Chief Executive Officer - Fast-Casual Restaurant Brand

Chief Executive Officer

SI Professional Search has been retained to identify the next Chief Executive Officer for a distinctive, high-growth, multi-unit fast-casual restaurant brand headquartered in New York City.

The company has built a highly differentiated consumer proposition around food quality, hospitality, atmosphere, design, and customer experience. As the organization enters its next stage of growth, it is seeking a CEO capable of significantly expanding the business while protecting the qualities that have made the brand distinctive.

This is not simply a restaurant operations role. The CEO will need to combine strong multi-unit operating discipline with a strong understanding of brand, customer behavior, hospitality, and consumer experience.

The mandate is to build a larger and more sophisticated organization without allowing growth, systems, or standardization to diminish the customer experience. That tension between scale and brand preservation is central to the position.

Compensation

• Base Salary: $275,000–$325,000
• Annual Bonus: 40%–50% of base salary
• Equity: Included as part of the overall compensation package

Final compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and overall fit for the role.

Key Responsibilities

The CEO will:

• Lead the company's overall growth strategy in partnership with the Board and senior leadership team.
• Serve as the senior steward of the brand and customer experience.
• Develop a deep understanding of the company's customers, including what drives loyalty, frequency, and brand affinity.
• Lead disciplined expansion into new locations and geographic markets.
• Build a repeatable model for growth while preserving the individuality and customer experience of each location.
• Drive operational excellence across the restaurant portfolio, including labor, food quality, service, safety, and restaurant-level profitability.
• Balance unit growth with comparable-store performance, customer loyalty, brand strength, and sustainable profitability.
• Own overall company performance, including revenue growth, restaurant-level economics, EBITDA, cash flow, and return on invested capital.
• Partner with finance leadership on planning, forecasting, reporting, and capital allocation.
• Build, develop, and retain a leadership team capable of supporting a substantially larger organization.
• Strengthen field leadership, talent development, succession planning, and organizational accountability.
• Remain highly visible in restaurants and connected to employees and customers.
• Partner closely with marketing and creative leadership to maintain brand differentiation as the company grows.
• Use customer data, loyalty, digital ordering, and technology to improve customer understanding, frequency, and engagement.
• Work effectively with the founder, Board, and other key stakeholders.

These responsibilities track directly to the brand/customer, growth, restaurant operations, people, financial performance, and digital/customer-engagement mandate in the position specification.

Candidate Profile:

Fast-casual restaurant leadership experience is required.

Strong candidates will bring:

• Significant CEO, President, COO, or comparable senior operating leadership experience.
• Meaningful leadership experience within the fast-casual restaurant sector .
• Experience scaling a multi-unit restaurant organization.
• A track record of opening new locations and entering new geographic markets.
• Strong understanding of consumer behavior, brand positioning, hospitality, and customer experience.
• Demonstrated ability to introduce operating discipline without over-standardizing a differentiated brand.
• Strong command of restaurant-level economics, P&L management, EBITDA, and capital allocation.
• Experience building senior leadership teams and organizational infrastructure to support rapid growth.
• The ability to operate comfortably across both strategic and highly detailed operating issues.
• Experience working effectively with founders, investors, and/or Boards of Directors.
• Strong people leadership and a track record of developing high-performing teams.
• A hands-on leadership style with meaningful engagement at the restaurant and field level.

The underlying profile calls for someone who is simultaneously brand-oriented and financially sophisticated, creative and disciplined, analytical and intuitive, and strategic while willing to operate in the details .

What Will Differentiate the Right Candidate

The strongest candidate will not simply have experience opening restaurants or improving margins.

This individual will have demonstrated an ability to scale a differentiated consumer experience without making it generic . They will understand where consistency creates value, where standardization can damage a brand, and how customer behavior, hospitality, operations, unit economics, marketing, and growth strategy fit together.

The role requires someone comfortable moving from a restaurant-level operating discussion to consumer and brand strategy to financial performance and Board-level capital decisions.