| JOB DESCRIPTION |
| The Senior Vice President leads the practice as the senior business, client, and people leader responsible for protecting the company’s reputation while building a stronger, more scalable professional-services organization. This role combines executive leadership, client stewardship, team development, operating discipline, and sufficient foodservice-design fluency to recognize risk, ask informed questions, and engage the right technical expertise. Success is measured by client confidence, team effectiveness, sound business performance, stronger systems and processes, institutionalized knowledge, and the organization’s ability to grow without dependence on any single individual. |
| DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES |
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Business & Operating Leadership – 30%
- Lead the company’s operations with clear priorities, accountability, and alignment to long-term strategy.
- Own the overall performance of the practice, including operating results, resource priorities, major client and project decisions, organizational effectiveness, and execution discipline.
- Establish practical management rhythms, metrics, reporting, and decision-making processes that create visibility and accountability across the business.
- Protect what works while implementing changes that make the organization less dependent on individual knowledge or heroics.
Client & Relationship Leadership – 25%
- Protect, strengthen, and expand relationships with key hospitality clients, architects, developers, operators, and strategic partners.
- Serve as the senior relationship executive on priority accounts and major engagements, maintaining client confidence through transitions, challenges, and complex decisions.
- Translate client needs and technical recommendations into clear business guidance, ensuring the organization remains responsive, credible, and trusted.
- Build disciplined account coverage so important relationships become institutional rather than dependent on one individual.
People & Organizational Development – 20%
- Lead, coach, and develop the company team; clarify roles, decision rights, standards, expectations, and accountability.
- Leverage the existing technical talent in the organization, placing responsibility with the people best equipped to solve the problem while remaining accountable for results.
- Build organizational depth through mentoring, succession planning, cross-training, knowledge sharing, and development of future leaders.
- Create a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and respect for the company’s heritage.
Project & Technical Oversight – 15%
- Maintain sufficient technical fluency in commercial foodservice design and project delivery to identify risk, challenge assumptions, ask informed questions, and know when deeper expertise is required.
- Provide executive oversight on significant projects, client issues, design risks, schedules, and quality concerns without becoming the primary technical producer on every engagement.
- Engage internal and external technical experts early when specialized judgment is needed and ensure their recommendations are translated into actionable direction for clients and teams.
- Remain accountable for the quality and effectiveness of the advice and service delivered by the practice.
Systems, Innovation & Growth – 10%
- Build and continuously improve scalable systems for project management, Quality Assurance/Quality Control, workflow, documentation, knowledge management, and team collaboration.
- Evaluate and implement appropriate technology and process improvements, including Revit/BIM, AI-enabled workflows, design standards, and other tools that improve quality, speed, visibility, and consistency.
- Capture institutional knowledge, relationship history, standards, and lessons learned in company-controlled systems and repeatable team practices.
- Pursue sustainable growth through stronger client relationships, deeper talent, improved capacity, and closer collaboration.
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| SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES |
| Leads the organization and is responsible for team performance, workload and resource planning, leadership development, operating cadence, and coordination with executive leadership. Direct-report structure may evolve as the organization grows. The role is expected to exercise meaningful influence over staffing priorities, budget and operating decisions, project escalation, performance management, and succession planning. |
| REQUIRED SKILLS/ABILITIES |
- Strong business leadership and executive judgment, with the ability to lead a professional-services operation through transition, modernization, and growth.
- Demonstrated ability to build scalable systems, management processes, operating disciplines, and accountability within a relationship-driven business.
- Executive-level client relationship skills and the presence to build trust with sophisticated hospitality clients, architects, developers, operators, and partners.
- Strong people leadership, coaching, organizational-development, and succession-planning capabilities.
- Sound financial and operational acumen, including the ability to understand business performance, resource tradeoffs, project economics, and organizational priorities.
- Sufficient technical fluency in commercial kitchens, foodservice design, hospitality design/construction, or a closely related field to recognize risk, ask informed questions, and engage appropriate expertise.
- Ability to lead complex projects and decisions without personally becoming the technical bottleneck or primary producer on every engagement.
- Strong written and verbal communication, facilitation, negotiation, problem-solving, and presentation skills.
- Comfort with technology-enabled change and process improvement; familiarity with Revit/BIM, Bluebeam, project-management platforms, AI-enabled workflows, or comparable systems is valuable.
- Ability to collaborate effectively across design, project management, estimating, procurement, sales, installation, finance, and executive leadership.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Leadership experience in foodservice consulting, hospitality design, architecture/engineering, construction, professional services, or another complex project-based environment.
- Experience leading an established founder- or expert-led business through succession, process improvement, or organizational scaling.
- Experience in the hospitality, resort, casino, restaurant, architecture, development, or construction community.
- FCSI membership/certification or deep commercial foodservice-design experience is valuable but is not required if the candidate can credibly lead technical professionals and clients.
- Experience integrating new systems, technology, QA/QC, project-management practices, or knowledge-management processes into an existing organization.
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| EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE |
- 10+ years of progressively responsible leadership experience in a complex, client-facing, project-based business strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience leading teams, improving operating performance, developing talent, strengthening client relationships, and implementing scalable systems or processes.
- Experience in foodservice consulting, hospitality, architecture, engineering, construction, design, professional services, or a related environment strongly preferred; direct commercial-kitchen design experience is advantageous but not required.
- Bachelor’s degree in business, hospitality, architecture, design, engineering, construction management, or a related field preferred; equivalent relevant leadership and industry experience will be considered.
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