District Manager
Blank Street
About Blank Street:
At Blank Street, we’re on a mission to become the defining food and beverage brand of our generation. From the very beginning, we’ve set out to add a spark to ordinary experiences through elevated products, attention-to-detail, and a commitment to making every moment memorable. We’re motivated by the millions of customers we serve across cities, and know that our potential is unlimited. It all starts with our people and their commitment to make magic happen each and every day.
Like the sound of this? Keep reading.
Start Something Extraordinary…
As a District Manager at Blank Street you will oversee the financial performance and growth of a collection of retail cafes. You’ll own developing, hiring and inspiring a team of General Managers and Cafe Managers who in turn inspire and develop a team of Baristas and Shift Leads. You will oversee and role model all customer service, hospitality, team leadership and operational duties ensuring your cafes are joyful for both customers and employees.
Our Values
- DREAM BIG: We embrace new possibilities and perspectives that go beyond the expected.
- START SMALL: We don’t wait for great things to happen - we take small steps that move us forward every day.
- MAKE SOMEONE’S DAY: We live to create moments of joy.
- MOVE AS ONE: We build better when we build together because the best customer experiences takes a team.
What you'll own:
People - Deeply care for and coach your teammates
- Create a motivating and engaging culture that employees are excited to show up for
- Consistently celebrate, train, coach and mentor your team
- Step in to cover leadership scheduling gaps or time off in your locations
- Oversee the districts’ time and attendance practices
- Manage your district’s labor strategy and budget
- Hire General Managers and Cafe Managers for your district in collaboration with Regional Leadership and the People Team
- Support your General Manager’s hourly level hiring practices, guiding and supporting decision making - taking a holistic view of your talent bench
- Oversee and validate the quality of training being led by your managers
- Develop your teams in a timely manner, ensuring any performance issues are addressed quickly and fairly
- Partner with the People Team to navigate employee relations ensuring the utmost respect for our people and their experience
- Work with HQ to manage change to ensure Blank Street is continuously evolving while minimizing disruption for your team
- Work to maintain the very best team engagement scores
- Host market meetings & social events
Product - Execute our product mix flawlessly
- Be a Blank Street brand ambassador, communicate our customer and employer value propositions to customers and teammates
- Hold your management team accountable to food and beverage quality standards across your district
- Oversee or unblock ordering, vendor relations, waste management, inventory counts when needed
- Spend 30% of your week leading by example behind bar through customer service and production of technically excellent food and beverage products across your locations
Physical Space - Ensure true operational and brand excellence
- Maintain operational excellence using our auditing platform
- Ensure the safety, cleanliness and presentation of your locations in line with company policies including preparing stores for inclement weather, LTO or new menu launches
- Promote an environment that is set up for success and an “A” DOH Grade by solving any facilities, maintenance, and pest control issues quickly and efficiently across all locations
- Create a successful feedback loop between your HQ support partners and your teams on things such as: Store design, construction, maintenance, furniture, ambiance, music and other categories that impact our customer and team’s experiences in our physical spaces
Performance - Be the best at what you do
- Take ownership of your stores’ financial performance, finding areas for growth and inspire team to share the same vision across your district
- Uphold the company standard NPS and google review scores
- Develop meaningful ties with local businesses and people to help grow local brand loyalty and goodwill
- Look for ways to continuously develop your leadership, training and coaching skills
- Stay current on company tools, processes and communication
- Assess where there are gaps in communication or processes that you can fill to improve district performance
- Collaborate with other leaders across Blank Street to share best practices and build community
- Attend all trainings and department meetings designed to support your development or performance
Project - Evolve the Business
- Support the New Store Opening team when a new location is opening in your district
- Pilot new company initiatives, be seen as a trusted partner to execute new ideas, policies, practices, SOPs, equipment, recipes, ways of working and so on
- Support marketing initiatives and brand or influencer collaborations
What you'll bring
Qualifications:
- 5-6+ years of experience managing and leading operations in high growth hospitality/consumer brands
- Experience managing large hospitality teams in multi-unit or multi-department management
- Experience managing inventory and supply chain ordering
- Experienced leader having successfully managed managers before
- Ability to travel between locations in a city or broad metropolitan area
Skills:
- Passion for excellent customer service and hospitality
- Ability to be autonomous and use excellent judgment
- Excellent organizational skills
- Highly effective interpersonal and communication skills
- Ability to create workflows, systems and processes that support a dispersed team
- Comfort setting a vision and executing against company goals
- Can use emotional intelligence and conflict resolution skills to create a welcoming workplace
- Well versed in change management
- Proven training and development capabilities
- Willingness to collaborate across departments and teams
- Ability to troubleshoot and problem solve, prioritizing around urgency
- Deep understanding of business and financial acumen
Attributes:
- Hands on and highly action-oriented
- Deep knowledge and interest in specialty coffee, hospitality, restaurants or retail
- Positive, enthusiastic and results driven
- Passionate people leader and developer
- Interested in continuous personal growth
Availability Requirements:
Full Time: 40-50 hours per week, 5 days of availability required and must be available to work 2 peak days (usually weekend days, weekend as described as Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Perks:
- Competitive compensation
- 15 days of paid annual leave (on top of company-observed holidays and sick time)
- Three health plan options, with full coverage available for two employee-only tiers.
- Commuter benefits
- Parental leave
- Bereavement leave
- Exclusive access to our coveted Regulars program – yes, that means free coffee, matcha and more! ☕️
- Regular social outings with the team
- Free Blank Street swag