General Manager - Coffee Shop

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced, entrepreneurial, and hospitality-driven General Manager to lead the launch, daily operation, and long-term growth of a UCF campus-based kosher café concept. The role includes helping prepare for opening and then assuming full General Manager responsibility for the permanent brick-and-mortar café once it opens.

This is a hands-on leadership opportunity for someone who can build systems, develop people, deliver excellent service, and help shape a new food-service operation from the ground up. The ideal candidate combines café, restaurant, catering, or hospitality management experience with strong operational discipline, financial awareness, staff leadership, and a commitment to kosher standards.

What You’ll Lead

• Café pre-opening support: Partner with leadership on layout, workflow, equipment, vendors, menu testing, training materials, opening procedures, and launch readiness.
• Café management: Oversee front-of-house and back-of-house operations, staffing, scheduling, training, ordering, cost controls, compliance, and service standards.
• Campus engagement: Create a welcoming student-centered environment and collaborate with UCF Hillel leadership, student groups, and campus partners on programming, events, and community-building opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day operations for the permanent café once open.
• Maintain strong standards for hospitality, speed of service, food quality, cleanliness, organization, and customer experience.
• Create and refine operating procedures, opening and closing checklists, training guides, cleaning schedules, inventory systems, and reporting routines.
• Recruit, hire, train, schedule, coach, and supervise student and non-student team members.
• Uphold all kosher standards, supervision requirements, ingredient guidelines, food-handling procedures, storage practices, and service protocols.
• Ensure compliance with health department regulations, sanitation standards, food-safety practices, workplace safety expectations, and required certifications.
• Manage ordering, receiving, par levels, inventory rotation, waste reduction, food cost control, labor usage, vendor relationships, and product consistency.
• Track sales, product mix, customer feedback, labor, expenses, inventory, and other key performance indicators; provide regular updates and recommendations to leadership.
• Support menu development, pricing recommendations, product testing, allergen awareness, labeling practices, and speed-of-service improvements.
• Develop sales-driving strategies through campus partnerships, loyalty initiatives, promotions, special events, catering opportunities, and student engagement.

Qualifications

• At least three years of experience in food service, café, coffee shop, restaurant, catering, hospitality, retail food, or related operations.
• Proven ability to manage daily operations, lead teams, solve problems, and maintain high standards in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience opening, launching, scaling, or significantly improving a food-service concept strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of inventory management, ordering, labor scheduling, vendor relations, food cost control, and basic financial reporting.
• Familiarity with kosher food-service operations, kosher supervision, or Jewish communal environments preferred; willingness and ability to learn and strictly follow kosher standards required.
• Knowledge of food safety, sanitation, health department requirements, and safe workplace procedures.
• Excellent leadership, communication, coaching, organization, and customer-service skills.
• Comfortable in a startup-style environment where systems are being developed, priorities may shift, and the General Manager must be willing to wear multiple hats.
• Commitment to creating a safe, vibrant, welcoming, and inclusive student-centered space.
• ServSafe Manager certification or equivalent food-safety certification preferred, or willingness to obtain certification if required.

Compensation

• Full-time starting salary $75,000+ annually, based on experience.