A commercial landscape crew leader runs a crew on office parks, retail centers and HOA common areas, working to the written scope in each maintenance contract. They split the work on big sites, keep the crew safe around tenants and traffic, and walk the grounds with the property manager when something needs fixing.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
The Crew Leader will play a pivotal role in overseeing commercial landscaping projects by managing a dedicated team of landscapers, delegating tasks, and ensuring adherence to project timelines and quality standards. This role is essential for maintaining operational efficiency, driving team performance, and delivering exceptional landscaping services to our commercial clients.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Direct and supervise the daily activities of the landscaping crew.
Delegate tasks effectively to optimize team productivity and project outcomes.
Train and mentor junior staff members to build a strong, skilled team.
Ensure compliance with safety standards and project specifications.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Conduct morning briefings to outline daily objectives and assign responsibilities.
Monitor ongoing projects and provide real-time guidance and support.
Liaise with site managers and clients to communicate project updates.
Review completed work for quality assurance and recommend improvements.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Project Completion Rate: Maintain a rate of over 95% on-time project completions.
Task Delegation Efficiency: Achieve a delegation efficiency rating of at least 90%.
Training Success: Ensure that 100% of junior staff complete training milestones within designated timeframes.
Safety Compliance: Reduce on-site safety incidents to less than 2% per quarter.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
High school diploma or equivalent; additional certifications in landscaping or horticulture preferred.
Minimum of 3 years of experience in the commercial landscaping industry.
Strong leadership and communication skills with the ability to motivate a team.
Proficiency in scheduling, task delegation, and basic project management.
6. Preferred Experience
Extensive experience working on large-scale commercial landscaping projects.
Prior experience in a supervisory or crew leader role in the home services industry.
Demonstrated ability to train new hires and improve team performance.
Familiarity with landscaping equipment, tools, and maintenance protocols.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to lift and carry up to 50 lbs regularly.
Exposure to outdoor environments in varying weather conditions including heat, cold, and rain.
Capability to perform strenuous physical work, including prolonged periods of standing and walking.
Comfortable working in environments with potential exposure to landscaping chemicals and equipment.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Standard work hours from 7 AM to 4 PM with occasional extended days during project deadlines.
On-site work primarily in outdoor commercial landscapes requiring mobility and adaptability.
Occasional travel to multiple job sites within the region.
Flexibility to respond to unexpected scheduling changes and urgent project needs.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Salary range of $22 - $28 per hour based on experience and qualifications.
Performance-based bonuses aligned with project delivery and team efficiency.
Comprehensive benefits package including Health, Dental, and Vision insurance.
Enrollment in a 401(k) plan with company matching contributions.
10. Company Culture and Overview
At [INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE], we are committed to fostering a culture of growth, innovation, and teamwork. Our passion for excellence in commercial landscaping is reflected in our collaborative environment, dedication to employee development, and focus on delivering outstanding customer service. Join us to grow your career while making tangible contributions to impressive, large-scale projects that transform outdoor spaces.
11. How to Apply
If you meet the above criteria and want to be part of a growth-oriented company focused on customer satisfaction, please send your resume to [INSERT EMAIL HERE] or apply online at [INSERT WEBSITE LINK HERE].
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
What changes when the customer is a property manager
A commercial crew leader works to a contract, not to a homeowner at the door. The written scope, the size of the site and the people around the crew all change the job.
The scope of work is the checklist
Each commercial account comes with a written scope: how often to mow, cutting heights, when beds get edged and mulched, and what the contract leaves out. The crew leader reads it before the first visit and plans the day around it. When a property manager asks for extra work on site, the crew leader writes it down for a quote instead of doing it free because it looked quick.
Walk-throughs with the property manager
When a property manager walks the site, especially one coming up for renewal, bring the crew leader along. They note every miss the manager points out and get the list done on the next visit. Photos of last month's fixes, taken from the same spots, make the next walk shorter and help keep the account.
Shopping center roads count as public
Federal rules count roads inside shopping centers and similar private business sites as open to public travel when the public can drive them freely, so the national traffic control manual, the MUTCD, sets the standard for signs and cones there. Parking areas and their driving aisles are not included, and neither are gated properties where access is always restricted. When the crew works along a site's main drive, the crew leader sets cones and signs to your written layout. Source: 23 CFR 655.603: Where the MUTCD applies (Cornell LII).
Heat rules come from the state for now
OSHA has proposed a national heat rule but has not made it final, so state rules lead for now. Washington's outdoor heat rule, at or above 90 degrees, requires a paid cool-down rest of 10 minutes every 2 hours, rising to 15 minutes every hour at 100 degrees. Workers must also be watched for heat illness through a buddy system, radio or phone checks, or another method. On a big site with one truck, the crew leader keeps that clock. Source: Washington WAC 296-62-09547: High heat procedures.
Training to one site's standard
New crew members learn more than the machines. They learn each site's mowing pattern, which beds the client cares about most, where the irrigation heads sit, and which doors stay clear of clippings. The template measures how fast new hires reach training milestones, so the crew leader needs a short list of skills for each site and checks them off as people show they can do them.
