Operations Chef - Brighton

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.
• Ensuring your Head Chefs are prioritising the development of their own kitchen teams, training and coaching Chefs and Sous Chefs to progress within the Company.
• 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.
• Developing, planning and executing all operational aspects for your Lounges through being exceptionally close to the detail of your lounges, your team, customers, your standards and processes in your kitchen.
• Finding ways to make the role yours, by adding your own unique footprint to how you lead your people and deliver our Ops expectations back of house.
• Conducting high impact visits and being visibly hands-on with kitchen teams leading from the front.
• Working in partnership daily with your Operational Manager to ensure alignment on all operational matters.

You will have had multi-site hospitality experience across bars, restaurants, cafés, or something in between. You will balance your time between managing and getting stuck in, and are always comfortable in your whites. You will have been in senior leadership positions in a large turnover single site or multi-site capacity and have demonstrated inspiring and motivating large teams. You will be familiar with managing through clear KPIs and making commercial decisions to deliver the overall EBITDA and revenue requirements. Your ambition will keep you driven and focused on getting better every single day.

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.