Hospitality and Team Development Leader

The Hospitality & Team Development Leader strengthens people, leadership, training, and hospitality culture across Gracie’s and Ellie’s.

This is a hospitality leadership and team-development position first. The primary focus is on creating exceptional onboarding experiences, developing our people, building strong leaders, and ensuring that the standards, values, and hospitality philosophy of Gracie’s and Ellie’s are consistently taught, understood, and lived.

The ideal person genuinely loves hospitality and people. They are a teacher, coach, mentor, and trusted partner to our leadership teams. They are highly visible within the restaurants, understand the realities of service, and know how to turn expectations and standards into practical training that teams can understand and embrace.

This person will help create an environment where people feel welcomed, well trained, supported, challenged, and inspired to grow.

They will help us build a culture where great hospitality starts with developing great people.

• Be a visible and engaged presence across Gracie’s and Ellie’s.
• Build strong relationships with team members and leaders.
• Help reinforce the hospitality philosophy, values, and standards of both businesses.
• Partner with operational leaders to ensure our standards are consistently understood and practiced.
• Observe the guest experience and team interactions and identify opportunities for coaching and development.
• Help create a culture of warmth, accountability, professionalism, and genuine hospitality.
• Recognize team members who exemplify our values and hospitality standards.
• Serve as a trusted coach and resource for team members at all levels.
• Help identify what makes each business special and ensure those qualities are intentionally passed on to new generations of team members.

A primary responsibility of this position is creating an exceptional, consistent onboarding experience for every new team member.

• Develop and maintain a thoughtful onboarding process for both businesses.
• Create a welcoming introduction to Gracie’s and Ellie’s culture, values, standards, and expectations.
• Develop clear role-specific onboarding plans.
• Establish structured 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-ins.
• Partner with department leaders to ensure new team members receive the training and support they need to succeed.
• Ensure new employees understand not only what we do, but why we do it.
• Regularly evaluate and improve the onboarding experience based on feedback and observations.
• Help new team members build relationships and feel connected to the larger team.

A significant responsibility of this position will be creating a more intentional, consistent, and ongoing approach to training and development throughout Gracie’s and Ellie’s.

• Develop and maintain training programs for both businesses.
• Create structured new-hire training and role-specific learning plans.
• Partner with operational leaders to document standards and create practical training tools.
• Develop ongoing education rather than relying solely on initial onboarding.
• Identify skill gaps and create training programs to address them.
• Lead or facilitate service, hospitality, communication, and leadership training.
• Develop opportunities for cross-training and continued learning.
• Create development paths for team members who want to grow within the organization.
• Help identify team members with leadership potential and create opportunities for them to develop.
• Ensure that our hospitality philosophy, service standards, and expectations are consistently taught and reinforced.
• Help turn the knowledge and experience of our strongest team members into teachable systems and training.

• Develop training specifically for leaders, including giving and receiving feedback, coaching team members, having difficult conversations, communication, conflict resolution, accountability, delegation, developing future leaders, and creating strong team culture.
• Conduct regular leadership development conversations.
• Coach leaders in how to lead with both empathy and accountability.
• Help leaders become better teachers and coaches.
• Help leaders build confidence in addressing performance and team issues.
• Identify emerging leaders within the organization and create development opportunities.
• Assist with succession planning for key roles.
• Help create a leadership culture where leaders develop other leaders.

• Help leaders establish clear expectations for their teams.
• Develop a consistent approach to coaching and performance conversations.
• Create development plans when additional coaching or support is appropriate.
• Encourage leaders to address concerns early rather than allowing them to grow.
• Help create a culture where accountability and compassion exist together.
• Partner with leadership on documentation when performance or employee concerns require formal follow-up.

