- COO-level operational authority across all venues, reporting directly to the owner
- Long-term opportunity to lead a transformational development phase
- Direct influence over strategy, performance, and growth across the group
About the Business
A substantial and highly stable group with a strong commercial foundation owns and operates a growing hospitality portfolio across regional NSW. These venues are not managed as standalone profit centres; instead, they play a strategic role in shaping the identity of a master-planned community and supporting several major developments currently in the planning pipeline.
The portfolio, mostly located in Newcastle and its surrounds, includes a busy restaurant with very strong numbers, a quick-service concept, and a retail venue with an incentive model already in place. Several more tenancies are plumbed and ready for food use. The new venture down the track also brings significant premium growth.
The Role
The COO role is a newly created group leadership position sitting above every venue, reporting only to the owner. No middle layer, no committee. Once direction is set, you have authority: hiring, firing, budget allocation, menu and operational calls.
You are measured on results and on building operations that run without you.
The job is to bring a layer of professional operational leadership to the portfolio. Systems, structure, financial discipline, and forward planning. Take the knowledge currently sitting in people’s heads and turn it into repeatable processes, clear standards, and accountable systems. Develop venue managers who can operate confidently and effectively on their own, creating a business that is less dependent on individuals and more reliant on strong operational foundations.
Hold cost of goods, labour, and supplier pricing under control. Deliver the monthly reporting the owner is not currently receiving, and remove the need for him to personally review invoices and negotiate supplier pricing.
You will lead pre-opening planning for new concepts, stabilise a recently opened venue in its early stages, and manage a period of transition with professionalism and discretion. Most importantly, you will retain and develop strong people through the pre-growth phase.
Who We’re Looking For – Essential
Someone who came up through hospitality properly. The bulk of your working life has been spent in restaurants and premium food and beverage environments, building operational credibility from the ground up. Not a recent crossover from another industry, and not an administrator who has only brushed against food service operations.
A real, sustained physical presence across the venues is essential. This is a hands-on role, on the floor and in the kitchens, working alongside your people and understanding the reality of the operation day to day. It is not a role you run from a laptop or manage from a distance.
What We’ll Help You Grow Into
Group scale systems and financial control. If you have already installed SOPs and KPI frameworks across multiple sites and managed P&L across locations, that is ideal.
If you have done it across one or two venues and you are ready to do it across a group, the owner is genuinely open to backing the right person and developing them into the full role.
You work for an owner who has proven, repeatedly, that he knows how to step back. He delegates fully when he trusts you and he backs his people. His own stated goal is to travel and to own businesses that do not need him in the room.
Full-time, permanent role based in the Newcastle region, with a genuine presence required across the venues.
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