Director of Operations

Happy Cooking Hospitality—the team behind Joseph Leonard, Jeffrey’s Grocery, Fairfax, and Sailor—is seeking a Director of Operations with deep restaurant experience, sound hospitality instincts, and exceptional follow-through.

We’re looking for someone who is equally comfortable leading a service and bringing structure to a project, one who knows how to turn a priority into a practical plan, give people clear direction, and stay engaged as they work toward the result. When something gets stuck, you help figure out why, solve the problem with the team, and keep the work moving.

Reporting directly to the COO, you’ll work closely with General Managers, Executive Chefs, and our company leadership team. You’ll spend substantial time in our restaurants, building relationships, observing service, supporting managers, and making sure decisions translate into action. Each restaurant has its own identity; your work will strengthen the shared standards of hospitality, preparation, and care that connect them.

Comfort and fluency on the restaurant floor are essential. Your experience should prepare you to not only make informed plans to realize hospitality and service dreams, but also to step into management coverage, assess a service, lead training, or support a new opening with confidence and credibility.

Bring clarity and momentum to the work

• Translate company and restaurant priorities into clear plans with owners, milestones, and deadlines.

• Break larger initiatives into manageable steps, making sure teams understand the objective, sequence, and resources available.

• Lead focused meetings and regular check-ins that produce decisions and keep commitments visible.

• Follow objectives through completion, providing constructive support, removing obstacles, and adjusting plans as circumstances change.

• Turn shift notes, manager reports, guest feedback, and service observations into useful questions, decisions, and action.

Lead alongside our restaurant teams

• Manage and support GMs through regular conversations, restaurant visits, practical coaching, and clear expectations.

• Help managers prioritize, delegate, communicate effectively, and develop the people they lead.

• Step onto the floor when needed to lead a pre-shift, support the door and dining room, handle guest concerns, or provide management coverage.

• Assess service and hospitality thoughtfully, work with teams on improvements, and return to see how those changes are working.

• Train through explanation, demonstration, observation, and specific feedback.

Keep our restaurants organized

• Coordinate schedules, management coverage, training, and staffing needs across restaurants with the appropriate leaders.

• Build useful routines for service readiness, cleanliness, safety, maintenance, and communication.

• Bring the right colleagues together to resolve operating problems and confirm the work is finished.

• Help plan and execute holidays, events, buyouts, seasonal changes, and new openings, from early preparation through service and follow-up.

• Work across culinary, beverage, reservations, finance, HR, creative, and operations to clarify responsibilities and keep handoffs moving.

• Bring practical financial understanding to staffing and operating decisions, working with company leadership, GMs and Executive Chefs on improving restaurant outcomes.

• Substantial leadership experience in full-service restaurants, including successful experience as a GM or comparable operating leader. 

• A keen understanding of how to make everyone – guests and colleagues – feel heard and understood.

• Hospitality chops – the insight to recognize what actions make the difference between a forgettable night out and a story worth sharing

• The ability to read a dining room, understand the demands of service, and earn the confidence of an experienced restaurant team.

• Experience developing managers and helping people turn feedback into better work.

• Excellent organization and written communication. You make expectations clear and keep track of details without losing sight of the larger objective.

• Calm, resourceful judgment and a willingness to work through problems alongside others.

• The ability to hold people accountable while giving them the support and room to succeed.

• Familiarity with restaurant reservation, POS, scheduling, and team communication systems.

• Availability to work across our Manhattan and Brooklyn restaurants, including daytime and evening services, weekends, and key holidays.

This is an opportunity to have a direct influence on the daily life of our restaurants and the development of their leaders. You’ll work closely with people who care deeply about hospitality and bring your own experience, judgment, and ideas to how we operate.

If you enjoy making a plan, getting into the work with a team, and seeing the smiles when all is said and done, we’d like to meet you!

Please apply through Culinary Agents with your résumé and an introduction – great hospitality starts with a “hello!”

Happy Cooking Hospitality is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants with a range of backgrounds and experiences.