General Manager (or Couple)

APPLICATIONS WILL CLOSE ON MAY 12th 2026

Wilbur is seeking an experienced General Manager, or a GM couple, to take full responsibility for the property's daily operations, financial performance, people, and long-term development. The General Manager will: Sustain and grow Wilbur Hot Springs as a financially healthy, deeply spirited healing sanctuary, owning operations, developing the team, and actively advancing the site development and rewilding vision.

This is a demanding, fully immersive, generalist role. On any given day you might be reviewing revenue data, repairing infrastructure, and welcoming a long-time guest by name. The foundation is operational excellence, financial discipline, and deep care for people and land. The ideal candidate is resourceful, resilient, and grounded, with a genuine affinity for hot springs culture and the ability to work effectively across owners, staff, guests, and local authorities.

This is a resident role. You will live on the property, full-time, in a remote off-grid location. For GM couples, we welcome applicants whose combined strengths span operations and land, and who have navigated shared leadership before.

A Day in the Life

You wake up and walk through the wildflowers before the first guests are stirring. You check on the solar system, something flagged overnight, and make a call on whether to fix it yourself or get someone out. There's a plumbing issue in the cabins and a pest problem near the kitchen that needs handling before guests notice.

By mid-morning you're at your desk. You're running a pricing experiment, a new promotional structure for mid-week occupancy, and you're reviewing the early data and adjusting copy for a digital push. You have a 1:1 with a senior staff member who's been carrying a lot lately. Then a team meeting on guest experience improvements: you've identified a pattern in feedback and you want the whole team to own the response.

In the afternoon you interview a part-time candidate. Then you take a call with one of the stewardship council, a stakeholder conversation that requires you to be prepared, clear, and calm. A VIP guest arrives and you welcome them personally.

By evening you've run out of something in the kitchen. You're an hour from a supermarket. You make do, because that is what living off-grid actually means, and you've done it before. You handle a late guest query. You check in with night coverage. Before bed, you have a soak. The stars are out.
 

The GM is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the hot springs resort business model, executing significant site development, and building toward the community and rewilding vision.

• Culture Stewardship: Actively protect and advance the spirit of Wilbur as a healing sanctuary where nature and community are inseparable. This shows up in hiring decisions, guest policy, how conflict is handled, and a hundred small daily choices.
• Team Leadership & Development: Lead, develop, and retain a collaborative team of approximately 15 staff. The Wilbur team is not just a workforce: staff live side by side on the land, support one another through the rhythms of remote life, and are themselves part of the community the property cultivates. Foster a culture where that spirit is protected and people feel genuinely empowered.
• Programming & Community Growth: Expand the retreat and events calendar: artists, poets, astronomers, yoga instructors, naturalist educators, and more. Grow visitor numbers and deepen the community of guests who call Wilbur home. Build a sustained bridge between the Bay Area community and the peace of Wilbur.
• Site Development: Co-develop and execute a prioritized capital improvement and site plan across the 200-acre resort zone. Manage projects from scoping through completion in partnership with the Council.
• Rewilding & Land Stewardship: Actively support, not just oversee, the regeneration and rewilding of the nature preserve. This includes invasive species removal, watershed restoration, and wildlife reintroduction milestones. 
• Hotel Operations: Own all aspects of lodging operations including reservations systems, guest experience, housekeeping standards, staffing, scheduling, purchasing, and night manager coverage. Build and maintain documented SOPs across all functions. Set the standard for how guests are welcomed, cared for, and sent home enriched.
• Revenue & Financial Management: Lead revenue generation through booking strategy, occupancy optimization, and dynamic pricing. Own the operating budget, deliver monthly variance reports, manage expenses, and identify and pursue revenue opportunities. Grow RevPAR year over year.
• Facilities & Off-Grid Systems: Maintain the full physical infrastructure of the property: HVAC, solar power, water systems, pools, vehicles (electric and gasoline), plumbing, electrical, and groundskeeping. Implement preventive maintenance schedules. Respond to critical issues with urgency and put systems in place to prevent recurrence.

