Restaurant Shift Manager – Back of House

Colton's Social House; Clovis (CA); On-site; USD 32,000 - 39,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus opportunities

Job summary

Colton’s Social House is seeking a Back of House Shift Manager to lead the kitchen and support the team. You will maintain awareness of the entire restaurant during your shift, coordinating with Front of House and guests to ensure an exceptional experience.

You will oversee prep, cook’s line, expo, and dish, monitor staffing and labor, protect food safety, and guide the team through service while maintaining standards and proper reset for the next shift.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated leadership in BOH operations.
• Excellent communication across FOH and BOH.
• Ability to prioritize and act decisively during shifts.

Responsibilities

• Lead BOH operations and support prep, line, dish, and expeditors.
• Perform manager opening responsibilities and ensure readiness for service.
• Monitor production, ticket times, and food quality; adjust priorities as needed.
• Maintain prep levels and product availability; manage shortages or quality concerns.
• Oversee deliveries, verify quantities, and ensure safe storage and handling.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Team coordination

Guest service

Food safety

Tools

POS systems

Job description

SHIFT MANAGER, BACK OF HOUSE – Lead the Kitchen. Support the Team. Own the Experience.

At Colton’s Social House, Social Therapy is created by an entire restaurant working together. While our guests experience it at the table, much of what shapes that experience happens before the food ever reaches them.

Our Back of House Shift Managers are responsible for leading that side of the operation.

This is a Back of House-focused leadership position with responsibility for the restaurant as a whole. While much of your hands-on support will happen with Prep, Cook’s Line, Expo, and Dish, you are still a Manager of the entire restaurant during your shift. That means maintaining awareness of what is happening on the floor, communicating with Front of House, interacting with guests, making table touches, assisting with guest recovery, and stepping wherever the restaurant needs leadership.

That responsibility begins before service and continues until the restaurant is properly closed. Back of House Shift Managers prepare the Kitchen and team for service, manage production and execution, lead employees, monitor staffing and labor, protect food quality and safety, solve problems as conditions change, and make sure the restaurant is properly reset for what comes next.

Managing a shift requires more than being a strong cook. It requires judgment, awareness, communication, consistency, leadership, and the ability to prioritize. You need to understand what is happening throughout the Kitchen while recognizing how those decisions affect Expo, Front of House, and ultimately the guest.

You’re not just responsible for what happens in the Kitchen. You’re responsible for how it contributes to the restaurant as a whole.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Lead BOH operations and actively support Prep Cooks, Line Cooks, Dishwashers, and Expeditors, while maintaining management awareness of Front of House, Bar, and the overall guest experience.

• Complete Manager opening responsibilities and ensure the Kitchen, restaurant, and team are clean, stocked, organized, staffed, informed, and prepared for service.

• Monitor Prep production, Cook’s Line execution, Expo flow, Dish operations, ticket times, food quality, staffing, product availability, and restaurant volume, adjusting priorities and team positioning as conditions change.

• Maintain appropriate prep levels and product availability, identify shortages or quality concerns, and ensure the Kitchen is prepared for current and anticipated business.

• Complete and coordinate approved restaurant purchases, monitoring product needs and helping ensure necessary food, supplies, and operational items are available when needed.

• Receive and oversee deliveries, verifying products and quantities as appropriate, identifying shortages or quality concerns, and ensuring deliveries are promptly handled, stored, rotated, and organized according to restaurant and food-safety standards.

• Oversee food execution and ensure recipes, portions, modifications, temperatures, timing, plating, and presentation meet Colton’s standards.

• Maintain a strong presence between the Cook’s Line and Expo, identifying bottlenecks, coordinating ticket timing, supporting communication, and stepping into production or the Window when needed.

• Oversee Dish flow, cleanliness, sanitation, stocking, and equipment availability so the rest of the restaurant has what it needs to operate.

• Anticipate problems and act early—identifying production issues, staffing needs, product or purchasing needs, ticket-time concerns, equipment problems, safety risks, or communication breakdowns before they have a larger impact.

• Lead, coach, and hold BOH employees accountable in real time while recognizing strong performance and reinforcing expectations consistently.

• Manage restaurant-wide staffing, labor, breaks, employee phasing, call-outs, and shift coverage, coordinating across FOH and BOH as needed.

