General Manager — Cocktail Bars, Nightlife & Pub Operations
Raleigh, North Carolina
Full-Time | In-Person
Base Salary: $65,000–$72,000 + Performance Bonuses + Operating Partner Path
We Are Looking for a Real Operator
A Raleigh-based hospitality group is seeking a skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable General Manager to oversee and drive the success of three established bar outlets.
The concepts are distinct but complementary:
* A mid-century inspired classic cocktail and event space
* An intimate/speakeasy classic cocktail concept
* An established pub built around sports, events, music, community, and high-volume service
The successful candidate will report directly to and work with ownership to take responsibility for the day-to-day leadership, financial performance, team development, and continued evolution of all three outlets.
This is not a position for someone who simply writes schedules, fills shifts, and maintains the status quo.We need someone who wants to be in charge. Someone who can build competitive teams, develop strong managers and bar leads, elevate beverage programs, create incredible guest experiences, drive revenue, control costs, and translate ownership’s vision into consistent execution.
This is a hands-on leadership position with significant responsibility, real autonomy, measurable financial upside, and a potential path toward operating partnership.
The Opportunity:
These concepts have established identities, existing customer bases, valuable locations, and considerable unrealized potential. The operation is entering an important rebuilding and growth phase. We are strengthening leadership, rebuilding parts of the team, improving consistency, and preparing for a meaningful operational and marketing push.
The next General Manager will play an integral role in:
* Rebuilding and developing the management and bar teams
* Restoring accountability, urgency, and consistency
* Elevating the craft cocktail and beverage programs
* Strengthening the identity and execution of each outlet
* Driving private events, activations, sports programming, music, and nightlife
* Increasing revenue while improving labor and cost controls
* Building systems that allow three distinct concepts to perform consistently
* Helping ownership relaunch and grow the overall operation with intention
This role is best suited for someone excited by the opportunity to improve, build, and grow—not someone who needs a finished corporate machine already operating around them. You will have direct access to ownership, meaningful creative influence, existing infrastructure, and room to make a measurable impact. In return, we expect leadership, urgency, accountability, communication, financial discipline, and results.
What You Will Lead
* Full operational leadership across three bar outlets
* Recruiting, hiring, onboarding, scheduling, and retention
* Development of managers, bar leads, bartenders, servers, and support staff
* Craft cocktail execution, education, and beverage program development
* Guest experience, service standards, and hospitality culture
* Revenue growth and location-level sales performance
* Private event sales, execution, and relationship development
* Sports, nightlife, music, promotional, and community programming
* Labor planning, scheduling efficiency, and payroll control
* Beverage ordering, inventory, variance, waste, and comp controls
* Atmosphere, lighting, music, energy, and overall concept delivery
* Cleanliness, maintenance, opening, closing, and operating standards
* Weekly financial reporting, forecasting, and communication with ownership
* Implementation of clear systems and accountability
* Leadership during peak service, major events, and relaunch initiatives
* Coordination between the outlets while protecting each brand’s identity
This is a multi-concept position, but it is not intended to be a one-person show. A major part of the job will be identifying, developing, and managing strong supporting leaders who can execute within each outlet.
Our Philosophy:
- This is a people-oriented business. Put people first.
- Create awesome and truly memorable experiences for our guests.
- Never settle and never stop improving. Good today. Better tomorrow.
- Be easy to work with and thoughtful in how you work.
-Communicate, overcommunicate, and then communicate some more.
-Develop talent from within and build a culture of constant improvement.
-Pay attention. Be thoughtful. Be kind. Be yourself.
-Make Things Better. Period!
What We Are Looking For
The ideal candidate will have:
* Five or more years of direct hospitality experience
* Three or more years as a General Manager, Assistant General Manager, Beverage Manager, Director, and/or senior hospitality operator
* Significant experience in cocktail-driven bars, nightlife, pubs, high-volume venues, or trend-forward restaurants
* Strong knowledge of craft cocktails, spirits, beverage service, and staff training
* Proven success recruiting, developing, and retaining talented teams
* The ability to develop managers and delegate without losing accountability
* The confidence to lead visibly from the floor during high-volume service
* Experience improving revenue rather than merely maintaining operations
* Strong knowledge of labor, inventory, beverage cost, forecasting, and P&L performance
* Experience with private events, promotions, activations, entertainment, or sports programming
* Strong communication, organization, urgency, and follow-through
* The ability to manage multiple concepts and a significant number of moving parts
* The maturity to work directly with ownership while independently leading the operation
Experience in respected, bartender-founded, chef-founded, award-recognized, corporate, or multi-unit hospitality organizations is strongly preferred.
Experience in major, competitive, or trend-forward hospitality markets is also highly valued.
The Leadership Standard
We want someone who:
* Takes ownership of outcomes
* Leads by example
* Recruits before the operation becomes desperate
* Builds strong leaders underneath them
* Trains consistently—not only when something goes wrong
* Holds people accountable without creating unnecessary drama
* Recognizes problems early and acts quickly
* Understands that atmosphere and hospitality are operational responsibilities
* Tracks numbers and knows what they mean
* Can balance creativity with profitability
* Brings solutions instead of explanations
* Is comfortable carrying meaningful responsibility
* Wants to build a home, a team, and a long-term future
The right person will look to ownership for vision, then take responsibility for turning that vision into action.
Compensation and Long-Term Growth
* Base salary of $65,000–$72,000, depending on experience
* Clearly defined performance bonuses tied to revenue, profitability, labor, inventory, team development, and operational execution
* Realistic opportunity to earn near or above six figures through exceptional performance
* Direct access to ownership and meaningful influence over three established concepts
* Opportunity to expand into broader group-level operational leadership
* Defined path toward profit participation and potential operating partnership based on sustained results
We expect a great deal from our leadership team.
We also believe the person who creates meaningful growth and profitability should participate in the value they help create.
The partnership opportunity is real, but it will be earned through leadership, performance, trust, and sustained results.
Why This Role Is Different
This position offers more than a traditional single-location GM role.
You will have the opportunity to:
* Lead three different hospitality experiences
* Build and develop a strong supporting leadership team
* Shape craft cocktail, nightlife, sports, music, and event programming
* Help relaunch and reposition established concepts
* Participate directly in revenue and profit growth
* Work closely with ownership rather than through layers of corporate management
* Build toward broader leadership and a genuine operating partner opportunity
* See the direct financial and cultural impact of your decisions
This will be demanding. It will require resilience, urgency, creativity, financial discipline, and exceptional leadership.
It also offers the right operator the opportunity to take meaningful control of an established hospitality platform, build an excellent team, drive considerable growth, and be rewarded for making it successful.
Physical and Scheduling Requirements
* Availability to work evenings, weekends, holidays, and peak operating periods
* Ability to stand and move for extended periods
* Ability to lift and carry up to approximately 44 pounds
* Ability to work in environments where noise, lighting, temperature, and humidity vary
* Ability to safely operate standard restaurant and bar equipment
To Apply
Please submit your resume and a brief note explaining:
* Your experience leading cocktail, nightlife, pub, or multi-concept hospitality operations
* A venue, team, or business you helped improve
* How you recruit, train, and retain high-performing employees
* How you have contributed to revenue growth and profitability
* Why this opportunity interests you
Qualified candidates will receive additional information about the individual concepts during the interview process.
Please apply directly through this posting or email your materials to [email protected].
We are looking for someone who wants more than another management position.
Maybe we are looking for you.
Maybe you are looking for us.
Let’s link up and make something exceptional happen.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate based on race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, disability, or any other status protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: $63,111.58 - $69,324.44 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Employee discount
- Flexible schedule
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Paid training
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