Who We're Looking For

Wilbur is looking for a senior, experienced operator with a genuine love for land, people, and the hands-on work of running a complex, living place.

You bring:

• Proven experience operating a lodging or hospitality business, ideally as a resident or on-site manager, with direct ownership of operations, revenue, and a team
• A track record of growing businesses: occupancy, revenue, community, or programming, with the numbers and stories to show for it
• Demonstrated management experience leading small, multi-function teams in resource-constrained environments, building trust, developing people, and creating systems that outlast you
• Fluency with facilities and infrastructure; you are comfortable diagnosing problems, managing contractors, and getting your hands dirty when needed
• Experience living and working remotely or off-grid, with a clear-eyed understanding of what it actually demands
• A genuine, evidenced love of land and environmental stewardship, visible in your past decisions and not just your language
• Comfort with financial management: budgets, P&Ls, pricing strategy, variance reporting
• A love of experimentation; you test, measure, learn, and adapt
• Warmth, patience, and the ability to bring a peaceful and genuine presence to guests and staff alike
• Resilience and resourcefulness; you solve problems with what you have

Ideally you also bring:

• Experience with regenerative land practices, invasive species management, or watershed work
• Familiarity with California HR and employment requirements
• Experience with solar power and off-grid energy systems
• A background in programming, retreat design, or community building

Compensation & Benefits

Wilbur offers a comprehensive package designed for a person or couple committed to this life and this work.

• Employment: Full-time W-2, exempt, for one person or a couple
• Salary: $100,000 to $250,000 per year; range reflects experience and whether the role is filled by an individual or a couple
• Housing: On-site, two-bedroom house with utilities included
• Healthcare: Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance
• Retirement: Employer-matched retirement plan
• Vacation: Paid vacation

The Land

Wilbur Hot Springs sits on 1,850 acres of rolling Northern California hills, midway between Williams and Clearlake on Highway 20, abutting the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. The property has been a place of healing since 1885, one of California's oldest continuously operating hot springs resorts. Its ancient geothermal spring and geyser have drawn people seeking restoration for over a century.

The land is alive: wildflower meadows, oak woodland, riparian corridors, and open range form a working nature preserve that is home to deer, raptors, and a recovering watershed. Wilbur is entirely off the grid, solar powered, well-watered, and genuinely remote. The nearest supermarket is an hour away. The land is the experience.

The Springs & Amenities

At the heart of the property are the hot springs: a series of soaking pools fed by the ancient geothermal source, ranging in temperature, each with its own character. There is a swimming pool, communal spaces for gathering and retreat, simple and comfortable lodging, and a kitchen that feeds guests and staff alike. The amenities are intentionally modest. What Wilbur offers is not luxury in the conventional sense but something rarer: genuine stillness, a healing culture that has been carefully tended over decades, and a community of guests who return year after year because nowhere else feels quite like this.

The Culture

Wilbur has its own gravity. Guests come from across California and beyond: artists, naturalists, technologists, healers, long-time regulars who consider Wilbur their second home. The culture is inclusive, contemplative, and non-judgmental. People arrive wound tight and leave different. The hot springs culture here is not a marketing concept. It lives in the staff, the policies, the rhythm of the days, and the land itself.

The Vision

The Wilbur Council has ambitious goals for the years ahead. This is a property with a clear past and an intentional future, not just a well-run resort but a centre of healing and community with impact beyond its hills. The vision includes a significant enhancement of the resort's physical infrastructure, a deepening of its programming and community, and an ambitious rewilding and regeneration program across the nature preserve: watershed restoration, invasive species removal, and wildlife reintroduction. The ambition is to be a model for what a healing commons can look like in this era: grounded in nature, bridging the contemplative and the contemporary, and growing in both reach and depth.

Wilbur Hot Springs is an equal opportunity employer. Located off Highway 20, Williams, California.