Area Manager (Philadelphia)

Job Description

Job Description

Reports to: Director of Operations

WHY PARIS BAGUETTE?

With a projected 1,000 cafes in the United States by 2030, Paris Baguette is one of the fastest-growing neighborhood bakery cafés in the world. Our vision is to reestablish the neighborhood bakery café as the heart of the community around the world. Paris Baguette’s mission is to bring expertly crafted baked and brewed goods through a warm and welcoming bakery café experience that delivers joy to everyone.

If you are someone who leads with heart, thrives in a community-driven environment, and is ready to support franchise owners in building thriving café businesses, we invite you to join our growing team.

Our values shape every interaction:

• Have Heart: Take pride in every product and teammate
• Spread Joy: Make each guest’s moment feel magical through our delicious baked goods
• Nourish Community: Help create the place guests—and staff—love to return to
• Rise to the Occasion: Lead the team to exceed every expectation

WHAT WE ARE HUNGRY FOR

As Area Manager, you play a critical role in supporting the success of franchise cafés within your market. You serve as a trusted advisor to franchise owners and their General Managers with coaching, guiding, and helping them understand and implement brand standards, operational best practices, and guest experience expectations.

You drive performance by sharing insights, identifying opportunities, and reinforcing the systems and tools that help franchisees improve profitability, guest satisfaction, product quality, and operational consistency.

This role supports franchisees in operating successful bakery cafés, not by managing their employees, but by equipping owners and operators with the knowledge, resources, and expertise needed to excel.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Operational Support & Brand Standards

• Serve as the primary operational resource for franchisees within the assigned market, helping them interpret and apply Paris Baguette standards.
• Conduct regular café visits to assess product quality, brand execution, guest experience, cleanliness, café upkeep, and overall operational performance.
• Provide guidance to franchisees on action plans that address operational gaps, opportunities, or compliance issues.
• Assist franchisees in understanding product handling, food safety standards, sanitation protocols, and café maintenance expectations.

Coaching & Performance Insights

• Educate franchise owners and GMs on operational best practices, business tools, and systems that support café efficiency and financial performance.
• Share data insights and dashboards to help franchisees monitor P&L drivers, inventory controls, labor forecasting, waste management, and sales opportunities.
• Offer coaching, not direction, on how to build strong café-level leadership routines and consistent guest service culture.

Training & Development Support

• Identify common training needs across franchise locations and collaborate with the Training and Development department to support delivery of resources, workshops, or refresher programs.
• Ensure franchise owners and GMs are aware of available training tools, curriculum, and onboarding guides.

Guest Experience & Community Engagement

• Monitor guest sentiment across assigned cafés and help franchise owners use feedback to improve consistency and service quality.
• Support franchisees in developing local café-level guest engagement activities that maintain brand standards.
• Provide guidance on managing guest complaints and executing recovery plans.

Business Planning & Market Growth

• Assist franchise owners in reviewing business performance trends and identifying opportunities to enhance sales, traffic, and profitability.
• Support franchisees in developing and executing localized marketing plans aligned with regional strategies and brand direction.
• Share best practices across cafés to help owners learn from each other.

Compliance Support

• Reinforce adherence to brand standards, food safety guidelines, and regulatory requirements through education and regular café evaluations.
• Provide franchise owners with resources and direction to support corrective actions where needed.

Partnership & Communication

• Maintain strong, trust-based relationships with franchise owners, acting as their primary touchpoint for operational guidance.
• Collaborate internally with cross-functional teams (Training, Marketing, Production, QC, Development, etc.) to ensure franchisees receive the support they need.
• Support franchisees during new café openings, remodels, equipment installations, and other key operational milestones.

Other

• Ability to work varying schedules including weekends, holidays, and extended hours as business needs require.
• Other responsibilities as assigned that support franchisee success and brand consistency.

WHAT YOU NEED TO HAVE

• Bachelor’s degree preferred; equivalent experience considered.
• At least 1–3 years of progressive experience in franchise operations, multi-unit retail, hospitality, or restaurant management.
• At least 1–3 years of supervisory or multi-unit experience.
• Strong understanding of café/restaurant operations, product quality standards, and guest experience fundamentals.
• Experience with POS systems; Toast experience is a plus.
• Solid grasp of inventory planning, waste control, and basic P&L understanding.
• Passion for people! Dynamic and engaged leader who has a passion for empowering, inspiring, motivating & coaching operators with direct authority.
• Exceptional organizational and communication skills with the ability to effectively balance priorities and deliver results in a fast-paced, ever-changing, and highly entrepreneurial environment.
• High emotional intelligence with the ability to work with, and manage diverse teams by being highly empathetic, intuitive, self-motivated and driven.
• Teams Win! Has to be a team player who fosters a collaborative and engaged teamwork environment.
• Being a Brand Ambassador, with an excellent knowledge of and commitment to Paris Baguette’s Mission, Vision, Brand Values and Culture.
• Love of travel! Ability to commute to all current market of locations, as well as proposed openings.

SWEET BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation
• Free Cake for your Birthday
• Medical, Dental, Vision benefits
• 401K Retirement Plan
• Paid time off, paid Holidays
• High Performance Culture