Job Description

By the Sea Resorts is seeking an experienced Multi-Property Chief Engineer to oversee engineering and maintenance operations across multiple hotel properties in Panama City Beach.

This is a hands-on leadership position for an experienced hotel engineering professional who understands the importance of preventive maintenance, property condition, life-safety compliance, guest satisfaction, and protecting the long-term value of hotel assets.

The Chief Engineer will work across multiple properties, leading maintenance teams, establishing consistent engineering standards, prioritizing repairs, managing preventive maintenance programs, and ensuring our hotels meet both company expectations and applicable brand standards.

Previous engineering or maintenance leadership experience with a major hotel brand is required.

What You'll Own

Multi-Property Engineering Operations

• Oversee engineering and maintenance operations across assigned hotel properties.
• Establish consistent maintenance standards, procedures, and expectations across the portfolio.
• Regularly walk and inspect properties to identify maintenance, safety, appearance, and operational concerns.
• Prioritize work based on guest impact, safety, property condition, and operational needs.
• Ensure maintenance requests and work orders are completed accurately and in a timely manner.
• Monitor out-of-order rooms and work aggressively to return rooms to inventory.
• Respond to significant property emergencies and equipment failures as needed.

Preventive Maintenance

• Develop, implement, and maintain effective preventive maintenance programs for guest rooms, public areas, building systems, and equipment.
• Ensure guest room preventive maintenance is being completed consistently and properly documented.
• Track recurring equipment and property issues to identify root causes rather than relying on temporary repairs.
• Maintain accurate maintenance records, inspection logs, and equipment histories.
• Develop schedules for routine servicing and replacement of major equipment.

Building Systems & Equipment

Provide oversight and hands-on troubleshooting involving hotel systems such as:

• HVAC systems
• Plumbing and water systems
• Electrical systems
• Boilers and water heaters
• Pumps and motors
• Commercial kitchen and laundry equipment, where applicable
• Pool and spa equipment
• Fire and life-safety systems
• Door locks and guest room equipment
• Lighting and exterior systems
• Building controls and mechanical systems

The Chief Engineer should be capable of diagnosing problems, determining when repairs can be handled internally, and recognizing when specialized vendors are required.

Team Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop property maintenance personnel.
• Assist with recruiting, interviewing, training, and onboarding engineering team members.
• Establish clear expectations for productivity, workmanship, safety, and response times.
• Hold team members accountable for preventive maintenance and work-order completion.
• Evaluate staffing levels and recommend adjustments based on property needs.
• Help develop maintenance employees into stronger technicians and future leaders.
• Coordinate maintenance coverage across properties when emergencies, vacancies, or high-priority projects arise.

Brand Standards & Compliance

• Ensure assigned properties meet applicable hotel brand engineering and maintenance standards.
• Support brand inspections, quality assurance evaluations, and corrective action plans.
• Maintain required documentation and inspection records.
• Ensure compliance with fire, life-safety, OSHA, and other applicable regulatory requirements.
• Work proactively to correct deficiencies before they become guest, safety, or brand issues.

Capital Projects & Renovations

• Assist leadership with planning and execution of capital improvement and renovation projects.
• Coordinate with contractors, vendors, and property leadership during projects.
• Review scopes of work and assist with evaluating repair-versus-replacement decisions.
• Monitor project quality and ensure work is completed according to expectations.
• Assist with punch lists and project closeout.
• Identify capital needs and provide recommendations based on equipment condition and remaining useful life.

Vendor & Expense Management

• Manage relationships with outside contractors and service providers.
• Obtain and review bids for repairs and projects as needed.
• Verify that contracted work has been completed properly before approval.
• Help control maintenance expenses through preventive maintenance, proper purchasing, and thoughtful repair-versus-replacement decisions.
• Maintain appropriate inventory of commonly used parts and maintenance supplies.

Guest Experience

• Understand that property condition directly affects the guest experience.
• Respond quickly to maintenance issues affecting occupied rooms or public areas.
• Partner closely with General Managers, Housekeeping, and Front Office teams to resolve guest-impacting problems.
• Ensure maintenance employees interact professionally with guests when working in occupied areas.

What We're Looking For

Required:

• Previous engineering or maintenance leadership experience with a major hotel brand.
• Strong knowledge of hotel engineering and property maintenance operations.
• Experience managing maintenance teams.
• Strong working knowledge of HVAC, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and general building systems.
• Demonstrated preventive maintenance experience.
• Ability to troubleshoot equipment and building-system problems.
• Experience coordinating vendors and outside contractors.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills.
• Ability to manage maintenance needs across multiple properties simultaneously.
• Ability and willingness to perform hands-on maintenance work when necessary.
• Valid driver's license and acceptable driving record.
• Ability to travel between properties throughout the workday.
• Ability to respond to urgent property issues outside normal business hours when necessary.

Preferred:

• Chief Engineer, Area Chief Engineer, Regional Engineer, or similar hotel engineering leadership experience.
• Experience supporting multiple hotel properties.
• Experience with Hilton, Choice, IHG, or other major hotel brands.
• Experience with hotel renovations and capital improvement projects.
• Relevant HVAC, electrical, pool, or other technical certifications.

The Leader We're Looking For

We are looking for someone who walks the properties, sees problems before they become emergencies, and follows through until they are fixed correctly.

This is not a position for someone who manages engineering exclusively from an office or relies on outside vendors for every repair. The successful candidate will understand the technical side of hotel engineering while also being able to lead people, manage priorities, communicate with General Managers, control expenses, and maintain accountability across multiple properties.

If you have strong branded hotel engineering experience, enjoy solving difficult property problems, and take pride in keeping hotels safe, functional, and guest-ready, we'd like to hear from you.