Area Director

Description

The Area Director owns the operational, people, and financial results of four to six Pacific Catch restaurants. They are the bridge between the Home Office and the restaurants—and the job runs in both directions. They hold the standard in every restaurant they touch, while also holding the Home Office accountable for giving the field the tools, support, and clarity it needs to succeed.

This is a director-level role applied to a defined group of restaurants. The mindset is that of running a small restaurant group: the Area Director is accountable for what happens in their restaurants and for ensuring those restaurants get what they need from the rest of the company.

Pacific Catch is rebuilding. Standards are being established that have never existed, and functions are being built that the company has never had. The Area Director turns those standards into reality at the restaurant level. Just as importantly, they bring the field’s perspective back to the Home Office—identifying where a process, standard, or solution looks right on paper but cannot be executed in a restaurant.

REPORTS TO

Chief Executive Officer

AREA

Two positions in the Bay Area, each responsible for six restaurants, and one position in Southern California responsible for four.

SCHEDULE

This is a full-time, salaried position classified as exempt, with a field-based schedule that includes evenings and weekends.  Area Directors are in restaurants nearly every day, with travel by car within their assigned markets and occasional trips to the Home Office in Walnut Creek.

REQUIRED ATTRIBUTES

• Holds the standard. Willing to hold people accountable without needing to be liked for it.
• Develops people. Coaches rather than directs. Develops General Managers rather than managing their restaurants for them.
• Owns the result. Takes accountability for the performance of their area, does not make excuses, and follows issues through to resolution.
• Builds trust. Creates strong relationships with restaurant leaders and Home Office partners while maintaining high standards and clear accountability.
• Commercially minded. Thinks about where sales come from, not only where costs go.
• Curious about the trade area. Knows which restaurants nearby are busy, understands why, and looks for ways to apply those insights.
• Direct with the Home Office. Will say when we are moving too fast, creating unnecessary complexity, or asking the field to do something it cannot execute.
• Comfortable with change and ambiguity. Understands that much of what this company needs does not exist yet, and is comfortable helping build it.
• Guest-obsessed and detail-oriented. Has a strong service orientation and notices the details that shape the guest experience.
• Financially fluent. Can read a P&L, understand what is driving the result, and take action.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AREA DIRECTOR

The Restaurants

• Accountable for the full restaurant P&L in their area apart from occupancy. Sales, food cost, labor, controllables and restaurant EBITDA.
• In restaurants nearly every day. Presence is the job, not a supplement to it.
• Enforce The Pacific Standard Eight in every restaurant: forecasting and scheduling, purposeful shift management, pre-shift and manager meetings, line checks, inventory management, clean restaurants, guest recovery, and restaurant audits.
• Conduct restaurant audits on a defined cadence and work the findings with general managers and chefs until they close.
• Hold general managers and chefs accountable for standards, results and the development of their own teams.
• Escalate issues that the restaurant cannot solve on its own and stay on them until they are resolved.
• Ensure compliance with company standards and applicable health, safety, employment, food safety, and regulatory requirements. Identify risks early and partner with the appropriate Home Office functions to resolve them

Sales and the Trade Area

• Drive sales in their area. Know what is happening in each trade area, which restaurants are busy, who is going there and why, and how we bring those guests to Pacific Catch.
• Partner with Marketing on local store marketing and lead the execution of it in their restaurants.
• Build community, neighborhood and business relationships that generate traffic, private events and catering leads.
• Stay current on restaurant trends and bring a point of view on how the concept should evolve.
• Work the front door, reservations, turns and walk-in capture as a sales lever, not an administrative one.

People

• Maintain a fully staffed area. Every restaurant staffed to the approved management model.
• In partnership with Human Resources, Hire, develop, coach and, exit team members when necessary.
• Develop general managers directly. Coaching, feedback, formal reviews and a real development plan for each.
• Hold general managers accountable for developing their own restaurant teams.
• Build bench strength. Identify future leaders early and know who is ready before a seat opens.
• Recruit actively. Know the talent in your market before you need it. Maintain succession plans for each General Manager and key leadership position and identify internal candidates who can step into future roles.

Cost and Controls

• Hold labor standards. Manage to the labor model, reduce overtime, and make certain schedules are written against a real forecast.
• Enforce inventory standards. Counts completed on cadence and to standard, receiving and invoicing done correctly, variances worked rather than explained.
• Partner with the Director of Purchasing and the Director of Culinary on food cost and hold restaurants accountable to specifications and portions.
• Review period results with each general manager and leave with actions, owners and dates.

Guest Experience

• Own the guest experience in their restaurants. Food quality, service, cleanliness, atmosphere and consistency.
• Work guest feedback and review scores as an operating metric, not a report.
• Set the expectation that hospitality is the standard and not the exception and hold it.

The Home Office Relationship

• Advocate for your operators. Identify the obstacles the Home Office puts in front of them and push until those obstacles are removed.
• Poke holes in initiatives before they launch. If something will not work in a restaurant, say so early and say why.
• Push back when we are moving too fast. The pace of change is a legitimate operating concern, and you are closest to it.
• Partner with department heads on initiatives. Area Directors are involved in most decisions and are expected to shape them rather than receive them.
• Keep us honest. The Home Office exists to support restaurants, and you are the person who tells us when it is not.

Requirements

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE AND SKILL SET

• Seven or more years of restaurant management experience, including significant multi-unit leadership experience.
• Proven record of driving sales and improving restaurant-level performance across multiple locations.
• Demonstrated success developing General Managers and building bench strength for future leadership roles.
• Full-service or polished-casual restaurant experience preferred.
• Strong command of restaurant financials, with the ability to understand a P&L and translate it into action. Experience with restaurant management platforms such as Restaurant365 preferred.
• Able to balance excellent guest experience with a profitable result.
• Clear and concise communicator, both verbally and in writing.
• Based in the market they support, with a valid driver's license and reliable transportation.

PHYSICAL 

• Ability to move throughout restaurant locations as needed, including navigating kitchens, dining areas, service areas, and other operational spaces.
• Ability to sit, stand, and walk for varying periods throughout the workday.
• Ability to frequently use a computer, keyboard, mouse, telephone, and other standard office equipment.
• Ability to reach, bend, stoop, and frequently lift up to 25 pounds.

COMPENSATION

Salary Range: $120,000 to $140,000 per year