General Manager, Victoria
About HAVN
HAVN is a hydrotherapy facility on Victoria's harbour, offering sauna, cold immersion, and rest on the water. Now three years in, HAVN has a second location underway in Vancouver.
HAVN uses creativity, care, and attention to detail to make the built world more human—a place people actually want to be that isn't home and isn't work. Buildings are made of decisions, and those decisions stay in the room for decades. HAVN takes theirs seriously.
That's what every decision at HAVN is measured against. The temperature. The lighting. The way someone is greeted at the door. Each one is a chance to make the place better to be in.
The Opportunity
This is a chance to run one of those places, with a small team of people who care about doing it well.
HAVN is a for-profit business and they are straightforward about that. They also think bringing real care and attention to how people experience a space is worth doing on its own terms— and hire people who agree.
The General Manager is the anchor of the location. You're not managing a facility, you're hosting it—guests, staff, and the experience itself. Everything runs through you: the standard of the space, the warmth of the team, what every guest feels walking through the door.
You lead all on-site leadership and staff directly, including the Maintenance Manager, Lounge Manager, Floor Managers—a team of around 30. You're accountable for their performance, their development, and whether they understand what HAVN is.
The role is operational: building systems, leading people, holding standards, being on the floor consistently—not managing from a distance, but checking in and showing what good hosting looks like.
Victoria is the first HAVN location, not the last. Vancouver is underway, and the ambition doesn't stop at hydrotherapy, other iterations may eventually include a café, a wine bar, accommodation, or something they haven't thought of yet. The intent stays the same: that the built world can be made for people.
That makes the role bigger than one building. Right now most of what makes HAVN work lives in the heads of a few people who are here every day. The job is to make it transferable, clear enough in expectation and accountability that the standard holds somewhere else, with different people. What gets built here is what they carry forward.
Key Responsibilities
Hosting — guests and space
Sets the tone for every guest experience, from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave.
Models what genuine hosting looks like — reading a guest who has been waiting and offering a tea, not reciting a welcome script.
Curates the space to the Month Three standard — consistently excellent, not occasionally excellent.
Owns the full sensory environment in collaboration with the Maintenance Manager: sight (cleanliness, visual order, lighting quality, no signs of neglect), sound (music tone and volume, calm atmosphere), and smell (freshness throughout, no off-putting odours). If any of these are off, notices it and acts.
Ensures every guest receives the same quality of experience, regardless of who is on shift.
Leading and hosting staff
Hires, onboards, and, when necessary, lets people go, with full authority and full accountability.
Trains staff to understand that connecting with a guest in the moment is always more important than delivering a script.
Keeps the team accountable to HAVN's values without making the culture heavy or precious — keeps it light.
Carries the energy on shift: when the GM is calm, clear, and present, the team follows.
Bridges floor staff and upper leadership, translating what is happening on the ground into clear, honest communication upward.
Is the kind of leader the team can tell the truth to, and the kind who can tell the truth back.
Building and holding systems
Builds operational systems that protect the experience, so the standard holds whether the GM is in the building or not.
Maintains accurate documentation, reporting, and operational records.
Coordinates with the Maintenance Manager to ensure the physical environment always meets the standard.
Participates in scheduling, rostering, and operational planning.
Identifies what is working, what is not, and brings solutions — not just problems — to leadership.
Carrying the brand
Understands HAVN's values deeply enough to make judgment calls that align with them, without checking in.
Protects the magic as the business grows — knows what must never change, and what can evolve.
Sees the good HAVN can do and articulates it to the team in a way that makes them feel part of something meaningful.
Is the keeper of the brand at the location level — the person who holds the line when commercial pressure or operational noise tries to compromise the experience.
Financial Responsibility
The GM is operationally accountable for the financial performance of the location. Financial reporting, forecasting, and accounting administration are managed by the Finance Team — but the decisions that drive performance belong to the GM.
Drives sustainable revenue through operational excellence and guest experience.
Manages labour and controllable operating costs responsibly.
Ensures staffing levels align with operational and financial realities.
Identifies inefficiencies and cost risks early and brings solutions.
Understands key operational and financial KPIs and holds department leaders to them.
Exceptional culture, guest experience, and financial performance are not competing priorities at HAVN — they are interconnected, and the GM is expected to hold all three simultaneously.
Essential Qualities and Experience
HAVN is not only hiring for a résumé — it is hiring for a kind of person. The right General Manager already carries the following qualities in how they lead, how they move through a room, and how they talk about the people they've worked with.
A natural host. Does not need a system to offer a waiting guest a tea. Notices, feels the moment, and acts warmly and naturally. Hospitality is a reflex, not a function.
Carries the light on shift. When present, the team lifts, not through volume or direction, but through calm, attention, and a visible standard that pulls the room toward excellence.
Looks in the mirror first. When something goes wrong, the first instinct is to ask what could have been done differently, not to identify who else is responsible. Holds themselves to a higher standard than anyone else, and can say to leadership, "I made a mistake," without it being weakness.
Connects, not just communicates. A strong verbal communicator: clear, warm, direct. Makes guests, staff, and leadership feel genuinely seen, and knows when someone needs to be heard more than managed.
High attention to detail and high tolerance for people. Notices the small things, the detail that's slightly off, the staff member who's slightly flat, and addresses them with care rather than criticism. The standard and the warmth are the same thing, not a trade-off.
HAVN is open to backgrounds — hospitality, wellness, retail, or another high-touch, experience-led environment. What matters is the quality of leadership and the depth of care for the experience, not the specific industry. Above all, the successful candidate will bring a genuine authenticity that aligns naturally with HAVN's culture, values, and way of leading people.
Required:
Proven experience leading a team in an experience-led environment.
A track record of hiring well and building culture intentionally.
Strong verbal communication, equally comfortable with a guest, a floor staff member, and senior leadership.
Demonstrated ability to build and maintain operational systems.
A high personal standard for detail, presentation, and consistency.
Comfort with accountability, giving it and receiving it.
Desirable:
Background in hospitality, wellness, or another high-touch experience business.
Experience opening or scaling a location.
Familiarity with scheduling, rostering, and operational reporting tools.
HAVN values
The GM is not just expected to understand these values — they are expected to be the most visible embodiment of them in the building.
Presence — fully here, in a way the team can feel.
Care — for guests, for staff, for every detail of the experience.
Taste — notices what is slightly off and acts on it.
Captivation — protects the spell, and helps the team understand why it matters.
Ownership — if you notice it, you own it; if it goes wrong, you own that too.
Keep it light — takes the work seriously. Not themselves.
Compensation and Search Process
The salary range for this position is $100,000–$120,000, calibrated to the experience and readiness of the successful candidate. Bonus eligibility begins in year two and scales with sustained performance.
GM performance is assessed quarterly through self and management review, across three interconnected dimensions: connection, captivation, and creativity.
Candidates will be screened and interviewed on a rolling basis, and we encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as they are able.
Mosaic Executive Search is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion in our search processes. We welcome applications from Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, racialized people, and members of communities that continue to face barriers to senior leadership. Candidates who require accommodation at any stage of the search are encouraged to contact us directly.
How to Apply
In addition to a cover letter and resume, please share a moment, as a guest somewhere, or as a leader, when you felt an experience was genuinely captivating. Tell us what made it that way, and what your role in it was.
To apply, please upload your materials on our application portal here.
You are welcome to otherwise direct questions to alana@mosaicsearch.ca or dave@mosaicsearch.ca
