A restaurant director of operations leads the GMs of a group's restaurants and spends most days inside them. They coach GMs, check food safety, bar service and cash, go over each weekly P&L, and step in when a restaurant slips.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, full-service restaurants · BLS, May 2025
We're hiring a Director of Operations to lead the General Managers of our [six to eight] restaurants. You'll spend most of your week inside the restaurants: coaching GMs, auditing food safety and service, reviewing each P&L, and fixing problems before guests notice. The COO sets the systems; you make sure every restaurant runs them.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Hire, train, coach and, when needed, replace General Managers.
Review each restaurant's weekly P&L with its GM and agree on fixes for sales, labor, food cost and comps.
Run unannounced audits of food safety, cleanliness, alcohol service, cash handling and service standards.
Roll out new menus, policies and procedures in every restaurant and check that they stick.
Approve manager schedules, staffing changes and repair spending above a GM's limit.
Step in on serious guest complaints, employee issues, injuries and health department visits.
Lead the weekly GM meeting to share results and what's working in other locations.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Visit [two or three] restaurants a day, during prep, lunch or dinner service.
Review line check sheets, temp logs and the manager log at each visit.
Walk the dining room, bar and kitchen with the GM and leave a written list of fixes.
Review the daily flash report: sales, covers, labor, comps and voids by restaurant.
Follow up on last week's action items with each GM.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Restaurants at or under labor budget: [your target].
Internal audit scores: [your target].
General Manager retention: [your target].
Comps and voids as a share of sales: [your target].
Guest review rating by restaurant: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[5+] years as a General Manager of a full-service restaurant, plus [2+] years overseeing more than one location.
Certified Food Protection Manager credential, such as ServSafe Manager, or earned within [60] days.
Can read a restaurant P&L and explain what drove each line.
Has developed managers who were later promoted.
Valid driver's license and reliable transportation for daily travel between restaurants.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience opening new restaurants or leading a turnaround.
TIPS, ServSafe Alcohol or your state's responsible alcohol service certification.
Comfort with POS, scheduling and inventory reports [such as Toast, 7shifts or MarginEdge].
Experience in a group with more than one concept.
7. Physical Requirements
Stand and walk for long stretches during restaurant visits and service.
Work in hot kitchens and step into walk-in coolers and freezers during audits.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Most of the week on the road between restaurants in [region].
Regular nights and weekends, since that's when the restaurants are busiest.
On call for GMs: closures, injuries, equipment failures and staffing gaps.
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 director of operations 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.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
This is the leader GMs see most. The work happens in dining rooms and kitchens during service, with a notebook, a thermometer and a car full of audit forms.
The week happens in the car and the kitchen
Most days mean two or three restaurant visits, timed for prep, lunch or the dinner rush. Each visit follows a routine: line checks, temperature logs, the manager log, a walk of the dining room, bar and walk-in, and a written list of fixes the GM signs. Next week starts with that list.
Some problems close a restaurant on the spot
Local health rules decide when a kitchen has to stop. In Houston, for example, a restaurant must stop all food operations after any sewage backup. It must also stop during a power outage over four hours or a water outage over an hour, unless it runs under a current emergency plan the health department accepted. A restaurant without that plan asks the department for approval to reopen, and the department sets up an inspection. GMs call the director first. Source: Houston Health Department: Emergency reporting form for food establishments.
Big repairs come to the director
Equipment fails at the worst time: a walk-in cooler on a Friday afternoon, the dish machine an hour before brunch. A GM can approve small repairs. Past that limit, the call comes to the director, who decides between repair and replacement, sends the group's contracted vendor, and moves product or staff to a sister restaurant if it comes to that.
One standard, several concepts
A group with a steakhouse, a taqueria and a brunch spot needs one standard for food safety, cash and cleanliness, but different service steps for each. The director audits every restaurant against its own concept's steps. At the weekly GM meeting, they share what works in one restaurant with the others.
