Senior Restaurant Manager

High Note Hospitality Group Pte. Ltd.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Annual salary review

Discretionary performance bonus

Paid annual leave & public holidays

Medical benefits

Parental leave

Staff meals during shifts

Training & tastings

Opportunities to visit and learn from

Direct access to Directors

Job summary

High Note Hospitality Group in Singapore seeks a Senior Guest Experience Manager for its Botanic Gardens venue. You will lead the front-of-house team, delivering warm, thoughtful hospitality and ensuring guests are well looked after while supporting managers and the wider service team.

You will develop people, improve systems, understand the numbers, and work closely with our culinary team and Directors as we grow the Group. Evening availability and strong English are essential.

Qualifications

• Eight+ years of front-of-house hospitality experience, with at least 3 years in management.
• Strong front-of-house leadership and operations experience.
• Genuine warmth and presence to put people at ease.
• Ability to stay calm when service gets busy.
• Excellent spoken and written English for hosting any table.
• Experience coaching managers and team members.
• Strong commercial understanding of labour and performance.
• Confident decision-maker with good judgement.
• Willingness to work evenings, weekends and public holidays.

Responsibilities

• Lead front-of-house operations and maintain service standards.
• Develop and coach Guest Experience Managers and FOH staff.
• Be calm, present and decisive during busy services.
• Set clear standards and ensure delivery.
• Collaborate with culinary leadership to run the venue as one team.
• Identify problems early and take corrective actions.
• Contribute to hospitality standards and systems as the group grows.
• Drive guest recognition and personal service.

Skills

FOH leadership

Guest relations

People development

Service recovery

English fluency

Operational oversight

Decision making

Evening availability

Tools

SevenRooms

CRM systems

POS systems

Job description

About High Note

We believe a restaurant should be a good place to be, not only for the people who dine there, but for the people who work there too.

We spend a lot of our lives at work. The people around us matter. The standards we hold matter. Feeling useful, trusted and proud of what we are building matters.

At High Note Hospitality Group, the standard we hold for our guests is the same standard we hold for our team: seen, heard, valued and at ease.

We are an independent hospitality group founded and run by hands-on operators. Our first venue, Chip Bee Bistro, opened at Chip Bee Gardens in July 2025. Our next restaurant opens at the Singapore Botanic Gardens in late 2026.

We are still small, deliberately so, and we are building.

That means there is room to have an opinion, make a difference and help shape how we do things. You will have clear standards, genuine support and the trust to make the calls that matter in the moment. You will also work directly with the people building the Group, because we are still very much in the restaurants ourselves.

We are looking for people who give a damn, have a heart and take pride in what they do.

About the Role

The Senior Guest Experience Manager is one of the key front-of-house leaders at our Botanic Gardens restaurant.

Your primary responsibility is simple to describe, though not always simple to deliver: make sure our guests are genuinely well looked after and our team has what it needs to do its best work.

You will lead the front-of-house management team and wider service team, setting the tone for how the restaurant feels during service.

This is a highly visible, hands-on leadership role. You will spend a significant amount of your time on the floor: hosting, observing, supporting managers, speaking with guests and stepping in when needed.

Away from service, you will help develop people, improve systems, understand the numbers, strengthen guest relationships and work closely with our culinary team and Directors as we continue building the Group.

We are looking for someone who can lead confidently through a busy Saturday night without becoming flustered, develop people with patience and clarity, understand the commercial realities of running a restaurant, and still notice the small things that change how a guest feels.

What You’ll Own

Hospitality & Guest Experience

• Set the standard for warm, thoughtful and genuine hospitality from reservation through departure

• Be a visible presence on the floor and ensure guests feel recognised and looked after

• Build lasting relationships with regular guests, VIPs and key partners

• Oversee SevenRooms, guest profiles, preferences and CRM initiatives

• Make sure guest information is captured thoughtfully and actually used

• Handle difficult guest situations and service recovery with empathy, confidence and sound judgement

• Review guest feedback and turn it into meaningful improvements

• Help build a culture where guest recognition feels personal rather than scripted or performative

Leadership & Operations

• Lead front-of-house operations and maintain strong service and operational standards

• Lead, support and develop Guest Experience Managers, Assistant Managers, Supervisors and the wider FOH team

