A restaurant group COO writes the playbook, labor model, buying contracts and opening plans that every restaurant runs on. They own results across the group and lead the Director of Operations, Culinary Director and HR Manager.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, full-service restaurants · BLS, May 2025
We're hiring a Chief Operating Officer to build the systems every one of our restaurants runs on. You'll own operating results across the group, set the standards for service, food safety, labor and purchasing, and lead the Director of Operations, Culinary Director and HR Manager. The Director of Operations runs the restaurants week to week; you decide how they should run.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Write and maintain the operating playbook: opening and closing checklists, cash handling, comps and voids, food safety and alcohol service.
Build the labor model: staffing guides by forecast covers and daypart, and the scheduling rules every GM follows.
Negotiate group contracts with broadline food distributors, linen, pest control, hood cleaning and refrigeration repair vendors.
Set each restaurant's budget with the CFO and hold the Director of Operations accountable for it.
Plan new openings and remodels: timelines, equipment, hiring and training teams, and opening-week readiness.
Choose and roll out restaurant technology: POS, reservations, scheduling and inventory software.
Own the risk program: workplace safety, insurance claims, liquor liability and the response to serious incidents.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review weekly prime cost, labor and sales by restaurant with the CFO.
Meet with the Director of Operations on GM performance and restaurants that are off plan.
Look for patterns in audit and inspection results, and change the system when the same problem shows up in more than one restaurant.
Work through opening schedules with contractors, the Culinary Director and the HR Manager.
Visit restaurants during a busy service to test whether the playbook holds up.
Health inspection results across the group: [your target].
Manager retention: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[8+] years of multi-unit restaurant operations leadership, including several full-service locations.
Has built budgets, labor models and operating procedures used in more than one restaurant.
Knows food safety, alcohol service rules and how local health inspections work.
Has opened new restaurants, from construction through the first [90] days.
Comfort with POS reporting, scheduling software and inventory systems.
6. Preferred Experience
ServSafe Manager certification.
Experience with group purchasing, distributor contracts or rebate programs.
Experience in a restaurant group of similar size, or one growing toward it.
Bachelor's degree in hospitality, business or a related field.
7. Physical Requirements
Walk dining rooms, kitchens, walk-ins and storage areas during restaurant visits.
Drive between locations [several days a week].
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Central office in [city], with [two or more] days a week in the restaurants.
Nights, weekends and holidays during openings, menu launches and peak weeks.
On call for serious incidents: injuries, equipment failures, closures and health department visits.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new chief operating officer gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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Each restaurant already has a GM and a chef running its shifts. The COO's work is the layer underneath: the rules, numbers and contracts that make the third restaurant run like the first, even on a Saturday with a cook out sick.
Labor is planned by the cover
The labor model sets how many servers, bussers, hosts and cooks each restaurant schedules for the covers it expects, by daypart. The COO builds it from POS history and reservations, so a GM can't staff a slow Tuesday lunch like a Friday dinner. Labor and food and drink costs make up prime cost, and labor is the part a schedule can fix.
Tip rules shape the pay plan
Federal law lets a restaurant pay servers a lower cash wage and count part of their tips toward minimum wage. California, Oregon and Washington, for example, require the full state minimum wage before tips. The choice shapes the tip pool too: under federal rules, cooks and dishwashers can share in it only when the restaurant takes no tip credit. Managers and supervisors can't take a cut of the pool either way. The COO sets each state's policy with an employment lawyer. Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Minimum wages for tipped employees by state.
Buying for the whole group
One restaurant has little room to bargain. A group can sign one contract with a broadline food distributor and others for linen, pest control, hood cleaning and refrigeration repair. The COO negotiates the terms, then checks invoices to make sure every kitchen orders on contract instead of running to a cash-and-carry store.
Openings are a project with a hard date
Before a new restaurant opens, a lot has to land in the same few weeks: the build-out, the equipment, a hired and trained team, the menus, and the health and liquor approvals. The COO runs that plan with contractors, the Culinary Director and the HR Manager. Trainers come from the other restaurants, so the COO picks them without leaving those dining rooms short.
