Restaurants & Bars Manager - Westminster, SW1A 0PW in Walworth

As a Restaurants and Bars Manager, you'll lead the day-to-day delivery of high-volume catering services across the River Restaurant and Bar, Millbank House Restaurant, and The Woolsack Bar, helping to ensure a consistently high standard of service for more than 5,000 customers each week. Your work will support the smooth running of these busy, multisite operations and contribute to an excellent experience for everyone who uses them.

You'll manage and develop a team of around 20 staff, supporting them to deliver efficient, welcoming, and cost-effective services across breakfast, lunch, dinner, and seasonal operations. Working closely with the Deputy Head of Catering (Operations), you'll play a key role in maintaining strong performance, embedding high standards, and driving continuous improvement.

Through your leadership, you'll help foster a flexible, customer-focused team culture, balancing service quality with operational efficiency and cost control, while ensuring compliance with required standards and contributing to wider strategic objectives. You'll be part of a collaborative community, working alongside colleagues from a wide range of professions.

What you'll be doing:

• Lead and oversee the delivery of departmental operations, ensuring agreed service, performance, and compliance standards are consistently achieved, while identifying and supporting continuous improvement initiatives.
• Support revenue growth by maximising sales opportunities, contributing to the development and delivery of targeted promotions, events, and seasonal offerings that enhance customer engagement and spend.
• Maintain responsibility for financial performance, ensuring the cost-effective management of labour, equipment, and resources, alongside robust control of stock, wastage, and all income streams, including cash handling and reconciliation.
• Champion customer excellence by supporting a high standard of service, helping create a welcoming and professional experience, and managing feedback, complaints, and service recovery appropriately, with escalation where needed.
• Work collaboratively with key stakeholders to review and enhance menu offerings and bar selections, ensuring alignment with customer preferences, commercial objectives, and market trends.

What we're looking for:

We're looking for someone who can bring their skills and experience to make a meaningful contribution here. You'll have:

• Proven management experience within a high-quality, high-volume restaurant and bar environment.
• Exceptional leadership capability, with a demonstrable ability to manage, motivate, and develop teams.
• Advanced communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence, engage, and build effective working relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
• Highly developed organisational and problem-solving skills, with the ability to prioritise effectively, use initiative, and apply analytical thinking to resolve operational challenges.
• Strong commercial acumen, with experience of driving revenue growth, controlling costs, and balancing customer expectations with business objectives.
• Comprehensive knowledge of food safety, health & safety, and statutory regulations, alongside strong IT proficiency (including EPOS systems, Microsoft Office, and digital tools).

It would be even better if you have (or are willing to learn):

• Experience of alternative styles of hospitality service, such as table service restaurants, events and meeting room operations.
• Experience of budgeting, with the ability to analyse and explain financial variances to targets, forming an appropriate action plan to rectify.
• NVQ level 3 in Food Service or equivalent would be an advantage. Basic Health and Safety, Food safety, craft and/or group trainer qualifications desirable.

What you'll get in return:

Working at the House of Lords means joining a community that values your wellbeing, growth and contribution. You'll benefit from:

• 30 days annual leave (rising to 35 after one year).
• Generous Civil Service pension scheme.
• A comprehensive Parliamentary health and wellbeing programme.
• Access to a wide range of learning and development opportunities across diverse professions.
• The chance to witness democracy in action and work in a place of historic national significance.

Ready to apply? If you're looking for an employer where you can belong, grow and thrive, we'd love to hear from you.