Dave's Hot Chicken - General Manager
10 days ago
Wichita
Job Description General Manager | Dave’s Hot Chicken | Wichita, KS New High-Volume Restaurant | Opening Team | Hiring Now Pay: $70,000 – $105,000 total compensation (base + bonuses) per year (DOE) * About This Opportunity Dave’s Hot Chicken is one of the fastest-growing restaurant brands in the country, and we are bringing it to Wichita. This restaurant will be busy from the day the doors open. We are looking for a proven General Manager who can open strong, take control of the building from day one, and run it at a high level every shift. We are hiring for experience, not potential. If you have run a busy restaurant before and know exactly what it takes, keep reading. In return, you get a $70,000+ base salary with total compensation up to $105,000 through weekly food and labor bonuses and profit sharing, plus full benefits and room to grow as we expand across Texas, Kansas, and Tennessee. The Reality of This Role • We want you to know what you’re walking into:, • Volume is high. Lunch rushes, late nights, and weekends are intense, and you need to be on the floor leading through them., • You will build your opening team from the ground up, hiring the people you need to staff a high-volume restaurant. You will need to coach people up, hold everyone accountable, and move out those who won’t perform, with proper documentation., • You will build and maintain the culture: setting clear expectations, recognizing great work, and developing shift leaders you can trust., • You will have real autonomy. Leadership gives you support and resources, but you are expected to diagnose problems and fix them yourself. This is your store, and we want someone with an ownership mindset. What You’ll Own As General Manager, you are fully accountable for this restaurant’s people, performance, and profitability, including every administrative task that comes with running the restaurant. Daily • Run opening and closing procedures, or confirm they are done right, • Count cash, reconcile drawers, prepare deposits, and investigate variances, • Complete line checks, temperature logs, and food safety checks, • Set prep and par levels based on the sales forecast, • Track labor against sales during the day and adjust staffing in real time, • Lead pre-shift huddles and position your people to win the rush, • Resolve guest issues and respond to online reviews, • Receive deliveries, check invoices, and handle maintenance and equipment issues Weekly • Write schedules that hit labor targets while covering peak volume, • Complete inventory counts, place orders, and manage food cost variance, • Review and approve payroll, timecards, and missed punches, • Review weekly sales, labor, food cost, and speed-of-service results, and act on them, • Hold manager and shift leader meetings and follow up on accountability, • Recruit, interview, hire, and onboard new team members, • Run training plans and certification for new and current team members, • Keep the cleaning and preventive maintenance schedule on track Each Period • Review the full P&L with leadership and present your action plan, • Complete period-end inventory and close-out reporting, • Conduct performance reviews, coaching conversations, and corrective action, • Prepare for and pass brand, food safety, and health inspections, • Carry out local store marketing and community outreach Your First 90 Days • Days 1–30: Hire and train your opening team, set clear standards from day one, and lock in the basics in food safety, cleanliness, speed, and cash handling., • Days 31–60: Strengthen the team after opening, address poor performers early, and build a schedule that fits the actual volume., • Days 61–90: Consistently hit labor and food cost targets, be audit-ready every day, and have dependable shift leaders in place. What You Must Bring • 5+ years as a General Manager (or senior-level manager) of a high-volume quick-service, fast-casual, or casual sit-down restaurant, • Direct P&L responsibility, with clear results in labor, food cost, and sales growth, • A track record of running a high-volume restaurant with a large team, backed by specific numbers (sales, labor, turnover), • Experience coaching, documenting, and terminating employees, along with hiring and building a team, • Hands-on experience with scheduling, inventory, ordering, payroll, and cash management, • Comfort with POS and back-office systems (Restaurant365 experience is a plus), • ServSafe Manager certification, or the ability to obtain it within 30 days, • New restaurant opening experience is a strong plus, • Availability to work nights, weekends, and holidays, and to lead from the front during peak hours How We Hire for This Role We take this hire seriously, and our process is designed to confirm real experience. Be prepared to: • Walk us through how you would build a weekly schedule from a sales forecast and labor target, • Read a restaurant P&L and explain what you would fix first, • Explain how you handled a specific underperforming employee from start to finish, • Describe how you would handle a no-call/no-show during a Friday dinner rush, • Walk us through how you would hire and train a full team in the weeks before opening, • Provide references from former supervisors who can speak to your results This Role Is NOT for You If: • You wait for problems to happen instead of anticipating and preventing them, • You have never built a strong team that buys into your vision, • You need daily direction or a checklist to know what to do next, • You avoid hard conversations or let poor performance slide, • You manage from the office instead of leading on the floor, • You blame staffing, training, or “the system” for results, • You want the title without the accountability, • You can’t commit to living our Core Values every shift Core Values • Mind-Blowing Guest Experience, • Operational Excellence, • Family & Teamwork, • Integrity, • Compensation & Benefits, • Base salary of $70,000+ (depending on experience), • Potential to earn up to $105,000 with all available bonuses when your store hits its targets, • Profit Sharing (after probationary period), • Weekly Food & Labor bonus, • Other Bonus Opportunities (Mystery Shop, Health & Safety Audits, Reviews & Ratings), • Health, dental, and vision insurance, • 401(k) with company matching, • Paid time off, • Paid training, • Promote-from-within path to Multi-Unit / Area Manager as we continue to expand across Texas, Kansas, and Tennessee Work Location: In person, Wichita, KS If you have the experience and you’re ready to build and run a high-volume Dave’s Hot Chicken from day one, apply today. Include one or two results you are proud of (for example, sales growth, labor or food cost improvement, or reduced turnover). We are an equal opportunity employer. About Dave's Hot Chicken The co-founder, Dave, a chef trained in Thomas Keller’s Bouchon restaurant organization came up with a simple process: take the best quality chicken, prepare the chicken in a proprietary brine, and after deep frying; top the most tender chicken in the world with one of seven signature spice blends. We use eVerify to confirm U.S. Employment eligibility.