The Company
Our client is a leading hospitality partner to a major cultural and visitor destination in the South East. This flagship site attracts significant footfall year round and features a diverse hospitality operation including multiple food and beverage outlets, retail dining spaces, seasonal pop ups, conferences and curated events. With an annual turnover of around eight million pounds, the business is focused on exceptional guest experience, operational excellence and continuous innovation.
As the site gears up for a busy peak season, there is a need for a strong commercial leader who can guide the team, shape the strategy and drive performance across all areas.
The Role
As Account Director, you will be the senior leader responsible for the overall performance of the venue’s hospitality business. Your direct reports will include the Executive Chef, Head of Operations and Finance Manager, giving you oversight of all culinary, operational and financial delivery across the estate.
You will take full ownership of the P&L, ensuring robust forecasting, control of costs, strong revenue performance and accurate monthly reporting. You will lead on compliance, health and safety, guest experience, sales growth and commercial development, identifying opportunities across retail, events and partnerships.
A key part of the role is developing the operation strategically. You will shape and implement improvement plans, support marketing activity, strengthen client relationships and use guest insight to refine the offer.
People leadership is central. You will drive a high performance culture, ensure strong communication, oversee performance management and champion engagement, development, wellbeing and inclusion across the team. You will establish clear operational rhythm, ensure standards are upheld and maintain a visible presence across the venue.
This is a hands on, commercially focused role requiring excellent organisation, calm decision making and the ability to lead a multi skilled operation with confidence.
The Candidate
You will be an experienced operator from a contract catering background, with a proven track record of leading high volume, multi outlet or multi site environments. You will bring full P&L accountability and the ability to manage an eight million pound business with clarity, structure and pace.
Hands on and operationally strong, you will have a deep understanding of foodservice, customer flow, financial levers and the delivery of consistent quality. You will be confident making commercial decisions, managing seasonal peaks and setting strong expectations across a large team.
A skilled communicator, you will build trusted relationships with stakeholders at all levels and will understand the demands of working within a large, multifaceted visitor destination. You will be proactive, improvement focused and capable of inspiring and supporting your team through clear leadership.
This role suits someone grounded, commercially driven and passionate about delivering an exceptional guest experience while leading a flagship operation for a respected hospitality organisation.