Developing GMs is the real job
A restaurant runs about as well as its GM, and GMs leave. The director hires and develops them, keeps an assistant GM in each restaurant ready to step up, and replaces a GM who can't hold the standard before the best servers and cooks drift away too.
How much restaurant directors of operations make
The closest BLS group for restaurant directors of operations is general and operations managers. General and operations managers who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $75,160 a year ($36.13 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $105,770 median for general and operations managers in all industries. About 74,440 of the 3,503,020 general and operations managers in that survey work for full-service restaurants.
Salaried, with a bonus paid on labor budgets, audit scores and GM retention, and a monthly car allowance or mileage for the daily driving. Since this person leads your GMs, set the pay above what your best GM earns.
Full-service restaurants
$75,160$75,160 median Middle half $55,000–$99,760 10th–90th $41,020–$142,230
All industries
$105,770$105,770 median Middle half $72,320–$167,280 10th–90th $50,090–$253,390
$0k$50k$100k$150k$200k$250k$300k
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
$41,020
$55,000
$75,160
$99,760
$142,230
All industries
$50,090
$72,320
$105,770
$167,280
$253,390
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has been a full-service GM and turned a slipping restaurant around
Reads a P&L and turns it into three fixes a GM can make this week
Holds a certified food protection manager credential, or can earn one within the template's deadline
Coaches managers in the moment without taking over the shift
Writes clear visit notes and follows up on them a week later
Teach these on the job
Your audit forms and how they're scored
Each concept's menu, service steps and bar program
Your POS, scheduling and inventory reports
Your state's liquor rules and the alcohol server training the group uses
The group's repair approval limits and vendor list
Between visits, the director reads the daily flash report, POS manager reports and the scheduling app, often on a phone. In each restaurant, they check the temperature logs and audit checklists. A candidate who already knows Toast, 7shifts or MarginEdge reports can start auditing in week one.
Restaurant director of operations interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Fill the blanks from your last six months of audits and P&Ls, and set targets by restaurant when the concepts differ.
Restaurants at or under labor budget
Each week, count the restaurants whose labor cost came in at or under budget for their sales. Use clocked hours, not the schedule, and list overtime on its own line.
Internal audit scores
Score every unannounced visit on the same form: food safety, cleanliness, alcohol service, cash and service. Track each restaurant's trend and how many fixes from the last visit are still open.
General Manager retention
GMs still in their seats a year after they started or after the director took over. For each one who left, note why and whether an assistant GM was ready to step in.
Comps and voids as a share of sales
Total comps and voids divided by sales, by restaurant, shift and manager, from POS exception reports. Ask about spikes the same week, while people still remember the night.
Guest review rating by restaurant
Track each restaurant's average rating by month. Read every low review with the GM within the week, and tie it to a shift, a station or a server, then to a fix.
How many restaurants can one director of operations oversee?
The template plans for six to eight. The real limit is drive time and how strong the GMs are. A director should see every restaurant during service each week, with extra time for new openings and restaurants that are struggling. If visits slip to every other week, the group needs a second director or stronger GMs.
How much does a restaurant director of operations make?
General and operations managers who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $75,160 a year ($36.13 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $55,000 and $99,760 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
When should a restaurant group add a director of operations?
When the COO can't get to every restaurant during service each week, or GMs go weeks without real coaching. A new opening that will pull the COO away for months is a good time to hire one. The COO keeps building the systems, and the director makes them stick in each restaurant.
How should a director of operations handle a struggling GM?
Name the problems in writing, with the numbers and what the visits showed. Agree on a short list of fixes and dates, visit more often, and check the list each week. If the restaurant doesn't improve, act: a weak GM costs staff, guests and sales. Bring in the HR Manager before any final decision.
Should a director of operations work shifts?
Sometimes. Covering a GM's vacation or a short-staffed opening week teaches more than any audit. But a director stuck closing one restaurant for weeks isn't seeing the other six. Agree on a cap with the COO, such as a couple of shifts a week at most, and fix the staffing gap behind it.
