Quality Assurance Manager - Restaurants

General Manager, Operational Compliance

Location: Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)

The General Manager of Operational Compliance is a hands-on operational leader responsible for driving excellence in Food Safety, Workplace Safety, Fire Safety and Quality Assurance across all airport restaurants and markets.

Unlike a traditional restaurant General Manager, this role does not oversee a single business unit. Instead, this leader partners directly with the Operations team to strengthen execution across the airport through coaching, training, validation, and follow-up.

The position is highly visible within the operation, spending the majority of time in the field working alongside General Managers, Executive Chefs, Managers, and hourly crew members to ensure OTG's operational standards are consistently executed.

The primary objective of this role is to build a culture of safety, accountability, operational discipline, and continuous improvement through leadership presence, validation, coaching, and sustained follow-through.

In this Role you will

• Partner with Operations to ensure all locations consistently operate in compliance with OTG, Port Authority, Health Department, NSF, Property Management, and all other regulatory and company standards.
• Conduct routine operational audits, validation walkthroughs, and restaurant inspections to verify execution of Food Safety, Workplace Safety, Fire Safety, Quality Assurance, cleanliness, organization, and operational standards.
• Train, coach, and develop salaried leaders and hourly crew members on food safety, workplace safety, operational procedures, sanitation, and all compliance-related systems.
• Lead and manage follow-up on all audit findings, inspections, corrective action plans, and operational deficiencies, ensuring actions are completed on time, root causes are addressed, and improvements are sustained.
• Coordinate with Facilities, Maintenance, vendors, and cross-functional support teams to ensure repairs, equipment issues, work orders, and other operational items impacting compliance are resolved in a timely manner.
• Validate operational systems including temperature logs, sanitation practices, cleaning schedules, equipment maintenance, opening and closing procedures, safety documentation, and all other required operational records.
• Partner with restaurant leadership to prepare for and successfully execute NSF, Health Department, Port Authority, Property Management, and other operational inspections.
• Reinforce a culture of inspection readiness by ensuring locations are maintained to OTG standards every day rather than preparing only for scheduled inspections.
• Monitor compliance trends, identify recurring opportunities, and implement sustainable solutions that improve operational execution and reduce repeat findings.
• Prepare written recaps, corrective action plans, progress updates, and compliance trackers while ensuring all follow-up items are completed by their established deadlines.
• Serve as a hands-on operational resource for locations requiring additional coaching, validation, leadership support, or focused operational improvement.
• Foster a culture of organization, ownership, planning, validation, follow-through, and accountability that ensures OTG's operational standards are consistently achieved.
• Organize tracking and reporting of all projects, training and compliance

Qualifications

Degree in hospitality or culinary field is preferred

Minimum of 3 to 5 years of senior managerial experience in multi-unit concepts

1 3 years of retail experience (convenience store) a plus

Proficient knowledge of P&L budgeting and forecasting

Strong culinary background and fine dining experience are a plus

Commitment to service of customers, crew, co-workers, and management

Demonstrated dependability, personal drive, and leadership, ability to lead by example

High level of integrity, work ethic, passion, and commitment to OTG values

Ability to train, delegate, coach, and aid in the development of crewmembers

Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Must be able to work varied hours/days, nights, weekends, holidays, and during inclement weather conditions

Equal Opportunity Employer

We're proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or disability status.