General Manager- BCycle Madison at Bicycle Transit Systems Inc

Bicycle Transit Systems (BTS) is a leader in bike share operations, committed to providing equitable, innovative, and sustainable transportation options. BTS manages a portfolio of bike share systems across the United States, including Madison BCycle, a vibrant and growing system in Wisconsin’s capital city. Our mission is to improve mobility, health, and environmental sustainability in the communities we serve.

Position Summary:

Madison BCycle is seeking a dynamic and motivated General Manager to lead our bike share system in Madison, WI. The General Manager will oversee all aspects of system operations, business development, and community engagement, driving the growth and success of the program. This role requires a blend of strategic leadership, operational expertise, and strong relationship-building skills to ensure Madison BCycle continues to thrive under the broader ownership of Bicycle Transit Systems.

The ideal candidate is an entrepreneurial self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, is adaptable, and can work well with diverse stakeholders. The General Manager will be responsible for developing and executing strategies to meet ridership, revenue, and community engagement goals while ensuring operational excellence. The General Manger will support Bicycle Transit’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ). The General Manager reports to the Chief Business Officer and is responsible for managing and developing team members and formulating and executing Madison BCycle bike share strategies. This role requires a thoughtful leader and confident decision maker with the ability to measure and monitor performance.

Roles and responsibilities:

Lead the development of goals and strategy for Madison BCycle as part of overall Bike Transit operations to ensure the overall success of the Madison BCycle system.

• Lead the development of local system goals and strategy in collaboration with local staff, Bike Transit Central team, the City of Madison, Fitchburg, Monona and others, Sponsors and other key stakeholders.
• Participate in the development and implementation of equitable bike share initiatives
• Regularly review pricing and customer service policies; recommend modifications and coordinate implementation with management team
• Listen to customers: develop tools and metrics to reduce instances of customer issues and increase satisfaction

Manage Madison BCycle Departments:

• Work closely with Madison BCycle Operations Manager to ensure operational integrity of the system. Set clear expectations for outcomes and productivity, and successfully lead the team to deliver on them.
• Build upon the culture of the Madison BCycle team in alignment with Bike Transit’s mission, vision and values.
• Support the scalable growth of the company by developing and enabling the success of each member of the team.
• Inform and support human resource modeling, planning, and training to ensure local adoption of policies and practices that facilitate a positive employee life cycle

Assure financial performance of the Madison BCycle system

• Grow the business by building partnerships with municipal stakeholders, program sponsors, and community partners
• Work closely with the Director of Business Development in identifying, pursuing, and maintaining revenue-generating partnerships at the local level.
• Analyze financial performance to identify areas for improvement; develop plans in collaboration with key stakeholders and implement.
• Monitor and manage budget in collaboration with finance department
• Manage sponsorship relationships; ensure contract compliance
• Manage advertising relationship with selected vendors; coordinate activities for successful advertising programs between Madison BCycle, advertising customers, prospects and local staff and Bike Transit.

Analytics

• Perform weekly reporting and analysis to identify opportunities for growth and improvement across the business
• Provide program reporting to BCycle and BTS senior leadership
• Develop processes to track metrics and measure growth
• Use internal and external metrics to project growth opportunities

Core Competencies:

• Leadership Skills: Inspire and motivate employees to successfully achieve operational goals; provide a stable, positive environment that challenges and develops employee potential; remove obstacles that interfere with team goals; earns respect of team and clients alike.
• Emotional Intelligence: Self-aware, easily establishes trust and integrity with clients and staff; leads with empathy while holding team members accountable.
• Communication Skills: Collaborate and communicate effectively; requires listening, strategic context, win-win negotiating, situational leadership; great written, verbal and presentation skills.
• Delegation and Project Management: Clearly outline project goals and deliverables, delegate, manage project milestones and hold staff accountable; strong problem-solving aptitude. Ability to identify priorities and focus on critical tasks.
• Resource Management: Work collaboratively with the team to find creative ways to accomplish goals in the face of resource constraints; develop and manage realistic operating budgets that accomplish program objectives.
• Continuous Improvement: Proficient in company best practices in each function; looks for ways to improve efficiency and performance; analyzes data to make fact-based decisions; incorporates feedback from various stakeholders to improve processes.
• Problem Solving: Ability to identify, analyze and understand root causes of issues to innovatively develop and implement measurable solutions.
• Adaptability: Enthusiastically adapt to changes in the work environment; manage competing demands; maintain team focus and optimism when dealing with frequent change, delays or unexpected events.

Education and/or Work Experience Requirements:

• College degree in business administration, transportation or related field required. Advanced degree a plus.
• 8+ years of demonstrated success in leading large teams, developing and retaining key employees
• Prior experience championing and participating in diversity, equity, inclusion and justice principles and practices.
• Good negotiation skills and attention to detail.
• Prior experience managing a budget including P&L responsibility; analyzing data and overseeing marketing and sales initiatives.
• Strong computer aptitude: high proficiency in Microsoft 365 applications and prior project management software utilization.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with strong presentation skills.
• Must have demonstrated leadership experience and history of successfully developing and retaining key employees.
• Experience working with government, businesses, and non-profits strongly preferred.
• Passion for bikes or sustainability a plus.

Physical Requirements and Special Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• This is a full-time position expected to work 40 hours per week. Some hours outside of this, including nights and weekends, may be required.
• Must be able to perform field visits and travel to client/vendor meetings 
• This role requires an on-site presence in the office to address ad-hoc, in-person requests and personnel matters. Working a shift from home can be accommodated on occasion, depending on department and system needs. 
• This job operates in a professional office located in a warehouse environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers and digital screens
• Must be able to lift up to 20lbs. 
• This role requires the ability to speak clearly so listeners can understand, understand the speech of another person, see details of objects that are less than a few feet away, stand or sit for several hours straight at a time, and bend or stoop as necessary. 

A few of the benefits we offer:

• Competitive compensation package
• Affordable medical, dental, and vision insurance options
• 401k with up to 4% employer match
• 3 weeks PTO + 1 week sick time off per year
• Paid parental leave

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V/D