Confidential General Manager – Fire & Life Safety
Location: New England
Position Type: Full-Time
About the Opportunity
Lead the Business. Know the Work. Grow the Organization.
Our client is seeking an experienced General Manager to lead our regional fire and life safety business across fire sprinkler, fire alarm, electronic security, intercommunication, service, installation, and enterprise sales.
This is not a traditional branch management position.
We are looking for a hands-on fire and life safety leader who has spent significant time in the field and understands the work beyond the P&L. The ideal candidate has direct experience with fire sprinkler and fire alarm systems, including the realities of installation, service, inspections, testing, troubleshooting, project execution, technicians, customers, AHJs, contractors, and field operations.
You should be equally comfortable walking a job site, talking with a technician, meeting with a general contractor, reviewing operational performance, and sitting with the leadership team to discuss P&L, growth, and strategy.
What You'll Own
As General Manager, you will have overall responsibility for the performance and growth of the business, including:
Business Performance & P&L
- Own regional P&L performance, including revenue, gross margin, overhead, and EBITDA.
- Establish annual operating plans, budgets, revenue targets, and performance expectations.
- Identify opportunities to expand service capabilities, customer segments, geographies, and revenue streams.
- Monitor KPIs and provide executive leadership with clear visibility into business performance.
- Balance growth with operational capacity, profitability, customer retention, and service quality.
Enterprise Sales & Customer Growth
- Lead and support enterprise sales opportunities with major accounts, general contractors, property management companies, and building owners.
- Build and maintain executive-level relationships with key customers and strategic partners.
- Develop existing accounts through service expansion, repairs, inspections, testing, installation, and additional fire/life-safety capabilities.
- Ensure sales commitments align with field capacity and operational execution.
- Partner with operations to ensure successful transitions from construction and installation into recurring service.
Field & Operational Leadership
- Provide strategic leadership to service, testing, inspection, installation, suppression, security, and technical operations.
- Establish high standards for field execution, safety, quality, compliance, customer service, and accountability.
- Remove operational barriers that impact technicians and field teams.
- Understand field challenges firsthand and make informed decisions based on actual job-site conditions.
- Support hiring, organizational structure, resource planning, and leadership development.
- Ensure field teams have the people, training, equipment, materials, and processes necessary to perform successfully.
You Must Know Fire & Life Safety
This is a critical requirement of the position.
The successful candidate will have direct, hands-on industry experience and a strong understanding of the work performed by fire and life safety professionals.
Experience should include meaningful exposure to:
- Fire sprinkler systems
- Fire alarm systems
- Inspection, testing, service, and maintenance
- Installation and construction
- Troubleshooting and system deficiencies
- Project execution and closeout
- Technicians, installers, inspectors, and field crews
- AHJs, general contractors, property owners, and consultants
- NFPA requirements and applicable state/local codes
- Fire/life-safety project and service environments
Candidates who have only managed a service business or security organization without direct fire/life-safety experience will not be the right fit for this position.
Leadership & Team Development
- Build a culture centered on accountability, safety, customer service, and operational excellence.
- Develop managers, supervisors, and high-potential technicians into future leaders.
- Establish clear expectations and measurable performance standards.
- Build strong communication between sales, service, installation, project management, and administration.
- Support recruiting and retention of skilled fire/life-safety professionals.
- Represent Norel professionally with customers, employees, industry partners, and the local community.
Cross-Platform Collaboration
- Collaborate with leadership across the broader organization to share resources, best practices, talent, vendor relationships, and market opportunities.
- Identify opportunities to leverage capabilities across business lines and geographic markets.
- Contribute to the organization's broader growth strategy beyond the individual regional P&L.
Requirements
What We're Looking For
Required Experience
- 10+ years of direct fire and life safety industry experience, with significant experience in fire sprinkler and/or fire alarm.
- Hands-on field experience is required.
- Experience directly working with or leading technicians, installers, service teams, inspectors, project teams, or field operations.
- 5+ years in a senior management, General Manager, Regional VP, Branch Manager, Operations Leader, or comparable P&L leadership role.
- Demonstrated success growing a service/contracting business.
- Experience leading both operational and sales functions.
- Experience developing customer relationships and growing recurring service revenue.
- Construction, contracting, or fire/life-safety project experience strongly preferred.
Technical & Industry Knowledge
- Strong working knowledge of fire sprinkler and fire alarm systems.
- Working knowledge of electronic security and/or intercommunication systems.
- Familiarity with NFPA 72, NFPA 25, NFPA 101, and applicable New England regulations.
- Ability to communicate credibly with technicians, engineers, customers, GCs, AHJs, and senior executives.
- Experience working with unionized labor and navigating union environments strongly preferred.
- Familiarity with field-service management systems, CRM/ERP platforms, and business reporting tools.
The Leadership Profile
We're looking for an operator, not someone who simply manages from behind a desk.
You should be someone who:
- Knows what good field work looks like.
- Is comfortable walking a job site and talking with technicians.
- Understands the realities of fire sprinkler and fire alarm service and installation.
- Can move between technician conversations and executive-level business discussions.
- Can read a P&L and understand what is happening in the field that drives it.
- Builds trust with customers and employees.
- Holds people accountable while developing talent.
- Makes decisions based on facts, field conditions, customer needs, and business performance.
- Can grow the business without sacrificing safety, quality, or customer service.
Education
Bachelor's degree preferred; 10+ years of directly relevant fire/life-safety industry leadership experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.