Restaurant Manager - Lead Ops, Guest Experience & Team

Denny's; Phoenix (AZ); On-site; USD 45,000 - 68,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive Pay

Flexible Schedules

Bonus Plan

Health Care

Job summary

Denny's is hiring a Restaurant Manager to oversee daily operations, lead shifts, and maintain service quality at a high-volume, full-service location. You will drive guest satisfaction, coach a diverse team, and manage schedules to meet forecasted demand.

This role requires strong leadership, operational knowledge, and the ability to handle guest concerns with professional discretion. You will play a key role in safety, financial performance, and brand standards within an independently owned

Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required; college coursework or a degree in hospitality, business, or a related field is preferred.
• Minimum of two years of restaurant management or supervisory experience, preferably in a full-service, high-volume restaurant environment.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, motivate, and hold team members accountable.
• Strong knowledge of restaurant operations, including guest service, food preparation, sanitation, scheduling, labor management, inventory, and cash controls.
• Ability to understand and manage restaurant financial performance, including sales, labor costs, food costs, controllable expenses, and profit-and-loss results.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, problem-solving, and conflict‑resolution skills.
• Ability to handle guest concerns professionally and make sound decisions in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience recruiting, interviewing, training, developing, and retaining team members.
• Working knowledge of food‑safety requirements, employment practices, workplace safety, and applicable federal, state, and local regulations.
• Proficiency with point‑of‑sale systems, scheduling programs, email, spreadsheets, and basic business reporting.

Responsibilities

• Direct daily front-of-house and back-of-house operations.
• Lead assigned shifts and ensure proper deployment during peak periods.
• Maintain speed of service, food quality, accuracy, cleanliness, and hospitality standards.
• Complete opening, closing, shift-change, and manager walk-through procedures.
• Provide coverage when the General Manager or another manager is unavailable.
• Maintain a visible management presence in the dining room and address guest concerns promptly.
• Approve appropriate guest recovery measures, discounts, refunds, or meal replacements.
• Review guest feedback and implement corrective actions.
• Build relationships with regular guests and the surrounding community.
• Recruit, interview, select, onboard, train, coach, and retain team members.
• Prepare schedules based on sales forecasts, availability, and labor targets.
• Conduct pre-shift meetings and communicate daily priorities.
• Provide performance feedback, recognition, corrective action, and development planning.
• Identify and develop team members for future leadership positions.
• Promote a respectful, inclusive, harassment-free workplace.
• Assist in achieving sales, profit, food-cost, labor-cost, and controllable-expense goals.
• Review daily sales, labor reports, discounts, voids, refunds, overtime, and cash variances.
• Forecast staffing and product needs based on expected business levels.
• Control waste, portioning, complimentary meals, discounts, and unauthorized expenditures.
• Participate in profit-and-loss reviews and develop corrective action plans.
• Enforce food-safety, sanitation, temperature-control, allergen, and personal-hygiene requirements.
• Ensure compliance with health department, employment, wage‑and‑hour, safety, and alcohol‑service regulations.
• Maintain required certifications, inspection records, training documentation, and incident reports.
• Correct unsafe conditions and report accidents, injuries, equipment failures, or suspected misconduct.
• Prepare the restaurant for brand, health, safety, and operational inspections.
• Order, receive, inspect, rotate, and secure food, beverages, supplies, and smallwares.
• Conduct inventory counts and investigate unusual usage or shortages.
• Maintain cash-handling, safe, deposit, point-of-sale, and refund controls.
• Help prevent theft, fraud, food loss, and misuse of company property.
• Coordinate equipment repairs and follow up on maintenance requests.
• Execute national promotions and local restaurant marketing initiatives.
• Support community partnerships, school programs, fundraising events, and grand reopenings.
• Encourage suggestive selling and improve dine-in, takeout, delivery, and online‑order performance.
• Monitor nearby competitors and communicate opportunities to increase traffic and sales.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Interpersonal Skills

Problem Solving

Conflict Resolution

Education

High School Diploma

Hospitality or Business Degree preferred

Tools

POS systems

Scheduling software

Email

Spreadsheets

Business reporting

Job description

Denny's is hiring a Restaurant Manager to oversee daily operations, lead shifts, and maintain service quality at a high-volume, full-service location. You will drive guest satisfaction, coach a diverse team, and manage schedules to meet forecasted demand.

This role requires strong leadership, operational knowledge, and the ability to handle guest concerns with professional discretion. You will play a key role in safety, financial performance, and brand standards within an independently owned