The City of New Braunfels, TX is seeking a Director of Parks & Recreation. This is an outstanding opportunity for a progressive, visionary leader to join an NRPA Gold Medal Award finalist (3 times!) and CAPRA accredited department. The Director of Parks & Recreation will oversee a $7.3M annual budget and 280 team members, including part-time and seasonal staff, that are responsible for 5 divisions: Park Operations, Recreation, Administration, Golf, and Das Rec, the community recreation center.  The department manages over 700 acres of parkland spread across over 50 Community parks, 25 miles of hike and bike trails, an 18-hole Championship Golf Course, 15 playgrounds, 5 pools, 30 acres of black land prairie restoration, a miniature golf course, a 74,000 square foot Recreation Center with over 16,000 members, a skate park, 2 historic cemeteries and well known Landa Park, among other amenities.

The ideal candidate for the new Director of Parks & Recreation must place a high value on being an industry leader and creating a workplace that focuses on customer service excellence both internally and externally to become an “employer of choice”.  This role will develop a strategic approach to creating a departmental audit and assessment plan of current programs, special event offerings, department assets, resources, as well as facility operation plans to develop key benchmarks and business metrics to serve as a guide for continuous organizational improvement.  It is preferable for candidates to have prior experience with parkland acquisition and development, large scale park operations and maintenance, capital improvement and construction projects, recreation, youth sports programming, as well as experience managing and maintaining golf courses and large multi-use recreation facilities and sports complexes.

Candidates shall have a bachelor’s degree in Parks and Recreation, Landscape Architecture, Business Administration or Public Administration; AND seven years’ experience in community services program management, including five (5) year’s supervisory experience; OR an equivalent combination of education and experience.  It is also preferred that candidates have a professional certification from the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), as well as experience with NRPA’s CAPRA accreditation.