Operations Manager

Location: London
Salary: £80,000 - £100,000

An established, growing hospitality group is looking for an experienced Operations Manager to support a portfolio of high-volume, people-led restaurants. This isn’t a polished, process-heavy business. It’s direct, hands-on, and expects someone who knows where to focus their time, when to step in, and when to let strong operators get on with it. The right person will earn respect quickly, not by title, but by how they operate.

The Role:

• Oversee a small group of established, high-performing restaurants, working closely with General Managers and Leadership.
• Build credibility with senior teams - providing support, challenge, and direction where needed
• Review performance across sites, using P&L insight to identify gaps and drive improvement
• Hold GMs to account in a constructive but direct way - ensuring standards, performance, and consistency
• Stay close to the business - visible in sites, understanding how teams are really operating day-to-day
• Identify where support is needed across people, operations, and structure - and take action
• Work across HR, L&D and operations, ensuring teams are engaged, developed, and retained
• Bring a balanced approach - knowing when to push, when to support, and when to step back

The Person:

• A credible hospitality operator who has led at senior level and understands complex, high-volume environments
• This is essentially a people focused role – happy team, happy guest – you must live and breathe these values
• Naturally people-focused, but commercially aware - comfortable discussing performance, cost, and accountability
• Someone GMs will respect - direct, fair, and able to have honest conversations when it matters
• Able to read a business quickly - spotting issues, understanding root causes, and acting on them
• Not reliant on process or structure - comfortable operating in a business that isn’t overly corporate
• Strong judgement - knows what to get involved in and what to leave alone
• Focused on retention, team engagement, and building strong internal cultures
• Resilient and grounded - able to deal with strong personalities and navigate challenging conversations

Get in touch if this is a bit of you: kate@corecruitment.com