Assistant Store Manager Operations

Italy gave the world its most loved cuisine and has never built a global fast food brand out of it. Every other big category has a winner. The Italian seat is empty. We are going after it. al volo is one shop in the City of London, cooking the full Italian table from scratch every morning: a hot main, two sides, focaccia to finish. That is the Nonna's Box. We are 4.9 stars on Google and 4.9 on Deliveroo, and we have never spent a penny on advertising to get there. The food did that. We need someone to run the shop properly, so we can get on with building the rest of it.

The honest version: We are small. Two founders, one site, a kitchen and a counter. Ale runs the food. Elena runs the brand and the commercial side. There is no head office, no HR department, and nobody else to hand a problem to. This seat has just come free. Rather than look for someone to fill the same shoes, we sat down and worked out what the business actually needs. This is that job, and it is a bigger one. Some days here are messy. Things change. You will get real responsibility far faster than you would anywhere else, and nobody is going to hold your hand through it. That is the deal. We think it is a good one.

What you will own:

• The opening. You are first in. You unlock, you set up, you get the machines on and the counter ready before the first customer walks in at 7. The kitchen team join you around 8. The morning is yours.
• Breakfast. We are launching a proper Italian breakfast in September: pick your base, pick your toppings, low prep, fast. You will set it up, run it, watch what sells and tell us what to change. It is a brand new revenue line and you are the one building it.
• The coffee. You are on the machine through the morning. Italian espresso standards, at speed, with a smile for the regulars.
• The lunch rush. From 11:30 you lead the floor: counter flow, queue moving, display full and looking right, Deliveroo out on time, everyone in the right place.
• The shop. Rotas, stock, standards, compliance. Temperature logs, cleaning records, allergens, food safety. Not glamorous. Completely non-negotiable. Yours.
• Real budgets. Coffee and bar, packaging, waste, and in time your own front-of-house hours. We will teach you how all of it works. Then we will expect you to have opinions about it.
• The shop when we are not in it. Decisions get made. Problems get solved. Nothing sits waiting for a founder to come back.

Your first 90 days:

• Month one. Learn the shop properly: behind the counter, on the machine, on the floor. Get to know the team and the regulars. Set the baselines on the numbers you are about to own.
• Month two. Launch breakfast with us. Take the bar, packaging and consumables budgets.
• Month three. Take the front-of-house rota and the labour budget. Tell us the three things you want to change, and start changing them.

Who we are looking for:

• You have run a site, a floor or a shift somewhere busy, and you were good at it.
• You know your way around an espresso machine, properly.
• You are organised in a way other people can see.
• But mostly: you are the person who spots the thing that is wrong and fixes it before anyone asks. Who has ideas and says them out loud. Who wants to build something rather than just work somewhere.

This job is not for you if:

• You want a job that stops the second the clock says so.
• You need a manual, a policy and a manager to check it.
• "That is not my job" is a sentence you have used recently.
• You would rather be comfortable than be part of something.

It is for you if you want to look at something in three years and know you helped build it.

You will need:

• Experience leading a team in hospitality, retail or food service.
• Real barista skills. We are serious about coffee.
• Food safety knowledge and the discipline to keep records properly.
• The right to work in the UK.
• To be comfortable with numbers, rotas and a spreadsheet.

What you get:

• £30,000 a year, salaried, plus a discretionary bonus.
• Monday to Friday. We are closed at weekends. That said, we are a young business, and now and then something will need doing that does not fit neatly inside a week. We are looking for someone who is there when it counts.
• 28 days holiday including bank holidays.
• Lunch on us every day, and all the coffee you can drink.
• Level 3 Food Safety and First Aid, funded by us if you do not already have them.
• Room to grow as we do. The ambition is a second site, and then more after that. We would far rather grow the people already here than hire over them. Run this shop well and you will be in the room for whatever comes next, whether that turns out to be the next site or the office side of the business.

Elena and Ale Founders, al volo