Carrabba's VPO, Operations and Training Excellence

Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, and reporting to the President of Carrabba’s Italian Grill, the VPO, Operations and Training Excellence provides enterprise leadership for restaurant operations, field execution, strategic initiatives, testing, and training. This executive is accountable for strengthening sales and profitability, consistently achieving operational standards, elevating guest experience, and building high-performing leadership and restaurant teams.

The role leads Market Vice Presidents and the operations and training teams to translate brand strategy into scalable restaurant execution. This role will lead developing strategic initiatives around training, use of technology, menu, and collateral simplification, BOH prep and complexity, labor, and partnering with marketing to determine the best use of OPD and total marketing dollars to drive traffic growth. Responsibilities span initiative planning, development, testing, training, implementation, measurement, and continuous improvement across new recipes, limited-time offers, equipment, service enhancements, technology, and other business-building programs. The VPO partners across functions, removes barriers to execution, and uses field, guest, and performance feedback to recommend national rollout decisions and improve business results.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

• Sets the strategic direction for restaurant operations and training, translating brand priorities into clear objectives, operating plans, budgets, and measurable outcomes.

• Leads Market Vice Presidents and the operations and training teams to execute strategy and reinforce Carrabba’s culture through ownership of the organization’s Principles & Beliefs.

• Attracts, develops, coaches, and retains diverse, high-performing talent and future leaders.

• Delivers revenue, profitability, guest-count, service, and operational objectives through disciplined management of people, product, service, facilities, and four-wall performance.

• Represents the operations perspective on the Carrabba’s Leadership Team and partner with Restaurant Support Center functions to maintain brand alignment and consistency.

• Establishes and sustains operating standards and regional or local segmentation strategies that strengthen execution, market relevance, guest satisfaction, customer loyalty, and the Carrabba’s brand experience.

• Leads cross-functional strategic initiatives from concept through testing, training, deployment, and evaluation, including menus, national promotions, recipes, limited-time offers, equipment, service enhancements, technology, and other scalable programs.

• Maintains executive visibility to the initiative portfolio through concise status reporting, stakeholder updates, outcome measurement, and follow-up on guest and operations feedback.

• Fosters restaurant-leader engagement and a culture of ownership, collaboration, inclusion, accountability, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.

• Participates as a member of the Carrabba’s leadership team, contributing operational insights and sound judgment

to strategic, financial, administrative, and organizational decisions.

REQUIREMENTS

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree, Business Administration, Restaurant Management, Hospitality, or related field preferred.

Experience/Skills:

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in restaurant, hospitality, or retail operations, including

executive responsibility for a large, geographically dispersed, multi-location organization.

• Significant experience leading restaurant training, learning, operational excellence, or enterprise initiative

deployment, with demonstrated success managing cross-functional teams and leaders.

• Strong business and financial acumen, with the ability to interpret complex operational and financial data,

assess risk and opportunity, understand growth drivers, and act in the strategic interest of the business.

• Demonstrated record of improving sales, profitability, guest experience, service quality, and operational

performance.

• Strategic planning and prioritization skills, with the ability to translate forward-looking strategies into clear

objectives, executable plans, and accountable results.

• Proven ability to lead change and complex projects from concept through testing, training, implementation,

adoption, and outcome evaluation.

• Excellent strategic communication, interpersonal, organizational, written, and verbal skills, with the ability to

influence stakeholders through coherent and consistent communication across multiple channels.

• High-energy, results-oriented leadership style with strong execution focus, personal accountability, attention to

detail, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

• Participation in relevant industry or professional associations preferred.

• Ability to travel 50–60%.