• Maintain standards for food safety, sanitation, cleanliness, organization, employee and guest safety, equipment, and overall facility readiness.

• Communicate closely with Front of House leadership and employees so changes, delays, 86’d items, modifications, refires, and other issues are addressed clearly and quickly.

• Maintain a presence beyond the Kitchen through table touches, guest interaction, and service recovery, particularly when feedback or concerns involve food quality or execution.

• Complete applicable POS functions, comps, voids, discounts, shift reporting, documentation, cash‑handling responsibilities, and other Manager controls accurately.

• Oversee employee checkouts and verify Prep, Line, Expo, Dish, and other assigned responsibilities are completed before approving employees to leave.

• Lead closing procedures and ensure BOH and FOH areas are cleaned, stocked, organized, secured, documented, and properly reset for what comes next.

• Make appropriate real‑time operational decisions within Manager authority and know when a situation requires escalation to senior leadership.

• Step into operational work when needed without losing sight of the larger shift. Being able to cook is important. Knowing when you should cook—and when you need to manage—is even more important.

• Identify opportunities to improve our food execution, systems, training, communication, organization, efficiency, and overall operation.

• Lead with accountability, follow‑through, and an ownership mindset. There is no "that's not my job."

COMPENSATION & SCHEDULING

Training Rate: $23/hour

Post-Training / 90-Day Period: $24+/hourbased on performance

Shift Managers are guaranteed a minimum of 35 hours per week, scheduled across at least five shifts, including a combination of days, nights, weekends, and holidays based on business needs.

Schedules are written monthly and generally provided by the 15th of the preceding month. Adjustments may occasionally be necessary based on staffing, business levels, or operational needs.

Evening, weekend, and holiday availability is expected.

Bonus Opportunity: Managers may also be eligible for performance-based bonuses based on individual performance and the overall health and profitability of the restaurant. Bonuses are not guaranteed.

LEAD THE SHIFT YOU ACTUALLY HAVE

Restaurant shifts rarely unfold exactly as expected.

Prep runs short. A piece of equipment goes down. The Line gets hit all at once. Ticket times start climbing. Dish falls behind. A modification needs clarification. A guest isn't happy with their meal. Meanwhile, the rest of the restaurant keeps moving.

That’s when management matters most.

You’ll learn Colton’s recipes, systems, standards, policies, and expectations. But successful Back of House Shift Managers have to move beyond knowing how the Kitchen is supposed to operate.

You need to be able to read the operation, determine what matters most, make a decision, communicate a clear direction, and adjust as circumstances change.

Sometimes that means jumping onto a station. Sometimes it means taking over Expo. Sometimes it means reorganizing Prep priorities, moving an employee, addressing a quality problem, or leaving the Kitchen to speak directly with a guest.

And sometimes the restaurant needs you not to become another Line Cook—it needs you to see the whole operation and lead it.

The goal isn’t to be the busiest person in the Kitchen.

It’s to use your judgment, leadership, and operational awareness to help the entire restaurant perform better.

LEADERSHIP AT COLTON’S

At Colton’s, a management title doesn’t place someone outside the standards we expect from everyone else. It increases their responsibility for protecting them.

Our Back of House Shift Managers help set the tone for the Kitchen and influence the restaurant far beyond it. How you communicate during a rush, respond to mistakes, protect food quality, support an employee who is struggling, communicate with Front of House, respond to guest feedback, and handle a shift that isn't going according to plan all have an impact.

That matters because Social Therapy isn’t created by one interaction or one position. The experience at the table depends on an entire restaurant getting its part right—and BOH leadership plays a major role in making that possible.

We’re looking for leaders who can hold a standard without losing the person, give clear direction, make thoughtful decisions, and understand that accountability and support belong together. Strong leaders don't send something out simply because the Kitchen is busy, ignore a problem because it belongs to another department, or accept inconsistency because addressing it would be inconvenient.

We also expect our Managers to look beyond the immediate shift. Strong leaders notice opportunities to improve the restaurant, take initiative, bring forward solutions, and follow through.

Social Therapy is the experience we want to create. Our Managers help set the standard that makes it possible.

Leadership here isn’t about being above the work. It’s about taking greater responsibility for the outcome.