• Be calm, present and decisive during busy services

• Establish clear standards and make sure they are consistently understood and delivered

• Work closely with culinary leadership and fellow managers to keep the restaurant operating as one team

• Identify problems early and take responsibility for solving them

• Contribute to the development of hospitality standards and systems across High Note as the Group grows

People & Culture

• Recruit, onboard, coach and develop strong front-of-house talent

• Build confident managers who can make good decisions without needing every answer from you

• Have clear and constructive performance conversations

• Support development and succession planning across the management team

• Maintain sensible staffing levels, scheduling discipline and labour productivity

• Address performance concerns fairly, clearly and promptly

• Help create a workplace where people enjoy the company they keep, understand what is expected of them and feel that their work has purpose

• Make sure team members feel seen, heard, valued and able to perform at their best

Commercial Performance

Great hospitality and good business should support each other.

You will:

• Monitor labour costs, productivity and operational efficiency

• Understand sales, labour, guest feedback and profitability reports

• Support budgeting, forecasting, purchasing and cost management

• Identify trends, risks and opportunities and act on them

• Work with the leadership team to improve average spend, beverage performance and overall venue results

• Make commercially sensible decisions without losing sight of the guest

• Contribute to annual planning and venue performance reviews

Standards, Quality & Compliance

• Ensure SOPs are useful, understood and consistently followed

• Review and improve operating procedures when something can be done better

• Maintain high standards of cleanliness, presentation and venue maintenance

• Support workplace safety, food hygiene and regulatory compliance

• Maintain proper incident reporting and follow-up

• Ensure strong allergen awareness and communication across the service team

• Keep standards steady when the restaurant is under pressure, not only when things are quiet

Building What Comes Next

We are not looking for someone simply to maintain what already exists.

As the Group grows, you may also:

• Help implement new systems, processes and service initiatives

• Support venue openings and operational readiness

• Work on projects across operations, people, finance, guest experience and commercial performance

• Share learning and best practice between venues

• Help shape how High Note hospitality develops over time

• Take on other reasonable responsibilities as the business evolves

What We’re Looking For

Essential

• Around eight or more years of front-of-house hospitality experience, including at least three years in a managerial or senior supervisory position

• Strong experience leading restaurant operations and front-of-house teams

• Genuine warmth, presence and the instinct to put people at ease

• The ability to lead calmly when service becomes busy

• Strong working English and the confidence to host any table, from a long-standing regular to someone visiting us for the first time

• Experience coaching and developing managers and team members

• A good commercial understanding of labour, productivity, operational efficiency and restaurant performance

• Confidence handling difficult guest situations and service recovery

• Good judgement and the willingness to make decisions

• Availability to work evenings, weekends and public holidays as required by restaurant operations

Nice to Have

• Experience with SevenRooms or a similar reservations and CRM platform

• Wine knowledge equivalent to WSET Level 2 or strong practical wine fluency

• Experience in independent, chef-led or owner-operated restaurants

• Experience opening a new restaurant or venue

• Experience contributing across more than one venue

• A background in premium casual, contemporary dining or busy quality-led restaurants

• Familiarity with Lightspeed or similar restaurant POS systems

What We Offer

• A competitive salary appropriate to a senior front-of-house leadership role

• Annual salary review

• Discretionary performance bonus linked to agreed leadership KPIs and overall venue and company performance

• Paid annual leave and public holidays

• Medical benefits

• Parental leave

• Staff meals during shifts

• Training, tastings, courses and relevant industry development

• Opportunities to visit and learn from restaurants, operators and businesses we admire

• Direct working access to the Directors and senior leadership team

• The opportunity to help shape a growing independent hospitality group rather than simply inherit someone else’s system

Most importantly, we want to build a workplace where expectations are clear, feedback is direct, good judgement is trusted and people are proud of what they are creating together.

Why This Role Matters

We are building the next stage of High Note Hospitality Group, and the leadership team that will shape it.

This is not a role for someone who wants to manage primarily from an office.

We need someone who wants to be present. Someone who notices. Someone who enjoys developing people, understands the numbers, knows their guests and takes pride in a restaurant running beautifully.

You will be joining us at a point where your judgement, standards and leadership can genuinely influence the kind of hospitality group we become.