How much commercial landscape crew leaders make
The closest BLS group for commercial landscape crew leaders is First-Line supervisors of landscaping, lawn service, and groundskeeping workers. First-Line supervisors of landscaping, lawn service, and groundskeeping workers who work for landscaping companies earned a median of $27.31 an hour ($56,810 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $58,430 median for First-Line supervisors of landscaping, lawn service, and groundskeeping workers in all industries. About 90,190 of the 130,760 First-Line supervisors of landscaping, lawn service, and groundskeeping workers in that survey work for landscaping companies.
Hourly, as the template sets it, with a bonus tied to on-time work and crew results. The BLS figures here are for landscape supervisors. BLS files a crew leader there only when four-fifths or more of the day goes to supervising. A crew leader who spends more than a fifth of the day mowing or trimming is filed with landscaping workers instead, a group with lower pay.
Landscaping companies
$56,810$56,810 median Middle half $46,890–$65,780 10th–90th $40,060–$80,400
All industries
$58,430$58,430 median Middle half $47,390–$72,590 10th–90th $40,560–$85,650
$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k$90k$100k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Landscaping companies
$40,060
$46,890
$56,810
$65,780
$80,400
All industries
$40,560
$47,390
$58,430
$72,590
$85,650
BLS reports residential and commercial landscaping companies together. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
The pay line in the template above is an example from our Role Blueprint. Set yours from these figures and what local companies pay.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Turns a scope of work and a site map into a plan for the day
Can teach a new hire to stripe a large lawn on a stand-on mower
Stops unsafe habits on the spot, like blowing debris toward cars or doors
Takes requests from property managers politely and writes them down
Splits a large site so the crew finishes together
Parks and unloads a trailer in a busy retail lot without blocking traffic
Teach these on the job
Your scope formats and how to log extra work requests
Your cone and sign layouts for site drives
Running your heat plan on long, open sites
Your skills checklist for new crew members
Visit photos and notes in your field app
Commercial crews carry wide-area walk-behinds, stand-on and zero-turn mowers with large decks, trimmers, edgers, hedge trimmers and backpack blowers, plus cones and signs for work along drives. Site maps, scopes and visit checklists usually live in a field app such as Aspire or BOSS LM. Your ad should list the property types, the crew size and the usual start time.
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Working around the public
You're mowing parking-lot islands at a busy shopping center. How do you set up the work?
A strong answer: Sets cones, points discharge away from people and cars, blows debris away from cars and doors, stops when people are near and works early when the lot is empty.
Behavioral · Large-site execution
Tell me about a time your crew was behind on a large commercial site. How did you split the work to finish on time?
A strong answer: Assigned tasks by skill, ran mowing and trimming in a set order so no one waited, moved people as areas finished and kept quality on the client-facing areas.
Keep the template's numbers through your first season with this role, then rewrite them from job cost data. Score the crew leader on the whole crew's results, since that is the job.
Project Completion Rate
Site visits and extra work orders finished inside the contract's service window, out of all assigned to the crew, pulled monthly from your scheduling software. Track weather delays on their own line.
Task Delegation Efficiency
There's no standard formula. One way is to compare budgeted and actual hours by task on each site and note time crew members spent waiting on each other. Field supervisor spot checks fill in the rest.
Training Success
List the skills each new crew member must show, such as mowing a site's pattern, trimming to spec and setting cones, each with a target week. Count how many sign-offs happen on time.
Safety Compliance
Injuries, near misses, property damage claims and vehicle incidents each quarter, plus the field supervisor's spot checks on cones, eye and ear protection and heat breaks. Base any bonus on spot checks, not a low injury count, so people keep reporting.
They lead one crew through a day of commercial sites, such as an office park in the morning and a retail center after lunch. They plan the order of work from the scope, assign tasks, run equipment themselves when the site needs it, check the work against the contract, and report damage, irrigation problems and client requests to the office.
How much does a commercial landscape crew leader make?
First-Line supervisors of landscaping, lawn service, and groundskeeping workers who work for landscaping companies earned a median of $27.31 an hour ($56,810 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $46,890 and $65,780 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Should a crew leader sell extra work to the property manager?
Spotting it, yes. Pricing it, usually not. Crew leaders see the dead shrubs, bare mulch and broken heads first. Have them photograph what they find and send it to whoever writes enhancement quotes, so the client gets a real price and the crew isn't pulled off its scheduled work. Some companies pay a small bonus when a lead turns into a sold job.
Why do commercial crews start so early?
Many retail and office clients want mowing and blowing done before tenants and shoppers arrive, when lots are empty and noise bothers fewer people. Some HOAs prefer the opposite and ban early starts near homes. Check your city's noise rules and each contract before promising a start time, and put the real start time in the job ad.
What should a commercial crew leader job ad include?
Name the property types, such as HOAs, office parks or retail centers, the crew size, and whether the work is maintenance, installs or both. Say what time the day starts, whether the truck goes home with them, and how the bonus works. If they'll need to set cones along site drives, say so and say you'll train them.
The template asks for strenuous work and long hours on foot. What should the ad say?
Describe the work, not the worker's body. Say what a day holds: walking large sites, standing on a mower, carrying trimmers and backpack blowers, lifting mulch bags up to 50 pounds, and long stretches outside in any season. EEOC guidance lets you ask whether they can do each of those tasks, with an accommodation if needed, provided every applicant gets the same question.
