Area Director of Restaurant Operations

**Area Director of Restaurant Operations**

at DIG Restaurant Teams New York City, New York **ABOUT THE ROLE:**

The Area Director of Restaurant Operations serves as a leader in the kitchen with killer culinary chops, a business leader that understands PnL implications, a people leader with a strong ability to inspire and teach others and finally a holistic leader in the organization with the management skills and operational expertise to run a group of restaurants for DIG.

In your role, you are in charge of driving results in your group of restaurants and for the company at large. Youll collaborate with the DIG Support Team to run best in class kitchens and operations. You are adept at reading financial reports and can translate those trends into actionable results with your leaders. Youll lead a wide range of people initiatives including the support of managing high performance restaurant teams in a high growth environment, identifying and addressing training and developmental opportunities, providing mentorship and training in performance management, and coaching on and resolving employee relations issues. You will develop innovative programs that keep employees engaged, while ensuring there are clear, established processes for future scaling. As a true inspirational leader for your team, you will nurture the next generation of chefs at DIG and keep the love of cooking in the kitchen.

You will have direct oversight over a group of our restaurants and directly manage the Operations Managers & Chef Operators that run them. You will report to the VP of Operations & Finance, and work closely with the DIG Leadership Team on continuing to build operational excellence at DIG.

**YOU WILL:**

**Drive Financial Results by:**

* Owning the financial results of your group of restaurants and developing financial savvy restaurant leaders.

* Working with the VP of Operations and Finance to set KPIs for restaurant operations and ensure execution to improve customer experience while driving down cost.

* Managing the restaurant teams to deliver employee, guest and leadership goals including financial results.

* Partnering with your restaurant leaders to drive profits by creating action plans on how to meet OKRs and properly monitor KPIs.

**Create System Wide Operational Efficiencies by:**

* Continually improving our kitchen operations to maximize efficiency and meet food and labor costs.

* Partnering with the Culinary team on food innovation pilots in the restaurants and building a sustainable process around new menu rollouts to ensure a seamless execution.

* Training our restaurant leaders on how to efficiently run the business, cook delicious food, and serve our communities.

* Serving as the operational subject matter expert amongst all DIG departments to help build processes around prioritization and communication to the field.

* Managing the auxiliary field operation team(s) to maximize effectiveness.

* Serving as the operational lead for restaurant re-openings in your restaurant group.

**Serve as a People Leader by:**

* Driving transformational change in order to build a people driven organization where employees love their jobs and have opportunities for continued learning and growth.

* Exhibiting leadership by example through effective coaching, motivating and reinforcing DIG's mission.

* Inspiring and managing a diverse workforce.

* Encouraging a learning environment by ensuring our chefs are always training and teaching cooks.

* Creating a passionate culture in which people love to cook and feed others.

* Providing feedback to the People Team and Numbers Team on compensation practices for the restaurants in order to attract and retain the best talent.

* Building an internal talent pipeline *[in partnership with the People Team]* through (i) robust succession and people planning, (ii) implementing a performance management system and (iii) maintaining a training program that is well adopted and scalable.

* Voicing calm and confidence in high pressure situations and demonstrating leadership through adept problem solving.

**YOU HAVE:**

* A strong sense of ownership and responsibility.

* Vision and organizational agility.

* 7 + years running kitchens and a strong culinary acumen. 5+ years of multi unit experience in restaurants preferred.

* A strong work ethic and an obsession for getting the job done well.

* The ability to problem solve in situations involving many moving parts.

* Creativity, an open mind.

* The ability to thrive in an unstructured, fast-moving and constantly evolving high growth environment.

* Experience thriving when under pressure and multi-tasking.

* The ability to turn insights into operational actions- staying results-driven along the way.

* A can-do attitude and are mission driven you are interested in changing the way people think about and experience food.

* Strong analytical/business skills; including previous P&L and KPI creation/management.

* Experience managing or working with diverse and inclusive teams.

* Exceptional communications skills, written and verbal.

* An entrepreneurial spirit - you dont mind rolling up your sleeves and getting scrappy.

**WORK PERKS:** Aside from your the standard job description fare (competitive salary, medical, dental, vision) we also offer:

* Phone reimbursement

* Bonus Potential

* Commuter benefits

* Complimentary DIG meals everyday

At Dig Food Group, were building a better food system for everyone by sourcing, cooking and serving delicious food everyday. Nine years in, weve grown to more than 30 fast-casual Dig restaurants, opened our first full-service restaurant, 232 Bleecker, partnered with 130 farms including our own Dig Acres, and taught thousands of people how to cook (really cook) in our kitchens.

To do this, weve built direct and real relationships with farmers. We dont just name check them on our menus -- were true partners in their businesses. We focus on farmers who are independent, first-timers, women, immigrants, LGBTQ and people of color. These relationships allow us to get the best ingredients all year round and change our menu based on what is growing in the fields.

Each restaurant is run by a chef and all our food is cooked on site. There are no microwaves, can openers or freezers, just an entire culinary team at every location, cooking vegetables all day. This requires training a whole generation of chefs and cooks from the ground up, including many who have never worked in a restaurant before. Knife skills are life skills.

Were not here to disrupt anything or become a platform. We run our business on good food and great people. From sourcing to serving, our mission is to create a better food system for everyone. That means a world where farmers can make a living growing food, anyone can learn to cook, and we can all eat well, together.

*DIG believes in the power of a shared table to bring people together as we are committed to building a culturally inclusive team. Diverse candidates encouraged to apply*

**Additional Role Note:**

The duties of this position may change from time to time. Dig reserves the right to add or delete duties and responsibilities at the discretion of Dig or its managers. This job description is intended to describe the general level of work being performed. It is not intended to be all-inclusive.

Dig is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, age, ancestry, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related condition, unemployment status, gender identity or expression, transgender status or gender dysphoria, marital status, domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking victim status, national origin, citizenship, disability, covered veteran and/or military status, genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristic, familial status as that term is descr