations consistent with a leading international luxury hospitality brand.
• Manage budgets, forecasts, and P&L performance, ensuring commercial sustainability alongside guest and owner satisfaction.
• Represent Fairmont Niseko within the local community, regulatory environment, and broader Niseko hospitality ecosystem.

• Proven luxury hospitality leadership experience, ideally within high-end winter/ski resorts.
• Working Experience in Japan strongly preferred; genuine cultural empathy and understanding of Japanese business practices essential.
• Demonstrated success managing seasonality, with a track record of building or strengthening year-round resort destinations.
• Strong, culturally intelligent leadership skills, with experience managing diverse, multinational teams.
• Experience operating in extreme climate conditions, with an understanding of the logistical complexities unique to winter resort operations.
• Familiarity with luxury residential real estate, homeowner associations, and the legal structures governing condominium ownership is a strong advantage, given the resort's individually owned residences and rental pool model.
• A genuinely hands-on operational style, with experience leading remote or geographically isolated luxury resort properties.
• Strong commercial acumen, with well-developed sales and marketing capabilities and deep familiarity with Pan-Asian luxury travel markets.
• Fluency in English required; Japanese language ability is an asset.