Venue Duty Manager - Freight Island, Newcastle
Location: NewcastleSalary: £15 per hourHours: 32 - 40 per week, 4 over 7, as business requiresReports to: Assistant General Manager, General ManagerStart Date: ASAP
Freight Island crafts, curates and operates distinct mutli-use venues built around atmosphere, community and immersive guest experiences. Across our spaces we bring together world class food vendors, unique and craft beverage concepts, live performances and a curated events programme to redefine how people gather, eat, drink and socialise. Transforming from daytime community hubs to electrifying night time experiences and flexing seamlessly from corporate private hires to unforgettable, headliner DJ’s, Freight offers a space for everyone, no matter the occasion. Joining Freight Island means stepping into an extremely fast paced, creative environment where high operational standards drive unforgettable guest experiences at scale.
Pushing the boundaries of modern venue space, our Newcastle location is Freight’s biggest footprint… yet. Set beneath a dramatic retractable glass roof and boasting a spacious terrace, this massive rooftop space blends high energy food market culture and social drinking with Wyld, an elevated dining experience. In the heart of the city, and with more to come, Freight Island will become home to Crux, a 1200 capacity music venue set to open its doors in early 2027.
The Role
The Duty Manager plays a central role in driving the day to day operation of the venue, providing energetic, hands on leadership across bar service, floor management, front of house hosting, and live event delivery. Acting as the senior operational lead on shift, you will take ownership of live trade to ensure exceptional service standards, efficient table turnover, seamless event execution, and strict compliance with health, safety, and licensing regulations.
Key Responsibilities
Operational & Duty Management
- Lead opening and closing procedures for the venue in the absence or support of the General / Assistant Managers, ensuring complete readiness for trade and secure shift lock-ups
- Provide direct, on the floor management during trading hours, maintaining high visibility, driving high standards of hospitality, and identifying and resolving operational bottlenecks in real time
- Serve as the primary escalation point for operational challenges, guest queries, or service issues, resolving them swiftly with a proactive, solutions focused mindset
- Maintain strict adherence to licensing laws, Health & Safety legislation, EHO regulations, fire safety protocols, and venue security guidelines, including guest capacity tracking and incident logging
- Oversee the execution and recording of daily/weekly venue walk-throughs, hygiene checklists, maintenance logs, and incident reports
Bar & Cellar Operations
- Supervise live bar operations to guarantee service speed, quality consistency, correct product specs, and minimal wastage
- Support stock control processes by monitoring par levels, recording breakages, assisting with stock management and communicating inventory needs to the BOH manager
- Strictly enforce Challenge 25, "Ask for Angela," and responsible service of alcohol practices across all bar environments
Floor Management & Guest Experience
- Oversee FOH floor staff and support teams to ensure constant table clearing, wiping, relaying, and venue cleanliness throughout trade
- Collaborate with the host team to manage reservations, walk-ins, seating allocations, table turnover, and floor plans, ensuring guests receive a warm welcome and fond farewell
- Champion customer satisfaction on the floor, handling feedback professionally and striving to maintain target service KPIs and Mystery Diner benchmarks
Event Service & Private Hires
- Take full operational ownership and responsibility for the delivery of the bottomless brunch offer. Possess an excellent understanding of brunch service flow, package timings, 90-minute beverage clock management, and floor section balancing
- Demonstrate and enforce exceptional full service dining standards across table delivery, dish descriptions, order pacing, upsells, and host to floor tender handovers
- Lead operational delivery for corporate takeovers, private hires, brand activations, and live entertainment/DJ events
- Serve as the operational bridge between venue management, event coordinators, external agencies, promoters, suppliers, and security partners during live events
- Ensure correct spatial layouts, table configurations, bar staging, and dedicated event/brunch staffing deployment based on run sheets and booking plans
- Manage crowd flow, VIP service areas, queue management, and safety protocols during large-scale live activations
Team Leadership & Staffing
- Lead from the front, providing real-time coaching, training, and constructive feedback to floor staff, bartenders, barbacks, and hosts
- Monitor trading volume during service and dynamically adjust staffing levels across departments to maximise labour efficiency and maintain guest satisfaction
- Conduct team briefings prior to service to communicate daily targets, event schedules, menu updates, and operational focus areas
- Support onboarding, timesheet validation, and initial handling of conduct or performance matters on shift in line with company HR guidelines
Qualifications & Skills Required
- Proven experience in a supervisory or management role within a high-volume hospitality venue, multi-bar environment, food hall, or live entertainment facility
- Valid Personal Licence holder (or willingness to obtain one)
- Solid understanding of bar management, cellar procedures, draught line maintenance, and FOH service steps
- Practical experience coordinating private hires, corporate activations, or live event operations
- Strong working knowledge of EHO standards, COSHH, Health & Safety legislation, and licensing objectives
- Soft Skills:
- Exceptional leadership, communication, and interpersonal capabilities
- Ability to remain calm and decisive under pressure in a fast-paced environment
- Solutions oriented mindset with high attention to detail
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