Operational Lead (Culinary)

Job description

**What is Teamshares?** Teamshares is a tech-enabled acquiror of high-quality businesses, intending to be a permanent home for businesses. Part holdco, part fintech, Teamshares programmatically acquires companies with $0.5 to $5 million of EBITDA from retiring owners, integrates them with the Teamshares platform, and helps employees earn company stock. Founded in 2019, Teamshares operates subsidiaries with consolidated revenue of over $400 million across over 40 industries and 30 states. We are searching for an Operational Lead (Culinary) with strong strategic planning and deep financial acumen to work within the Teamshares network and assist our employee-owned food & beverage businesses with turnarounds, transformations, and growth. During an engagement, you'll work directly with a network company—bringing diverse, practical culinary experience alongside a senior-level, analytical, and data-driven approach to financial strategy—to help them improve menus, kitchen operations, food cost, and overall profitability. You must also be capable of transitioning new companies into our network and leading a company as an interim President. 70-75+% travel is expected ### Key Skills: - Bias to action. You act now to help fix a company's menu, kitchen, and margins. - Culinary craft with a business lens. You can support menu innovation and engineering, but you think about them in terms of food cost, labor, and contribution margin — not just flavor and creativity. - Strong interpersonal skills. In co-management situations, you work collaboratively with the president as their partner. In interim management situations, you calm the nerves of the kitchen and front-of-house teams, and instill confidence in the employee-owners. - Love of implementation and operations. This is not an ivory tower strategy or R&D chef role. It's to quickly develop menu and operational changes, and implement them in a working kitchen. You are both the chef and the CEO — comfortable on the line and in the P&L. - Running towards the fire. You can handle tough conversations about underperforming products, waste, or margin. A restaurant losing money is an intellectual puzzle, not something you run from. - Meaningful culinary experience in a scratch kitchen (e.g., chef, kitchen manager, culinary director, or similar) combined with operational or small business leadership experience - Track record of menu development, engineering, and costing — you understand recipe costing, food cost percentage, and how menu design drives margin - Business acumen and analytical skills to oversee company financials — P&L, COGS, labor cost — and translate that into culinary and operational decisions, akin to a President's lens on the business - Demonstrated people leadership skills, ideally managing kitchen or restaurant teams - Strong interpersonal and communication skills; low-ego - Entrepreneurial mindset and a desire to build - Project-management and problem-solving skills with a roll-up-the-sleeves, get-it-done attitude - Growth-mindset and a willingness to explore new ideas and innovations; not afraid to learn from your mistakes - An ability to think creatively, be adaptable and curious ### Why should you join us? Teamshares believes in supporting every team member with a competitive salary and a generous benefits package, including: equity for all employees, exceptional medical/dental/vision benefits plans for employees and their families, and paid parental leave. We recognize and facilitate the tangible impacts each employee has on our mission, while still maintaining a healthy work-life balance culture that emphasizes unplugging at the end of the work day. Our team values time off and actually takes vacation. We embody a growth mindset and provide the support you need to grow in your career.