Job Title: General Manager
Reporting to: Operational Manager
Place of Work: York SU Student Centre, James College, Newton Way, York, YO10 5DD
Contract: Permanent
Salary: Starting at £33,946 per annum
Hours: 35 hrs per week
Holiday: 38 day per Year

Closing Date: Sunday 12th April 2026 at 5pm
Interview Location: The University of York Students' Union
Interview Process: Following a successful initial interview, candidates will progress to a final stage where they will be required to perform and present a strategic SWOT analysis of an existing hospitality venue.

About the Role:

As a leader within the York SU commercial operation, the General Manager provides operational stability across two of our hospitality venues. You will act as the vital bridge between site-level management and departmental oversight, ensuring that service standards and professional practices are consistent across all locations.

The primary function of this role is to lead the strategic development of these venues, ensuring they evolve to meet the needs of the student population while remaining commercially sustainable. You will be tasked with harmonising our charitable mission, creating inclusive, exceptional experiences, with the necessity of achieving core financial goals. This role moves between long-term business planning and day-to-day service leadership, offering you the autonomy to influence talent development and connect frontline operations with wider organisational strategy.

A Better Way to Work
We recognise that hospitality careers often come at the expense of your personal time, but this role is designed differently. Because we operate within a university environment, our trading rhythms differ significantly from the traditional high street; Saturdays are not classed as a key day for trade, allowing you to reclaim your weekends in a way few General Manager roles permit.

Our year is defined by a 30-week semester period where our primary guest market is our vibrant student population. outside of these busy term-time windows, we pivot our focus toward conference activity, on and off-campus events, and strategic venue development. Furthermore, as the campus closes entirely over the
festive period, Christmas and New Year are non-working periods, a benefit virtually unheard of in high-street hospitality.

In exchange for this unique balance, you will have a high degree of autonomy to shape your own schedule in line with business priorities. However, please note that Sundays and Mondays are core working days for this role to ensure senior leadership and oversight during our peak campus activity.

Key Responsibilities:

People Leadership: Lead, mentor, and develop managers and shift leaders, building a strong internal succession pipeline through coaching and appraisals.

Operational Excellence: Maintain high standards of product quality and venue presentation, modelling expected behaviours through a visible on-floor presence. 

Financial Management: Oversee P&L performance across the venue cluster, protecting margins through strict control of stock, wastage, and labour costs.

Compliance: Maintain full accountability for health and safety, food safety, and licencing requirements across all venues. 

Strategic Growth: Collaborate with internal teams to develop menu concepts, product strategies, and annual pricing reviews.

Working at York SU:

At York SU we know that maintaining a great work life balance also improves our teams wellbeing, productivity and happiness, this is why we offer flexible working arrangements to suit personal needs and requirements. We have both a flexi-time work scheme and remote working policy available to staff as standard and welcome applicants to discuss their flexible requirements at the interview. (If applicable to the role)

• A full time working week is 35 hours
• You receive 38 days holiday (including bank holidays and 4 paid closed Christmas days)
• You get extensive access to discounts and benefits
• There are paid volunteering opportunities
• You have access to the cycle to work schemes and other salary sacrifice options
• We offer a generous pension scheme
• You have the chance to shape the student experience for the better

York SU is committed to equality of opportunity - we are an organisation who works very hard to ensure we appoint based on merit. We would particularly welcome applications from candidates with disabilities and/or from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

As a Disability Confident Committed Employer (LV1), we are proud to offer an interview to applicants who meet the minimum criteria** for the advertised position.

**It is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example: in certain recruitment situations such as high number of applications, seasonal and high-peak times, we may have to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.

If you are invited to interview with us we will share our interview questions in advance so you can feel a little more prepared. We’re more interested in hearing about your experiences and ideas than in testing your memory, and so we want you to feel as comfortable as possible.

If you have any further questions about the position, or if you have a requirement for adjustments that would make the application or interview process more accessible, please do not hesitate to contact us on [email protected].

Please note that products containing nuts, dairy, gluten and other potential allergies are served within our venues. We however aim to support a nut free environment within our student centre by encouraging staff not to bring nut based products to work.