• Protect and strengthen the culture of Gracie’s and Ellie’s.
• Maintain a visible, approachable presence in both businesses.
• Regularly connect with team members and leaders to understand morale, challenges, and opportunities.
• Identify patterns affecting retention, engagement, or performance.
• Help improve communication between team members, leaders, and ownership.
• Support recognition and appreciation initiatives.
• Create opportunities for team connection, learning, and celebration.
• Help ensure that as the businesses evolve, the qualities that make Gracie’s and Ellie’s special are intentionally preserved.

HR responsibilities will support the primary focus of this position but will not define it.

• Partner with leadership on employee relations and performance concerns when needed.
• Maintain appropriate employee documentation and records.
• Support consistent application of company policies and expectations.
• Partner with ownership and appropriate resources regarding employment compliance.
• Assist with benefits, workers’ compensation, unemployment, leaves of absence, and other employee-related matters as needed.
• Support payroll and other administrative processes as appropriate.
• Help ensure HR systems and documentation are organized and accurate.

This role supports leaders rather than becoming the person who manages every people issue for them.

• Partner with ownership and senior leadership to evaluate organizational needs.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen roles, responsibilities, and leadership structures.
• Evaluate staffing and leadership needs as the business grows and changes.
• Identify high-potential team members and create development plans.
• Build succession plans for important positions.
• Provide thoughtful recommendations regarding retention, development, organizational structure, and team strategy.

• New employees receive a warm, consistent, and thoughtful onboarding experience.
• Team members understand what is expected of them and why it matters.
• Training is structured, practical, documented, and ongoing.
• Hospitality standards are taught and reinforced consistently.
• Leaders become stronger coaches and teachers.
• Team members feel supported and see opportunities for growth.
• Strong performers can envision a future within the organization.
• Emerging leaders are identified and intentionally developed.
• We address performance concerns early and appropriately.
• The leadership pipeline becomes stronger.
• Our culture becomes more intentional without becoming overly corporate.
• Gracie’s and Ellie’s hospitality standards remain strong as the businesses evolve.

• Genuinely loves hospitality and developing people.
• Understands that hospitality is a people business.
• Is an exceptional teacher, coach, and mentor.
• Has strong emotional intelligence and builds trust quickly.
• Is comfortable leading a room, facilitating training, and engaging a team.
• Is equally comfortable working alongside a server, bartender, cook, manager, or owner.
• Can balance empathy with accountability.
• Is passionate about creating exceptional team experiences.
• Is curious, observant, and always looking for ways to improve people and teams.
• Understands the importance of being present and engaged in the restaurants.
• Can translate expectations and standards into practical, memorable training.
• Is organized and can create structure without making the organization feel overly corporate.
• Is proactive rather than reactive.
• Believes great leaders should develop more great leaders.
• Has the confidence to challenge existing practices when there is a better way.

• 3–5+ years of experience in hospitality, restaurant leadership, training, people development, or a related leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience training, coaching, mentoring, or developing teams.
• Hospitality, restaurant, retail, or other service-industry experience strongly preferred.
• Experience working with leadership teams and developing emerging leaders.
• Strong communication, facilitation, coaching, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively across two distinct but connected businesses.
• HR or people-operations knowledge is valuable, but a passion for hospitality and developing people is more important than traditional HR experience.

Reports to: Ownership / Leadership Team

Supports: Leadership teams and employees across Gracie’s and Ellie’s

This role is intended to be an active hospitality and leadership-development partner, not a replacement for our leaders.

Our leaders remain responsible for leading their teams. The Hospitality & Team Development Leader provides the training, coaching, tools, structure, and support they need to lead exceptionally well.

Gracie’s and Ellie’s have been built around hospitality, relationships, craftsmanship, and people.

The opportunity for this leader is to take what has historically been passed down through experience, mentorship, and institutional knowledge and turn it into a thoughtful, sustainable training and development culture without losing the warmth, individuality, and humanity that define our businesses.

Ultimately, this role will help us build an organization where great people want to stay, talented people can grow, and strong leaders continue developing the next generation of hospitality leaders.