Operations Manager | Chicago

Blank Street; Bucktown (IL); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Paid time off

Parental leave

Free Blank Street swag

Regular social outings

Job summary

Blank Street, Inc. seeks an Operations Manager to lead a 5+ store area, owning PnL and guiding General Managers to build high-performing, engaged teams. You will drive hospitality standards, coach leaders, and implement strategic initiatives across stores.

You will report to the Director of Operations and work with Field Leadership to grow the next generation of leaders while delivering exceptional customer experiences in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of leadership experience in hospitality, retail, or another fast-growing consumer business.
• Experience leading multiple locations (3-10) and developing the managers who run them.
• Passionate about hospitality and delivering exceptional customer and employee experiences.
• Strong operational and financial judgment; can read P&L and KPI dashboards.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, able to lead area meetings and workshops.

Responsibilities

• Own the area of 5+ stores and develop GMs to become leaders.
• Manage PnL and plan a quarterly labor and inventory strategy.
• Lead talent pipeline: hiring, promotion decisions and succession targets.
• Set standards for hospitality across all stores and ensure consistent execution.
• Roll out initiatives across the area and monitor adoption and impact.
• Collaborate with Director of Operations and Field Leadership to scale leaders.

Skills

Leadership

Hospitality

Commercial thinking

People leadership

Strategic planning

Communication

Job description

At Blank Street, we’re on a mission to become the defining food and beverage brand of our generation. From the very beginning, we’ve set out to add a spark to ordinary experiences through elevated products, attention-to-detail, and a commitment to making every moment memorable. We’re motivated by the millions of customers we serve across cities, and know that our potential is unlimited. It all starts with our people and their commitment to make magic happen each and every day.

Like the sound of this? Keep reading.

Start Something Extraordinary…

As an Operations Manager at Blank Street, you are the ultimate leader of an entire area of 5+ stores and the General Managers who lead them.

That means your greatest responsibility is growing people. You will hire, coach and develop an A* team of GMs, helping them become confident leaders who build engaged, high-performing teams across our stores.You are also the strategic mind behind your stores: you will own your area’s PnL and decide how to plan, prioritize and follow through, so your stores get better day by day. In a fast-moving and constantly evolving business, you will create clarity, build capability, and foster a culture of accountability, hospitality and continuous improvement.

You’ll report to the Director of Operations and work closely with the rest of our Field Leadership team. Together, you’ll help scale the next generation of leaders while driving an exceptional experience for both our teams and our customers.

What You'll Own

Be Our Ultimate Hospitality Leader

• Make the standards stick: Coach your GMs to build the systems, behaviors and processes that keep our hospitality standards high every shift, whether you’re in the store or not.
• Hold the bar: Check standards across your area through regular store visits and data, and hold GMs accountable for closing gaps fast.
• Jump in where it counts: Take an active role in turning around struggling stores and launching new stores in your area.
• Plan for demand: Take quarterly sales forecasts from HQ, translate them store by store and make sure every GM knows what's coming (growth, slowdowns, seasonality, new openings nearby).
• Build the labor plan: Set labor targets a quarter out, including headcount and transfers between stores, and coach GMs to build rotas against them.
• Calibrate inventory: Help GMs calibrate inventory to forecast demand, and set clear guardrails so no store is badly overstocked or running short.

Build and Develop an A-Team

• Develop your GMs: Grow GMs into future leaders through our training pathways, regular 1:1s and direct feedback.
• Own the talent pipeline: Calibrate hiring and promotion decisions across your area and set quarterly succession targets from barista to GM, so every store has its next leader ready.
• Build an area-wide culture: Turn your stores into one team that shares what works and backs each other, with a culture that’s distinctly Blank Street: fast-moving, high-energy, collaborative and fun.

Operate Strategically

• Know your numbers inside out: Master your stores’ KPIs and PnL, and set clear priorities for your area every week and every quarter.
• Make sure every store has a plan: Work with each GM to build a plan for their store, then stay close as they carry it out and push the numbers in the right direction.
• Land change and innovation: Roll out new initiatives across your area, from menu launches to tech tools. That means clear comms, hands‑on training and real buy‑in from your teams, then tracking adoption until it sticks.

Who We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of leadership experience in hospitality, retail, or another fast-growing consumer business.
• Experience leading multiple locations (3-10) and developing the managers who run them.
• Passionate about hospitality: you love creating exceptional customer and employee experiences, and care about setting the bar high in every store you’ve managed.
• Commercial thinker: you have strong operational and financial judgment. You read the data (P&L, KPI dashboards) and know what to do next.
• People leader: you have developed managers in the past and are able to hire an A* team, coach, make decisions and lead through change.
• Strategic planner: you know how to plan a quarter ahead and how to turn priorities into plans your GMs can act on.
• Excellent communicator: you know how to cut through the noise and are sharp in writing (Slack, Notion, email) and confident in speech (area meetings, workshops).

Availability Requirements

Able to travel regularly between stores within your market.

Full Time: 50 hours per week, 5 days of availability required and must be available to work 2 peak days (usually weekend days, weekend as described as Friday, Saturday, Sunday)

• $100,000–$130,000 annual base salary
  • Blank Street believes this salary range is accurate for this role in Chicago at the time of posting. Final compensation will depend on factors such as experience, skills, qualifications, and location. In addition to base salary, this role is eligible for a competitive total rewards package, which may include benefits, paid time off, and other perks. The posted salary range may be updated from time to time.
• 15 days of paid annual leave (on top of company-observed holidays and sick time)
• Three health plan options, with full coverage available for two employee-only tiers.
• Parental leave
• Exclusive access to our coveted Regulars program - yes, that means free coffee, matcha and more!
• Regular social outings with the team
• Free Blank Street swag

This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed in this role. It is not an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications. Responsibilities and expectations may change from time to time based on business needs, and Blank Street reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties at any time.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Blank Street’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.