Operations Chef - Devon in Exeter

Our Lounge Operations Chefs play a pivotal role in the success of our business. Working alongside an Operations Manager, you will manage an area of c.8-10 sites maximum, remaining close to our teams and our customers every day. Your team will be your absolute number 1 priority, spotting amazing talent, celebrating success, creating a real buzz and a sense of belonging for our team, plus developing great managers and leaders through training, coaching and mentoring.

What you will be responsible for:

• Relentlessly on the hunt to find and hire great kitchen talent to join Lounge at all levels, with a specific focus on building a high performing and loyal team of Heads Chefs and Sous Chefs.
• Getting the best out of your team by understanding what makes them tick as individuals, ensuring there are clear priorities in place for each site and that there is a strong culture of honest two-way feedback in the kitchens.
• Making the most of your time in a week by frequently visiting your sites to get stuck into service, help to train and coach your kitchen teams.
• Developing the capability and confidence of your Head Chef team through having clear development plans in place and providing opportunities for them to develop their skills.
• Knowing the details of our menu specs and kitchen processes inside-out, so you can immediately spot issues or opportunities during visits.
• Ensuring that all kitchens are delivering the unique Lounge Commitments, including fair rotas and regular conversations.
• Leading the training and engagement of kitchen teams to deliver seamless menu changes for our customers and ever better food quality.
• Helping to plan and execute the delivery of 14 Great Kitchen Shifts across your sites.
• Caring about the community your Lounges operate in, partnering with your Ops Manager to connect with the local environment.
• Conducting high impact visits and being visibly hands-on with kitchen teams leading from the front.
• Delivering daily and weekly the Ops Chef expectations, making sure rotas are submitted on time, orders are accepted, stock takes completed.
• Owning the kitchen H&S standards and practices of your sites, ensuring your site leaders deliver the expectations.
• Delivering on key performance indicators, from customer wait times to food safety expectations.

Who Do We Look For?

• You believe in yourself and your leadership, in your team, and in our cause.
• You’re honest and have the strength of character to own up to what’s not going right.
• You genuinely care about the people that work for you and know how to keep your team motivated.
• You’re all over the stocks, rotas, labour, H&S, and delivering uncompromising standards.
• You never settle for second best and obsess about learning from yesterday.
• You lead your team through your own unique style and personality.

Where are you now?

• You are probably a Head Chef, Kitchen Manager, Operations Chef or Area/Regional Chef in bars or restaurants.
• You will have had multi-site hospitality experience across bars, restaurants, or cafés.
• You balance your time between managing and getting stuck in, always comfortable in your whites.
• You will have been in senior leadership positions in a large turnover single site or multi-site capacity.
• You will be familiar with managing through clear KPIs and making commercial decisions.
• Your ambition will keep you driven and focused on getting better every single day.
• You may have come from either a front of house or back of house role in the past.
• You will know what it’s like to manage across a number of competing priorities.

The Good Stuff:

• Competitive salary + annual achievable bonus paid 2x a year.
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays.
• Opportunity to participate in the Loungers Management retention scheme award.
• Company car allowance.
• Full expenses and mileage provided.
• Great opportunity for personal development and career progression in a fast growing business.
• Annual Ops trip to somewhere sunny.
• 50% discount on food from day 1.
• The best staff party - Loungefest.