Serious injuries start a clock
Kitchens bring burns, cuts and falls. Federal OSHA rules let full-service restaurants skip the routine injury log unless OSHA or BLS asks for it. Reporting still applies: OSHA must hear about a death on the job within eight hours, and within 24 hours about an amputation, an in-patient hospital stay or a lost eye. States with their own OSHA plans can set stricter rules. The COO makes sure every GM knows the steps. Source: 29 CFR 1904.39: Reporting fatalities, hospitalizations, amputations and losses of an eye to OSHA (Cornell LII).
How much restaurant chief operating officers make
The closest BLS group for restaurant chief operating officers is chief executives. Chief executives who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $132,640 a year ($63.77 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $213,990 median for chief executives in all industries. About 270 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for full-service restaurants.
Paid as a salary with a bonus, often set on prime cost and on how many restaurants hit budgeted profit. Growing groups may add one for each opening that lands on time and on budget.
Full-service restaurants
$132,640$132,640 median Middle half $98,270–$206,150 10th–90th $84,900–$233,400
All industries
$213,990$213,990 median Middle half $129,540–$356,200 10th–90th $75,700–$507,730
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Full-service restaurants
$84,900
$98,270
$132,640
$206,150
$233,400
All industries
$75,700
$129,540
$213,990
$356,200
$507,730
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has written a playbook that held up in several restaurants, not just the one they ran
Builds labor guides from covers, dayparts and sales history
Negotiates distributor and service contracts, then checks they're honored
Has opened full-service restaurants from build-out through the first months
Leads through other leaders instead of doing their jobs for them
Teach these on the job
Your group's POS, scheduling and inventory systems
Each concept's service steps and kitchen layout
How each county scores or grades its inspections
Your insurance carrier's claim process
The group's budget format and reporting calendar
The COO picks the group's software and rolls it out. That covers the POS (Toast, Square or Aloha), reservations (SevenRooms, OpenTable or Resy), scheduling (7shifts), and inventory and invoices (MarginEdge or Restaurant365). Ask finalists which POS change they've led and how they kept service running during it.
Blanks, not numbers, follow each KPI in the template. Agree with the CFO on where each number comes from, such as the flash report or the closed P&L, before you set a target or pay a bonus on it.
Prime cost by restaurant
Food and beverage cost plus all labor, wages and payroll taxes included, against each restaurant's sales. The GM sees it every Monday, and the closed P&L confirms it once a month.
Labor percentage by restaurant
Total labor cost divided by sales for each restaurant and week, split into front and back of house. Compare scheduled hours with clocked hours to see where the labor guide isn't being followed.
Restaurants hitting budgeted profit
Count the restaurants whose monthly profit met or beat the budget set with the CFO. For each miss, name the cause: sales, labor, food cost or a one-time repair.
Health inspection results across the group
Log every health department inspection with its date, score or grade, and each violation. The same violation in more than one restaurant points to a gap in the playbook, not one kitchen.
Manager retention
Share of GMs, assistant GMs, floor managers, chefs and sous chefs still with the group a year later. Track it by restaurant and by role, and read the exit notes.
Opening and closing checklists, line checks and temperature logs, cash handling, comp and void rules, alcohol service and ID checks, allergy steps, and the service steps for each concept. Add the steps after an injury, a power outage or a health inspection. Keep each page short enough for a manager to use mid-shift, and date every change so GMs know which version is current.
How much does a restaurant chief operating officer make?
Chief executives who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $132,640 a year ($63.77 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $98,270 and $206,150 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Should the COO or the CFO own purchasing?
Split it. The COO, with the Culinary Director, picks products and vendors and negotiates the contracts, because they know what the kitchens need. The CFO checks that invoices match contract prices, tracks rebates and pays the bills. When one person both chooses vendors and approves their invoices, mistakes and side deals are harder to catch.
When should a COO start work on a new restaurant?
At the lease stage, not the build-out. The COO should check the space for kitchen flow, storage, the bar and the patio before it's signed. Then they set the schedule backward from the opening date: equipment orders, hiring, training, practice services and the final health inspection. Leave room for permits and inspections that run late.
Does a restaurant group COO need a ServSafe certificate?
The template lists ServSafe Manager as preferred, not required. The COO doesn't run shifts, but they write the food safety rules every kitchen follows and answer for inspection results across the group. Passing the same manager exam the GMs and chefs take, within the first few months, is a fair ask.
