Chief Operating Officer

Berlin, Germany (On-site)

Salary: €150.000 - €200.000 + shares + kpi bonus + car

Start: ASAP

Languages: German B2 Level and English

I am working with an exciting client who are looking for a new COO who has experience in the QSR industry, if you are passionate about QSR then keep reading....

Role overview

• Senior operational leader responsible for scaling a fast-growing, multi-site restaurant business, opening new stores monthly while protecting quality, profitability and brand standards.
• Translates the CEO’s vision into clear operating strategies, structures and processes, ensuring stores run efficiently, teams are trained and empowered, and financial KPIs are achieved.

Key responsibilities

• Own day-to-day operations across all sites, working closely with the Head of Operations and store-level managers to deliver consistent guest experience, product quality and service standards.
• Design, implement and continuously improve operating guidelines, SOPs and playbooks that can scale with rapid growth (e.g.
  
  approx.
  
  one new store per month).
• Oversee store-level P&Ls: monitor sales, labour, COGS and controllables; challenge underperformance; and ensure each site meets or exceeds budgeted profit targets.
• Lead annual and monthly budgeting processes for operations; track results vs.
  
  plan and implement corrective actions quickly where needed.
• Build and standardise training frameworks for all restaurants, ensuring induction, operational, and leadership training are consistent across markets (currently around 720 team members in Germany).
• Create and enforce clear structures for handling operational requests from stores (maintenance, staffing, menu, marketing), ensuring prioritisation, ownership and timely completion.
• Partner with People/HR to support recruitment and succession planning for GMs and operations leaders, fostering a strong ownership mentality in every store.
• Set and monitor KPIs for operations (e.g.
  
  sales, EBITDA, labour %, mystery guest, NPS, speed of service, food safety scores) and drive continuous improvement.
• Act as main operational counterpart for other functions (Finance, Supply Chain, Marketing, Development), aligning on new store openings, menu changes and promotional campaigns.
• Report directly to the CEO/founders, providing regular updates on operational performance, risks and opportunities, and participating in strategic decision-making.

Profile & requirements

• Several years’ experience in senior operations leadership (e.g.
  
  COO, Operations Director, Regional Director) in multi-unit, fast-casual or QSR-style restaurant concepts; strong preference for pure restaurant/retail background rather than classic hotel operations.
• Demonstrated ability to scale operations quickly while maintaining quality and standards in a high-growth environment.
• Strong P&L ownership mentality, highly analytical and comfortable with unit economics, budgeting and performance dashboards.
• Hands-on, solution-oriented leader who enjoys time in stores, understands frontline realities and can translate them into pragmatic, scalable processes.
• Proven track record building and leading high-performing operations teams, including direct leadership of Head of Operations and indirect leadership of all operations managers.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise and structure a high volume of requests from multiple locations.
• Languages: German at B2/C1 level and strong English required; additional European languages are a plus.