New Restaurant Opening Specialist, West

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6 days old

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New Restaurant Opening Specialist, West

As a New Restaurant Opening (NRO) Specialist, you’ll be an essential player in sweetgreen’s rapid growth, ensuring each new restaurant launch is seamless and set up for lasting success. You'll serve as the central point of contact during openings, collaborating with Area Leaders, Head Coaches, Learning & Development, and cross-functional partners to drive operational excellence. Your leadership will ensure strong stakeholder visibility, managing the transition of new restaurants from construction to operational teams, restaurant execution, vendor coordination, milestone achievement, and post-opening continuous improvement.

This is a high-travel and high-impact role that requires agility, emerging project management skills, and a passion for building high-performing restaurants & Operations teams.

Core Work Activities:

  • Pre-Opening Preparation:

    • Serve as primary coordinator and communications hub across cross-functional teams during the 4-6 week NRO timeline.

    • Assist in managing site logistics, operational setup, and vendor coordination (smallwares, food deliveries, systems install).

    • Own scheduling support for restaurant leadership teams in partnership with Area Leader and Head Coach.

    • Ensure timely execution of pre-opening milestones: turnover walks, punch list tracking, systems installs, and staffing setup.

  • Onsite Execution:

    • Provide onsite leadership for a minimum of 4 days at each opening (more as needed for new markets or formats).

    • Execute pre-opening checklists, turnover scorecards, and daily launch check-ins.

    • Troubleshoot operational blockers and coach onsite teams through best practices in systems, service, and execution.

    • Support restaurant leadership in validating staffing, training, and financial goals through hands-on partnership.

  • Post-Opening Support:

    • Report on launch performance including operational wins, risks, and customer experience highlights.

    • Lead post-mortem sessions with cross-functional teams to drive improvements in the NRO playbook and processes.

    • Recommend process changes based on field learnings to elevate future opening experiences.

    • Partner with Ops Services and Learning & Development to embed new standards into NRO toolkits.

Requirements & Skills

  • 3+ years of restaurant leadership experience, 1+ year direct New Restaurant Opening (NRO) experience preferred.

  • Interest in building a career in operations services or project management.

  • Strong financial and operational acumen, including familiarity with P&L statements, inventory, and scheduling tools (Compeat and Crunchtime preferred).

  • Ability to thrive under pressure and adapt quickly to shifting priorities

  • Outstanding communication skills, both written and verbal; comfortable influencing without authority.

  • Willingness to learn new systems, processes, and project management tools (Google Workspace, Smartsheet, Salesforce etc)

  • Able to work independently with minimal oversight, while fostering cross-team accountability.

  • Travel requirement: ~60–80% during active launch periods; flexibility for extended site support.

 

What you'll get:

  • Highly competitive pay + bonus plan
  • Three different medical plans to suit your and your family's needs
  • Dental and Vision insurance
  • Flexible PTO plan
  • 401k program
  • Employee HSA and FSA
  • Complimentary greens
  • An opportunity to make a real impact on the people around you, both by growing them and by connecting them to real food
  • To live the sweetlife and celebrate your passion + purpose
  • A collaborative team of people who live our core values and have your back
  • A clear career path with opportunities for development, both personally and professionally
  • Free sweetgreen swag

Come join the sweetlife!

About sweetgreen

sweetgreen is on a mission to build healthier communities by connecting people to real food. We passionately believe that real food should be convenient and accessible to everyone. Every day in each sweetgreen, our 3,500 team members make food from scratch, using fresh ingredients and produce delivered that morning. And in our local communities, we’re committed to leaving people better than we found them. We’re in the business of feeding people, and we’re out to change what that means.

sweetgreen provides equal opportunities for everyone that works for us and everyone that applies to join our team, without regard to sex or gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, any service, past, present, or future, in the uniformed services of the United States (military or veteran status), or any other consideration protected by federal, state, or local law.

sweetgreen participates in the federal government's E-Verify program to determine employment eligibility. To learn more about the E-Verify program, please click here.

Salary range for this role:
Starting salary range based on experience
$65,000—$92,868 USD
 
 
sweetgreen provides equal opportunities for everyone that works for us and everyone that applies to join our team, without regard to sex or gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, any service, past, present, or future, in the uniformed services of the United States (military or veteran status), or any other consideration protected by federal, state, or local law.
 
California residents: Review our applicant privacy notice HERE.
 
sweetgreen participates in the federal government's E-Verify program to determine employment eligibility. To learn more about the E-Verify program, please click here.
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