ONPOINT Business Solutions is conducting a confidential, retained search on behalf of a profitable, founder-led restaurant group in Columbus, Ohio, to identify a next-stage Chief Operating Officer for their growing restaurant portfolio.
Are you the type of person who can take a growing business and engineer the operating system that brings order, consistency, and scale — naturally architecting the structure, cadence, and process behind it?
Our client currently operates six locations in the Columbus market, with a seventh opening soon and a clear runway for additional growth. The flagship concept is a high-volume neighborhood sports bar and grill with strong local sports traffic (Ohio State, March Madness, NFL, and more) and a young, community-oriented culture.
In this role, you will:
- Run the day-to-day operating platform across all current and future locations
- Architect systems, playbooks, and leadership cadence that turn the founders' vision into repeatable ways of operating
- Lead and develop director-level leaders across operations, development, culinary, and analytics
- Build accountability rhythms — 1:1s, leadership meetings, quarterly planning — that keep initiatives moving
- Design scalable people systems around hiring, onboarding, development, and succession planning
- Support new unit growth end-to-end, from planning through post-opening stabilization
- Preserve the brand's authentic, non-corporate feel while adding the discipline a larger organization needs
Required:
- Multi-unit restaurant leadership experience — ideally as a COO, VP of Operations, Regional/Multi-Unit Director, or similar, across casual dining, bar-and-grill, sports-bar, or other high-volume restaurant concepts.
This could be a strong fit if you also:
- Love building and refining operating systems, not just inheriting them
- Are comfortable in a founder-led, entrepreneurial environment where trust is high and decision-making is fast
- Can coach and develop a range of personalities while holding them to well-defined standards
- Know how to bring professionalism and structure without losing a brand's energy and local personality
Compensation is competitive and commensurate with leadership experience.
The identity of the hiring organization will be shared with qualified candidates upon our initial outreach.
Benefits:
Application Question(s):
- How many years of restaurant leadership experience do you have, and in what roles (COO, VP of Operations, Regional/Multi-Unit Director, etc.)?
- How many restaurant locations have you overseen simultaneously, and in which concept type(s) — casual dining, bar-and-grill/sports bar, fine dining, quick-service, or other?
- How many new restaurant location openings have you personally led?
- Are you located in Columbus, OH, or willing to relocate?
- Do you have experience reporting directly to restaurant founders? If so, describe.
Work Location: In person
