General Manager

General Manager @ Waverley Social Club (new opening)

Salary: £44,000 £46,000 DOE + bonus
Location: Waverley Mall, Edinburgh

Working week: 45 hours over 5 days, weekends essential
Start date: May 2025 (TBC)

Norlin Live Operations are a Venue, Event & Festival Group, comprising of Field Vision Bars & Central Fusion. We deliver established venues such as Dalston Roofpark and Drumsheds, as well as festivals such as TRNSMT, Boomtown & Kendal Calling.

Field Vision Bars will be opening a new site in the centre of Edinburgh in April 2025. Waverley Social Club, an exciting new venue next to Waverley Station that is poised to become Edinburghs premier destination for both daytime and evening trade. A stylish and welcoming space with an initial capacity of 475 (220 seated), the venue aims toofferlocals, tourists, and business travellers a perfect spot to gather and unwind in the heart of Edinburgh's major transportation hub.

We are seeking a dynamic General Manager to launch and operate the venue, comprising of a bar and kitchen with an all-day feel-good dining experience built around delicious, simple dishes and fantastic coffee, and 2 bookable meeting/private dining rooms.

Leading our team and creating a premium environment for working, meeting, relaxing, and networking. The ideal candidate will share our vision of making Waverley Social Club a vibrant cornerstone of the Edinburgh community, fostering a collaborative and transformative experience for all. Inspired by the rich history of our location, we are committed to embracing new ideas and innovative ways of working.

Reporting into the Venue Director, the General Manager will be responsible for the daily operations, financial reporting and strategic decision making. You will maintain budgets, follow operational policies, licensing objectives and lead your team from the front.

Prior to the venue opening, you will support on the venue build, health and safety compliance, licensing compliance, pre-opening checklists, menu design and recruitment of a whole new team with the support of our wider Head Office team. You will build an operational strategy to maximise sales within the venue, reduce queue times and adjust bar offerings to optimise profitability, taking customer demographics, anticipated sales patterns beverage trends into consideration. You should be commercially minded and have proven experience in new site openings, consistently delivering a fantastic guest and staff experience.

Youll be someone who genuinely cares about their working environment and has strong commercial thinking, has a solid understanding of licensing objectives and procedures, is detail orientated and has a passion for our industry. You will bring a positive, can-do attitude to work every day and lead your team from the front.

Key Responsibilities:

• Budget management & reporting
• Rota management within budget constraints
• Team management & strong leadership skills
• Stock management and control
• Licensing compliance
• Knowledge of organisational effectiveness, efficiency, and ops management
• Working confidently in collaboration with stakeholders and senior leadership teams, and excellent at building relationships

The Specifics:
Business Requirements & Financial Reporting

• Execute budgets, forecasting and cost controls
• Responsible for onsite spending, including stock and staffing
• Forming accurate projections for financial performance
• Reporting of week-end financials to the Venue Director
• Maintain data of product levels, sales trends and peak operating times to adjust rotas and stock holding levels as required
• Hold weekly team meetings / debriefs to identify areas of improvement
• Maximise operational profitability by seeking opportunities to increase sales, managing inventory effectively, and controlling materials / wage costs.

Venue Management

• Maintain full knowledge of all inner workings of the venue, including vendors and offerings.
• Deliver optimum stock levels against sales, inventory costs and budget.
• Oversee kitchen team, holding them accountable for all H&S, food safety and compliance requirements
• Maintaining strong relationships with security, staffing suppliers and other key stakeholders
• Communicating changes in processes to all relevant parties
• Management of all suppliers and stock management on-site
• Ensuring all venue technology is in working order, including beer tech, Square & HR systems
• Ensuring all Company policies, standards, initiatives and requirements relating to the operation are upheld, including licensing objectives, food & hygiene, and H&S
• Overseeing the timely return and completion of paperwork, ensuring it is being correctly completed by all departments and suppliers.
• Reporting any concerns regarding unsafe work practices for employees and advising RIDDOR accidents and EHO visits to the Venue Director.

Our Team - People & Staffing

• Ensure the operational team conduct shift briefings to keep everyone informed of developments and changes daily.
• Work closely with the Group Head of People to build an opening team and ensure the rota is to budget, staffing levels support efficient operations, and any new recruits are in the right roles for optimal performance
• Establish and consistently strive for the highest standard of staff performance and holding agencies accountable where standards are not met
• Promote from within where possible and be a proud ambassador of our Company culture, creating a warm, inclusive and welcoming working environment.
• A natural leader, you will confidently lead from the front, supporting and uplifting staff members who may be new or in training.
• Ensure the success of your operational teams through leading positively by example. Set targets with clear standards and timescales.
• Motivate by inspiring extraordinary efforts - encourage and coach your team to successfully achieve. Recognise and share in your teams success!
• Manage staffing procedures, HR processes and team performance with support from the Group Head of People.
• Delivering training where a skills gap is identified to upskill our in-house team.
• Maintaining safe working conditions for all employees and a healthy, enjoyable working environment

You must have:

• Min. 3 years of Venue Management in a food & beverage environment
• Min. 3 years of experience in managing full site budgets
• Personal Licence
• Experience with new venue openings or extensive refurbs
• Excellent communication skills
• Cellar Management experience
• Ability to facilitate staff and stakeholder meeting
• Ability to work under your own initiativ
• Confidence & competence with Microsoft Office, G-Suite, particularly Excel & Google Sheets
• Confidence and willingness to make decisions and able to present the rationale driving them as the senior decision maker on site
• Ability to identify, prioritise and resolve problems
• Natural leadership skill
• Flexible and agile approach to work, able to respond to rapid changes

Work Perks/Benefits

• Once the venue is open, settled & operations allow, the management team will have 1 full weekend off per month wherever possible.
• Discretionary annual bonus based on personal & Company performance.
• 30 days holiday (inclusive of Bank Holidays)
• Private health insurance (eligible upon completion of probation)
• Employee assistance programme (eligible upon completion of probation)
• Life assurance (eligible upon completion of probation)
• Personal Accident Cover (eligible upon completion of probation)
• Income Protection (eligible upon completion of probation)
• TOIL for additional days worked.
• Enhanced sick pay.
• Enhanced maternity/paternity leave
• Enhanced miscarriage and baby loss leave.
• Paid volunteer leave

Interview Process:

1st Stage - Video call with our Group Head of People

2nd Stage In person interview with our Venue Director at the site

3rd Stage Interview with our Board of Directors