Spaces & Estates · Open role


Run the estate so a guest never sees the effort.

You own the full picture of one property: the staff, the repairs due before they're visible, the guests' needs, the month's numbers. Every job gets done at a level a guest never notices was hard to arrange.

Cascais coast, Portugal · On-location · Full-time

Mission


What the role does and why it matters here.

Lucentive Spaces, Lucentive Studios' hospitality venture, runs AI-native sanctuaries on the Portuguese coast built around one idea: residents show up to build, and the household removes everything else. A property answers to you. You own the full picture, who's on staff and how they're doing, what's due for repair before it shows, what the current guests need, and whether the month's numbers make sense. You don't do every job yourself; you make sure every one gets done at a level a discerning guest never notices was hard to arrange.

Responsibilities


What you would own.

Own the operating rhythm

Own the full operating rhythm of one property: staffing, maintenance, guest experience, and budget, in one view.

Manage the household team

Hire, schedule, and manage the on-site household team, and enforce the property's standard day to day.

Run the maintenance calendar

Run a maintenance calendar that catches problems before a guest does, not after.

Set and manage the budget

Set and manage the property budget, and know where every line item goes.

Be the last line of judgment

Be the last line of judgment on guest requests that fall outside the standard playbook.

Coordinate vendors and partners

Coordinate with vendors, contractors, and local partners the property depends on.

Report property status

Report property status, incidents, and budget position to Lucentive Spaces leadership on a clear, honest rhythm.

How you think and work


Six traits the work demands.

Craft and hands-on experience matter here, and the useful background below names what we look for. But the filter underneath is disposition: the six traits are what the work actually asks of you, every day, around residents and guests.

  1. Agentic intuition

    You read a room and the people in it the way a seasoned host does: you notice when something is off before it's said, and you know when to step in and when to leave well alone.

    You catch a maintenance issue or a staffing gap before it reaches a guest, because you were already watching for it.

  2. Critical thinking

    Confident-sounding output gets the same scrutiny as anything else, your own work included.

    When a budget line doesn't reconcile, you find the actual reason instead of writing it off as a rounding error.

  3. Curiosity

    You pull on threads. You read outside the lane. You follow a question past the first plausible answer.

    You ask why a recurring problem keeps recurring instead of just fixing it again.

  4. Agency

    You move without being told. You decide, ship, own the call. No one has to write the playbook for you.

    You've made the call to spend money or change a plan mid-week because waiting for sign-off would have cost more than the decision.

  5. Systems thinking, long view

    You see how the parts connect, and where this goes in three years.

    You plan maintenance and staffing around what the property needs to look like next year, not just this weekend.

  6. Leadership instinct

    You set a clear standard for the people around you and maintain it under pressure, moving between a guest, a vendor, and your own team in the same hour without losing what matters.

    You lead a household team to the right standard under pressure, and they don't resent you for it.

Useful background


  • Experience managing a private estate, luxury villa, boutique hotel, or comparable high-end property.
  • Direct experience managing people: hiring, scheduling, setting and enforcing a team standard.
  • Working fluency with budgets: you can read a P&L and explain a variance, not just report the number.
  • Composure when something breaks during a guest's stay and a decision has to be made now.
  • Portuguese or English fluent enough to run the property and represent it externally.
  • Experience opening or standing up a new property, not just running an established one.
  • A vendor and contractor network on the Lisbon/Cascais coast.
  • Experience in a role where staff and guests were two different audiences with different needs at the same time.

The useful background is where the craft shows; the traits are where the fit does. We read an application for both. Applications in English or Portuguese are equally welcome.

Logistics


How the role is set up.

Location
On-location on the Lisbon/Cascais coast, Portugal.
Engagement
Full-time.
Start
Discussed individually.
Language
English or Portuguese.

Apply


We look forward to hearing from you.

Apply for Estate Manager