Launch Manager
Helping to Open Croft Common
The opportunity
Croft Common is a 16,000 sq. ft food, drink and events venue opening in the heart of Stokes Croft, Bristol. It has eight trading spaces spanning bars (including a beer taproom), a café with independent food operator, four additional independent food operators and a full events programme, built around one idea: a common ground where the neighbourhood eats, drinks and gathers.
If independent food, good rooms full of people, and what hospitality does for a community genuinely excite you, this is a rare chance to help open a venue of this scale from the inside.
The design is complete and we are about to commence our final fit-out — the fun bits like bars, lighting, furniture and plants, as well as the serious elements of ventilation, air conditioning and everything behind the walls. We are also into the incredibly important job of pulling together the team that will bring this outstanding and culturally important space to life. Your role sits at the centre of the second — building the team and the business — while keeping both workstreams moving to one opening date.
Working together
Croft Common comes with provenance. We have been part of Stokes Croft for over twenty years, have owned this building for ten, and began its restoration three years ago. That time sitting with the building and the area, alongside deep research into the best hospitality offerings locally and throughout the UK, results in a space that delivers for the community and Bristol as a whole.
We are looking for someone who converts decisions into delivered outcomes and keeps every thread moving between decisions. In practice:
Decisions into actions. You sit in the key meetings — candidates, operators, advisers — capture what was agreed, and turn it into actions with owners and dates before the day is out.
Own what is delegated. You will be handed defined workstreams to run end to end. You progress them daily, chase third parties without being prompted, and escalate only the genuine decision points.
Hold the whole picture. You maintain the single honest picture of where the launch stands — what is on track, what is slipping, what is blocked and why — reported weekly, without being asked.
Challenge when it matters. Where you can see a better way, say so. We work with people who push back with reasons, not people who wait for instructions.
Priority One: Building the Team
- Running the recruitment pipeline for the venue's hires — General Manager first, then with input & oversight from the General Manager, recruit the Bar Manager, Café Manager and Events Manager; then move onto supporting the wider recruitment process — from brief and advert through to offer: sourcing coordination, screening logistics, interview scheduling, references.
- Helping sequence hires against the opening programme so the right people land at the right time.
- Building the onboarding path for each hire — contracts, kit, systems, induction — so new people are productive from day one.
Priority Two: Finding and landing Bristol's best food partners
The café food pod, along with the other four food pods (including a pizza offering) will be run by independent operators — and we want the best in Bristol. You will help find them and bring them in:
- Scouting the scene: mapping Bristol's independent food landscape — the traders, kitchens, bakeries and street food operators people queue for — and building a live target list of who belongs at Croft Common. You will eat well doing this job.
- Making the approach: opening conversations with target operators, getting them excited, and getting them through the door for site visits.
- Running the pipeline: tracking every conversation, keeping momentum, and chasing heads of terms through to signature. We lead the negotiation; you make sure nothing stalls.
- Coordinating what each operator needs from us — information packs, plans, fit-out interface details — working with the designer and fit-out manager.
Priority Three: Supporting the Launch Plan
Owning the master launch plan across both halves of the project — the build milestones the fit-out team feeds in, and the business milestones you drive — so everything stays sequenced against one opening date.
Who this suits
- Genuinely excited by hospitality, food and what a venue can do for its community — you know the rooms you love and why they work, and the idea of helping open one is why you are reading this.
- 3–6 years' experience in project coordination, recruitment coordination, chief of staff or founder's-office roles — sector matters less than proof you finish things.
- Relentless about closing loops. You chase without being reminded and you are comfortable holding senior third parties to deadlines, politely.
- Highly organised in writing: trackers, minutes, pipelines and checklists that other people actually use.
- Comfortable with ambiguity and pace; you would rather be given outcomes than instructions.
- Discreet. You will see the group's financial and legal position in full.
What this is not
- Commercial decisions rest with us — but the closer you get to them, the better this works.
- It is not a construction role — the build has its own team; you hold the plan they feed into.
- It is not an administrative support role — the value is in what you deliver, not what you organise.
Terms
- 6-month fixed-term employment contract, full time, with clear intent to convert to a permanent group role for the right person.
- £50,000 per annum (pro rata), paid monthly.
- Based in Bristol; a mix of on-site at Stokes Croft and at our head office in Stokes Croft as the launch demands.
- Start: as soon as available.
How success is measured
At the end of month one you will own the recruitment pipeline, the operator tracker and the launch plan outright, with a weekly review cadence. By month six: the General Manager has been in post for at least 3 months and the management team are hired, operator agreements are signed no thread gone cold on your watch, and our time has gone on decisions rather than chasing. If that is true, the conversation turns to a permanent role across the group.
To apply, send your CV to [email protected] and a short note — no cover letter needed. Tell us two things: the most complicated thing you have personally chased to completion, and a hospitality venue you love and why it works.
Pay: £50,000.00 per year
Application question(s):
- To apply, send your CV to [email protected] and a short note — no cover letter needed. Tell us two things: the most complicated thing you have personally chased to completion, and a hospitality venue you love and why it works.
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Location:
- Bristol, Bristol (required)
Work Location: In person
