Kitchen Operations Manager: New Premium Take Out Salad Shop In Phinney Ridge!

Job Overview
Are you obsessed with food? Do you dream about crafting the perfect salad with the freshest, most seasonal ingredients? Do you have the leadership chops to build and inspire an epic kitchen team? If you're nodding your head right now, keep reading—we might just have the perfect gig for you!

About Us: From the folks behind GRILLBIRD TERIYAKI in West Seattle comes an exciting new project. We're not just another build-your-own salad concept—we're redefining what salads can be. Thoughtfully composed, signature salads to-go as well as on-demand catering. We’re all about seasonal, premium ingredients that are as fresh as they are flavorful. This new project expected to launch Spring 2025 is all about quality, attention to detail, and creating a food experience that makes people excited about eating their greens. We’re looking for someone who shares our passion and wants to grow with us as we build something amazing from the ground up.

The Role: As our Kitchen Operations Manager, you'll be at the heart of our culinary and operational excellence, ensuring that our menu items are consistently high-quality and aligned with our brand values. You’ll lead the charge in maintaining our high standards while inspiring, motivating, and holding your team accountable for results. Here’s what you’ll be diving into:

• Operations: Oversee culinary and operational standards to ensure our salads are as fresh and delicious as they can be. Manage food prep accuracy, guest joy, and cleanliness standards, all while building and improving our playbook for running stores with excellence.
• Leadership: Manage and lead a team of culinary professionals to successfully execute our culinary initiatives. You’ll develop and implement strategies that align with our food ethos, brand values, and goals.
• People Development: Develop and mentor your culinary team. You’ll spearhead retention, training, and recruiting efforts, and provide one-on-one development and strategic planning for your kitchen team. You'll also support training programs for all levels of culinary staff, ensuring everyone is aligned with our standards.
• Profit Management: Dive into budget reviews on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. You’ll create plans to increase profit by managing food, labor costs, and other controllable expenses. Plus, you’ll develop bonus structures and promotion tracks for all roles.
• Sales Strategy: Oversee the planning of monthly and quarterly sales-building strategies. You’ll brainstorm new ideas to boost sales, set budgets, and deliver on targets.
• Brand Collaboration: Work with the Brand/Marketing team on content creation and events, ensuring our culinary offerings are effectively commercialized across all business channels.
• Industry Engagement: Stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices related to culinary innovation and technology. Regularly report on culinary initiatives to leadership.

What We’re Looking For:

• Experience: 3-5+ years in fast-casual, grocery deli, catering or multi-unit restaurant companies developing and executing menus, and 2+ years leading teams. You may also have opened multiple stores per year and managed stores with an average unit volume of at least $2M.
• Culinary: 4+ years of experience working with seasonal ingredients, creating dishes that highlight fresh and premium produce. Proficient in advanced cooking techniques and able to adapt methods to enhance the flavor and quality of seasonal ingredients. Strong track record of following and maintaining high standards for recipe accuracy and consistency, ensuring every dish meets our quality benchmarks.
• Leadership: You’ve grown people into higher roles and have a knack for motivating and holding people accountable. Your communication, collaboration, and leadership skills are top-notch.
• Obsessed with Food & Food Culture: Your passion for food goes beyond the kitchen—you’re deeply connected to food culture and trends.
• Detail-Oriented: Hyper-organized is your middle name—you pay attention to a painstaking level of detail and can juggle multiple projects and initiatives simultaneously.
• Innovative & Impact-Driven: You’re not just a user of systems; you develop them. You’re future-focused, with a passion for using technology to create a better experience for our guests and team.
• Strategic Thinker: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills are a must, as is a deep understanding of restaurant operations and the management of hourly employees in a fast-casual or full-service restaurant setting.

THIS ROLE FOCUSES ON CULINARY OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT RATHER THAN CREATIVE MENU DEVELOPMENT.

If this sounds like you, we’d love to meet you! Come join us and lead the charge in creating a salad experience that’s as exciting as it is delicious.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From $32.00 per hour

Expected hours: 40 per week

Benefits:

• Employee discount
• Flexible schedule
• Paid time off

Shift:

• 8 hour shift

Application Question(s):

• Do you have culinary or professional cooking experience?

Language:

• spanish (Preferred)

Ability to Commute:

• Seattle, WA 98103 (Required)

Ability to Relocate:

• Seattle, WA 98103: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: In person