Operations Manager

The Cocktail Club Ltd; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - GBP 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent entertainment venue group in Greater London is seeking an experienced Operations Manager. You will lead a portfolio of live music venues, ensuring that brand standards are met and guests have transformative experiences. The ideal candidate will have extensive multi-site management experience and a proven track record in commercial growth within the entertainment sector. This role offers a competitive salary, a quarterly bonus scheme, and a vibrant work environment.

Benefits

Quarterly Bonus Scheme

Private Medical Insurance

Qualifications

• Previous multi-site management experience in a late-night or live music venue is essential.
• Demonstrable experience delivering commercial growth across multiple P&Ls.
• Experience supporting or leading venue openings or rebrands is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Translate brand propositions into operational realities.
• Lead operations delivery for brand flips and new openings.
• Champion live music programming that connects with audiences.

Skills

Multi-site management experience

Commercial growth expertise

Data-driven decision making

Creative leadership

Strong understanding of licensing laws

Job description

Overview

Operations Manager

£70,000 + Quarterly Bonus Scheme + Private Medical

As Operations Manager, you’ll be the brand in motion; the person who turns strategy decks and brand ambitions into living, breathing, nightly reality. You’ll lead a portfolio of live-music and entertainment-led venues, championing operational performance, culture, and guest experience while also shaping how our brands evolve in the real world.

You’ll be a key architect in Nightcap’s growth story: brand flips, new site rollouts, investment projects, programming formats, and concept evolutions will all sit inside your orbit. You’ll collaborate with Brand Marketing on development work, not to own brand direction, but to ensure ideas are operationally executable, commercially intelligent, scalable, and thrilling to guests. You’ll become a custodian of brand standards, seeing them as a living document rather than a rulebook, and adapting them in partnership with central teams as we learn, grow, and try new things.

You’ll create the conditions for brave leadership: boldness without recklessness, experimentation with accountability, a willingness to try new things and a commitment to learning what worked (or didn’t). With you in the mix, our venues won’t just operate well… they’ll feel alive.

Key Responsibilities

Brand & Concept Execution

• Translate brand propositions into operational reality; ensure teams know not just what to do, but why it matters
• Partner with Brand Marketing to test, refine and operationalise brand evolutions, campaigns, menus, identity pieces and in-venue activations
• Own and evolve the Brand Standards Playbook, ensuring operational feasibility, consistent execution, and continual refresh as the brand matures
• Act as an early voice of real-world feedback into brand decisions: what works in venues, what needs refinement, what could be next
• Be a first mover on new brand formats and activations, piloting concepts, reviewing success, documenting learnings and scaling wins

Growth & New Openings

• Lead operations delivery for brand flips, refurbishments and new openings: systems live, brand training, standards adoption and commercial readiness on day one
• Input operational architecture into design, layout, tech setup, programme flow and service models to ensure launch success
• Build opening teams with confidence, capability and pride in the brand; support GMs to sustain momentum beyond the first 60 days

Guest & Experience

• Curate guest experiences that feel energetic, seamless and unmistakably “us”; protect the feel of the brand, not just the mechanics
• Champion live music programming/creative formats that elevate audience connection and commercial return
• Drive experience consistency while empowering local teams to explore calibrated creativity that fits their city and crowd

Leadership & Culture

• Lead General Managers with clarity, direction and inspiration; make bold expectations feel exciting, not daunting
• Foster a culture where innovation is celebrated, failures are debriefed not punished, and learning is the currency
• Create confident leaders who can deliver the night without constant escalation

Commercial & Operational

• Discover trading opportunities by reading data like a compass: labour deployment, programming ROI, guest patterns, and audience segmentation
• Align operational decisions to commercial outcomes; help teams understand how magic on the floor translates to the P&L
• Work cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, People, Compliance, Finance and Technical to remove barriers, not add process

This role is for someone who:

• Builds not just runs; you want to shape brands, not just protect them
• Thinks like a creative operator: imaginative but grounded in reality
• Sees the venue as a stage, a business, and a heartbeat - all at once
• Enjoys trying before perfecting, iterating with purpose and courage
• Knows when to take a swing and when to anchor in fundamentals
• Values diversity of crowds, ideas, music and leadership styles
• Is energised by culture, nightlife and the alchemy of great teams
• Previous multi-site management experience in a late-night, live music, or entertainment-led bar/venue environment (essential)
• Demonstrable experience delivering commercial growth across multiple P&Ls
• Experience supporting or leading venue openings, rebrands or investment projects (preferred)
• Strong remote leadership of General Managers and senior site leaders
• Comfortable with data, reporting and KPI-driven performance management
• Confident in licensing law, compliance, venue security frameworks and safe-guarding best practice
• Commercially curious with a creative streak; spots opportunities others miss