Operational Lead (Culinary)

teamshares · Remote

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Role at a Glance

Teamshares embeds Operational Leads directly into its employee-owned food and beverage businesses to fix menus, tighten margins, and stabilize kitchens. Expect 70–75%+ travel, hands-on floor work, and interim-president duties when required. No salary range is disclosed. Equity and full benefits are included. Best suited to a culinary professional who reads a P&L as naturally as a recipe card.

What This Role Does

This is a field-intensive position embedded inside Teamshares' portfolio of small, employee-owned restaurants and food service operations. You'll arrive at a struggling or transitioning company, diagnose its menu economics and kitchen workflows, and implement real changes — on the line, not in a slide deck. When a portfolio company needs stronger leadership continuity, you step into an acting-president seat. The right candidate moves fluidly between adjusting prep systems and dissecting contribution-margin data, treating both as the same problem viewed from different angles.

About Teamshares

Teamshares acquires profitable small businesses — typically from owners nearing retirement — and converts them into employee-owned enterprises rather than flipping them. Founded in 2019, the company now manages subsidiaries spanning more than 40 industries across 30 states, with combined revenue above $400 million. Its model distinguishes it from conventional private equity: the intent is permanent stewardship, not an exit. Every employee earns company stock. Food and beverage is a meaningful vertical within the portfolio, and this role sits at the center of keeping those businesses operationally healthy and financially viable.

What You'll Own

  • Diagnose underperforming menus, kitchen workflows, and food cost structures at Teamshares portfolio companies and implement targeted improvements
  • Lead operational turnarounds for food and beverage businesses, converting financial analysis into concrete, on-the-floor operational changes
  • Develop and engineer menu updates with clear attention to recipe costing, food cost percentage, and contribution margin outcomes
  • Work as a co-management partner alongside on-site company presidents, providing culinary and operational expertise without displacing existing leadership
  • Assume interim president responsibilities at network companies when leadership continuity is needed during transitions
  • Oversee P&L, COGS, and labor cost data, translating those numbers into actionable culinary and staffing decisions
  • Stabilize kitchen and front-of-house teams during periods of change, building confidence among employee-owners

Must-Have Qualifications

  • Substantive culinary background in a scratch kitchen environment — chef, kitchen manager, culinary director, or a comparable title
  • Demonstrated track record of menu development, engineering, and costing, including working knowledge of recipe costing and food cost percentage
  • Ability to read and act on P&L statements, COGS reports, and labor cost analysis — at the level of a business owner, not just a department head
  • Proven experience leading kitchen or restaurant teams through operational challenges
  • Availability and willingness to travel 70–75%+ of the time across Teamshares' multi-state portfolio
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills with a low-ego, collaborative approach to co-management situations
  • Entrepreneurial orientation and a demonstrable history of driving operational change rather than advising from a distance
  • Project management discipline paired with a hands-on, get-it-done execution style

Differentiators That Strengthen Your Profile

  • Prior experience stepping into interim executive or general manager roles during business transitions
  • Background onboarding acquired companies into a parent organization or holding company network
  • Comfort with ambiguity and rapid context-switching across different business types and culinary formats
  • Demonstrated growth mindset — specifically a habit of iterating on failures rather than avoiding them

Skills Breakdown: Must-Have vs. Differentiators

The non-negotiable core is culinary depth plus financial fluency in the same person — recipe costing, food cost percentage, and P&L literacy are all explicit requirements. People leadership is equally critical: the ability to calm anxious kitchen crews and function as a genuine co-management partner, not a consultant who issues memos. The differentiating traits — creative adaptability, comfort with interim authority, and a genuine growth mindset — elevate competitive candidates. No specific experience threshold is stated, but the scope of responsibility (full P&L ownership, interim president authority, cross-company turnarounds) maps to seasoned culinary and operations professionals.

Compensation & Salary

Teamshares has not published a salary range for this position. The company describes its pay as competitive, and the benefits package is clearly defined — see the Benefits section below. No salary figure or range is estimated here. Candidates are encouraged to ask about the compensation range directly during the initial screening call. Given Teamshares' employee-ownership model, equity participation is a stated component of total compensation for all employees, not just senior hires — meaning the full picture extends beyond base pay.

Benefits

  • Company equity for all employees — a core feature of Teamshares' employee-ownership model
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance covering employees and their families
  • Paid parental leave
  • Work-life balance culture with a genuine expectation that employees disconnect after hours
  • Vacation time that the company actively encourages employees to use
  • Career development support and an organizational growth mindset

Location & Work Arrangement

This role is listed as remote — there is no fixed office requirement. However, candidates should treat it as primarily field-based: 70–75%+ travel is explicitly expected, meaning on-site time at portfolio company locations across Teamshares' 30-state network will dominate the schedule. No relocation requirement is mentioned. Visa sponsorship availability is not addressed in the job listing — candidates requiring sponsorship should confirm directly with Teamshares before applying.

Frequently asked questions

How much travel does this role actually require?

The job description explicitly states 70–75%+ travel is expected. Despite being listed as remote, this is a field-based position — the majority of working time will be spent on-site at Teamshares portfolio companies across its 30-state network. Candidates should plan for this as a near-constant travel lifestyle, not occasional trips.

What does 'interim President' mean in this context?

Teamshares sometimes needs experienced operators to temporarily lead a network company while permanent leadership is established. As Operational Lead, you may be asked to serve as acting president of a portfolio business — overseeing the full operation, including non-culinary functions — until that leadership gap is filled. The job description treats this as an expected part of the role, not an exceptional circumstance.

Is culinary experience or business experience the higher priority?

Both are explicitly required and treated as inseparable. The role calls for hands-on scratch-kitchen credibility alongside financial fluency — specifically P&L management, food cost percentage, and menu costing. The framing in the job description is that you should be 'both the chef and the CEO.' Candidates who are strong on one axis but underdeveloped on the other are unlikely to be competitive.

What kinds of businesses will I be working with?

Teamshares' food and beverage portfolio companies are small, employee-owned operations typically acquired from retiring owners. These are live, working businesses — real kitchens, existing staff, active menus, and real margins under pressure. The role is not about advising early-stage concepts or managing a chain; it's about stabilizing and improving established but struggling independent food service businesses.

Does this role include equity?

Yes. Teamshares states that all employees receive company equity as part of its employee-ownership model, and this benefit is explicitly listed for this position. Equity participation appears to be a company-wide standard rather than a perk reserved for senior hires.

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