Head of Operations - Midlands/London

Compass Group UK & Ireland; Remote; GBP 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading hospitality provider is looking for a Head of Operations to oversee multi-site delivery in the Midlands and London. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in catering management and a strong ability to build client relationships. This role is pivotal in ensuring exceptional service and operational excellence across a portfolio of venues. With a collaborative culture, the company offers benefits including a competitive salary, health insurance, and generous leave policies.

Benefits

27 days annual leave

Private health insurance

Company car or car allowance

Access to training and development

Qualifications

• Excellent understanding of catering management and service level specification.
• Previous experience in a similar contract catering role.
• Strong influencing and coaching skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead a team of General and Account Managers.
• Ensure exceptional service is delivered to consumers.
• Champion the execution of first-rate food resources.

Skills

Catering management

Influencing and coaching

Project management

People development

Strategic planning

Job description

Job Introduction

Head of Operations – Midlands/London

Location: Remote with regular presence required on site

Salary: Up to £80,000 per annum

Contract: Permanent, Full-time

As a Head of Operations within Restaurant Associates Venues, you will be joining us in an exciting period of growth and change within the business, inspiring our clients, end‑consumers and their own operations team to do great things at work. You will report to our Operations Director and lead a team of General Managers across a portfolio of 7 diverse sites, varying in size and revenue across North London, Hertfordshire and the Midlands. The value of the contracts is approximately £15 million, so having experience with large volume sites is essential due to size.

As the Head of Operations, you will be responsible for multi‑site delivery, managing client and stakeholder relationships whilst ensuring contractual compliance and adherence to company policies. Accurately reviewing business performance and ensuring the delivery of key financial targets. Maintaining and developing contract reporting and monitoring to contractual requirements captured in the Monthly Reports. You will be working closely with the client to deliver value through improved management of contracts to help drive service excellence.

What can we offer you:

• A collaborative and inclusive culture, where your ideas are valued, and creativity is encouraged.
• The chance to work at some truly beautiful and inspiring venues.
• 27 days annual leave (excluding bank holidays and national holiday days)
• Company car or car allowance.
• Private health insurance.
• Excellent pension programme with generous contribution from us.
• Free staff meals whilst on site.
• Access to Compass Group company perks & benefits.
• Perks for Works discounts and promotions
• Access to training, mentoring and development, with support from our wider Restaurant Associates and Compass Group UK networks.
• On‑site F&B discounts.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and lead your team of General and Account Managers supporting them in development and performance.
• Work closely with the HR team to develop and execute a strong people strategy across your accounts.
• Champion the development and execution of a first‑rate food.
• Resources, people and skills to do so (covering Retail, Healthy Eating and Hospitality).
• Lead quarterly reviews with each of our clients.
• Ensure consistency and exceptional service is delivered to our consumers – using coaching, auditing and good performance management.
• Ensure tactical business plans are in place and being followed in all your accounts – including food, sales performance, people and finance.
• Regularly measure and review the performance of your accounts.

The Ideal Candidate:

• Excellent understanding of catering management, service level specification and performance management delivery.
• Previous experience in a similar role from the contract catering sector, ideally from a visitor attraction or venues background.
• A polished professional with excellent human skills as well as business acumen is a must.
• Strong influencing, coaching and people development skills.
• Tactical planning and delivery skills and experiences.
• Strategy development and delivery.
• Experience of leading and managing large and complex teams over multiple geographical locations to deliver results.
• A self‑starter.
• Excited about food, service and people and has their finger on the pulse of what is current and trending.
• Demonstrated leadership capability.
• Able to build partnership relationships quickly with colleagues and clients.
• Able to drive change with effective project and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proactive, pragmatic and commercial approach.

About Us:

Restaurant Associates is a leading premium hospitality provider with an ethos drawn from our history of fine and high‑quality dining in London and New York.

Within our venues team, we provide catering and hospitality services to some of the most iconic visitor attractions and destinations in the UK including the Imperial War Museum London, Glyndebourne Opera House, Knebworth House, Design Museum, Whipsnade Zoo and many more. Within these amazing venues we operate a host of bespoke cafés and restaurants, as well as delivering private events ranging from small meetings to large‑scale ground events of up to 1,000 people. You can find a full list of our venues on our website.

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive, diverse, fun and dynamic place to work with opportunities to collaborate with a wide range of teams plus a commitment to putting our people first. Restaurant Associates is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from candidates of all backgrounds. We are committed to sustainability‑led practices and are proud to have achieved 3 stars with the Sustainable Restaurant Association's Food Made Good Programme.