Maintenance Team Lead

Our well-known award-winning Garden Design client is seeking an experienced Team Leader with a background in Landscaping to join the established gardening team. They work on a beautiful portfolio of projects, where excellent attention to detail is key. The gardens are located throughout Central London, Surrey and the surrounding areas and require the highest level of care.

As the successful candidate, you must have solid, proven experience and knowledge of managing a team and working in gardens that require the highest level of care and attention to detail, and preferably a relevant qualification in gardening or horticulture. They are looking for someone with strong technical landscape architecture experience who is comfortable balancing design support, team management, and client interaction.

• Lead and manage the in-house maintenance team (4 staff), including scheduling and workload planning.
• Support the design team in taking HNWI garden designs through to technical stage.
• Provide technical support to the maintenance team on site.
• Act as a client-facing representative during maintenance visits and reviews.
• Manage client email correspondence and queries.
• Develop additional planting works, including sourcing and planting plans.

Key Management Duties:

• Executing horticultural excellence and garden aftercare service.
• Communicating with the Garden Aftercare Manager regarding client requests, additional works and providing feedback and developmental suggestions on gardens.
• Contribute towards the development and implementation of aftercare programmes and schedules.
• Managing your team and supporting the wider Garden Maintenance Team.
• Liaising with clients, designers and suppliers.
• Monitoring of and reporting on the quality, health and development of gardens.
• Implementing company Health and Safety documentation and following reporting processes.
• Organising and managing both yours and your team’s time and resources.

Key Horticultural/ Garden Maintenance Duties:

• Lawn care (all aspects: mowing, feeding etc.).
• Tending to borders and containers (feeding, staking, weeding, planting).
• General and specialised pruning, trimming and cutting using hand and power tools (roses, shrubs, trees etc.).
• General watering and management of irrigation systems.
• Application of chemical and biological control.
• Management of garden water features (cleaning, checks etc.).
• Ground and hard surface clearance (sweeping, cleaning, washing and maintenance of hard surfaces).
• Soil management (testing pH and moisture levels, mulching and improving).

Personal skills/ qualities:

• Positive and enthusiastic.
• A collaborative team player.
• Willing to take direction and follow instruction as required.
• Able to work independently and take ownership for work.
• High levels of energy and self-motivation.
• Excellent attention to detail and due diligence.
• A strong work ethic with a proactive and can-do attitude.
• Excellent time-management and organisation.
• Flexible with the ability to work under varying levels of pressure.
• Integrity and discretion.
• Strong desire to learn and develop: personally, professionally with the team and company.
• Passionate about horticulture and gardening.

Essential:

• Minimum one year’s experience at team leader level, or equivalent.
• Excellent plant knowledge.
• Experience with pedestrian mowers, scarifiers, hedge trimmers and power washers.
• Experience with irrigation systems.
• A full driving licence.

Desired:

• Relevant qualification in gardening or horticulture i.e. RHS or City and Guilds, level one minimum.
• Good awareness of Health and Safety.
• Experience using biological pest and disease control.

General Information:

• Paid Overtime.
• 28 days holiday (includes Bank Holidays), increase to 33 days after 5 years of service (includes Bank Holidays).
• Birthday day – all employees have their Birthday as a paid holiday.
• Training and career development opportunities.
• Uniform and personal protective equipment (PPE) is supplied at no cost.
• Bonus Scheme.
• Company vehicle.
• Opportunity to work on Show Gardens.