Operations Systems & Knowledge Manager

Description

General Purpose

The Operations Systems & Knowledge Manager supports the foundation of Sonny's restaurant operations by capturing the knowledge, processes, and tools teams use every day and serving as a voice for operations across the business. This role translates restaurant operations into clear, usable systems and represents operations to ensure systems, standards, and brand work can scale across the restaurant system. The role is heavily focused on building systems and tools, while also serving as an external representative for operations.

Essential Duties (including, but not limited to):

Knowledge Capture & Governance (30%)

• Capture how our restaurants run, pulling knowledge from the people and processes that hold it today.
• Inventory, clean up, and consolidate operational content to one trusted source of truth per topic; design the taxonomy, templates, and naming standards that keep it consistent.
• Establish and maintain governance: assign an owner and review cadence to every piece of content so it stays current and trusted.

Operational Tools (30%)

• Build the decision guides that take a manager from a problem (food quality, cost) to the cause and the fix, grounded in Sonny's menu.
• Build the daily operations and money/cost tools managers use (i.e., line checks, logs, handoffs, sales reconciliation, inventory, invoice, and P&L aids)
• Define an owner and review cadence per tool so nothing goes stale

Back-Office Systems & Recipe Management (15%)

• Maintain the back-office database, including menu item links and recipe updates.
• Keep recipe, menu, and operations database software accurate, current, and organized.
• Partner with the Director and IT on operational systems and data accuracy.

Marketing Relationship & Voice of Operations (15%)

• Own the operations relationship with marketing as partner and point of contact.
• Serve as the on-site operations presence for commercial shoots, ensuring what is shown reflects how the food and the restaurants really work.
• Represent operations in cross-functional work so the operational reality is reflected.

Culinary Partnership (10%)

• Collaborate with the chef and culinary team so recipes, methods, and food knowledge is captured accurately and represented well.

Performs other duties as assigned.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Knowledge of Sonny's brand, menu, and restaurant operations.
• Systems thinker who imposes structure on messy information and builds things that do not exist yet.
• Deep understanding of how a restaurant actually runs, ideally from having done it.
• Strong communicator who can represent operations credibly to marketing, on set, and across the business.
• Comfortable-owning both heads-down build work and outward-facing relationships.
• Project and change management skills, with the ability to guide updates, rollouts, and cross-functional process changes from planning through execution.
• Strong writing and organization; builds knowledge and tools that hold up in the field.

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management, Business, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education, experience, and training that provides the required knowledge, skills, and abilities.
• Demonstrated experience building documentation, tools, or knowledge systems from scratch.
• Comfort representing a function cross-functionally, including with marketing or creative teams.
• Hands-on restaurant or multi-unit operations experience preferred.
• Culinary or food-knowledge exposure preferred.
• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite.

Physical Demands and Working Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

While performing the duties of this job, the team member is regularly required to sit, talk, and hear, and frequently to use hands and fingers to handle or feel. This position requires the ability to occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities required include close vision.

When working in restaurants or the field, the employee is regularly required to stand for prolonged periods, handle products, tools, paperwork, and equipment, and communicate with Guests, Managers, and Team Members. The work may involve some bending, standing, or walking. Job duties are not physically strenuous. The noise level is usually moderate. Moderate travel is required in this position.