Café Manager

Location: Oxford
Job Type: Full-time
Salary: Up to £40,000 per annum + 20% bonus

Passionate about great food, quality coffee and leading a team?

We're looking for an experienced, hands-on Café Manager to lead a busy food-led café operation in Oxford. This is an exciting opportunity to join an established, growing business where quality, teamwork and excellent customer service are at the heart of everything.

You'll be someone who leads from the front, takes pride in high standards and knows how to bring out the best in a team while keeping a fast-paced operation running smoothly.

The Role

As Café Manager, you'll take ownership of the day-to-day running of the café, leading and developing a team of up to 15 colleagues. You'll balance people management with the practical demands of a busy food environment, ensuring products, service and operations consistently meet high standards.

The business offers freshly prepared sandwiches, artisan baguettes baked in store, salads, freshly made pasta and a range of deli products. A genuine interest in great food, quality ingredients and excellent coffee is important.

This is a hands-on management role for someone who enjoys being involved in the operation, making decisions and driving both team performance and commercial results.

Key Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the daily running and overall performance of the café.
• Lead, motivate and develop a team of up to 15 colleagues.
• Deliver excellent customer service and create a welcoming customer experience.
• Maintain high standards across food quality, presentation, cleanliness and service.
• Oversee food preparation processes, ensuring food hygiene and health and safety standards are followed.
• Train, coach and support team members to build a capable, motivated team.
• Organise daily tasks and team responsibilities to ensure smooth operations during busy periods.
• Monitor sales and performance, identifying opportunities to improve results and profitability.
• Lead by example, resolve operational challenges and make confident day-to-day decisions.

Who We're Looking For

We're keen to hear from experienced managers from cafés, coffee shops, delis, sandwich shops, bakeries, food-to-go businesses or other food-led retail environments.

You may currently be a Café Manager, Coffee Shop Manager, Shop Manager or an experienced Assistant Manager ready to take the next step.

Essential experience and qualities:

• Proven management experience within a café, coffee shop, hospitality or fast-paced food retail environment.
• Confidence leading, motivating and developing a team.
• A hands-on approach and the ability to stay calm and organised during busy periods.
• Experience maintaining high standards of customer service, food quality, cleanliness and operational compliance.
• Commercial awareness, with the ability to drive sales and improve business performance.
• A genuine interest in great food, quality ingredients, freshly prepared products and excellent coffee.
• Strong communication skills and good written and spoken English.
• A positive, professional approach and pride in maintaining consistently high standards.
• Comfortable working in a physically active, fast-paced environment and leading by example on the shop floor.

Desirable:

• A recognised Food Hygiene qualification.
• A First Aid qualification.

We're looking for someone who understands the realities of running a busy café or food-led business, enjoys being hands-on and can create a positive, productive environment for both colleagues and customers.

What's on Offer?

• Salary of up to £40,000, depending on experience.
• 20% bonus scheme, offering significant additional earning potential.
• Company sick leave allowance.
• Fantastic staff discounts.
• Salary sacrifice schemes, including EV leasing, childcare and pension options.
• Company pension scheme.
• Shop of the Month awards and team social events.
• Learning, training and development opportunities.
• Additional annual leave based on length of service.
• The opportunity to make a real impact within a growing, well-respected Oxford business.

Ready for Your Next Challenge?

If you're an enthusiastic, commercially minded café or food retail manager who loves great food, quality coffee and developing people, we'd love to hear from you.

Click APPLY today and take the next step in your management career!