Venue Manager

Venue Manager
Mount Erica Hotel | Prahran
Full Time

Who We Are
Mount Erica Hotel is looking for an experienced Venue Manager to lead a large, established team and take ownership of the day-to-day performance of the venue.

This is a role for a genuine hospitality professional. Someone who loves being on the floor, knows their regulars, understands great food and wine, and gets a kick out of developing people and running a busy venue exceptionally well.

We are a high-volume community pub with a strong food and beverage offering. We want someone who understands the warmth and familiarity of a great local, while bringing the service standards, attention to detail and professionalism you would expect from a quality restaurant.

The Role
As Venue Manager, you will have overall responsibility for the operational, financial and cultural performance of Mount Erica.

You will lead an established management team including a Bar Manager, Restaurant Manager, Head Bartender, Wine Buyer and team of Duty Managers, working closely with the Head Chef and broader kitchen leadership team.

With a wider team of 50+ employees, we are looking for someone who has experience leading a large hospitality workforce and, importantly, developing the managers within it.

This is a hands-on, customer-facing leadership role, with the majority of your time spent on the floor leading alongside your team. As a seven-day hospitality business, the role includes regular evening and weekend services, ensuring our Venue Manager is present when the venue is at its busiest.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Leading service from the floor and setting the standard for genuine, knowledgeable and generous hospitality.

• Building relationships with our regulars and ensuring Mount Erica continues to feel like a true community pub.

• Leading, coaching and developing the venue’s management team.

• Creating a culture of accountability, communication and high standards.

• Taking ownership of recruitment, retention and performance alongside HR.

• Maintaining a strong focus on onsite training and development, ensuring training is practical, consistent and visible during service.

• Support and manage rostering through TANDA, with a strong understanding of wage budgets

• Working with our finance team on budgets, forecasting, cost control and overall venue profitability.

• Reviewing sales performance and identifying opportunities across food, beverage, events and group bookings.

• Maintaining high standards across stock control, compliance, RSA, safety and venue presentation.

• Working with our Group Bookings & Marketing Manager on events, activations and opportunities to keep the venue relevant and busy.

• Keeping an eye on Melbourne’s wider hospitality landscape and continually looking for ways to improve the business.

About You
We’re looking for someone who has already operated at a senior level within a serious hospitality business.

You will ideally bring:

• A minimum of five years’ experience in hospitality people management.

• Proven experience leading a large team of employees.

• Experience in high-volume venues, restaurants or multi-faceted hospitality venues.

• A strong understanding of restaurant and fine-dining service standards, even if your background is not exclusively fine dining.

• WSET Level 3 as a minimum, with genuine knowledge and enthusiasm for wine and beverage.

• Strong working knowledge of TANDA, particularly rostering, labour management and wage-cost control.

• Strong financial literacy and an understanding of budgets, forecasting, wage percentages and profitability.

• Demonstrated experience developing managers and delivering structured, ongoing training.

• Confidence managing performance and holding people accountable to agreed standards.

• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to plan ahead, prioritise and follow through.

• Current RSA and a sound understanding of Victorian hospitality compliance.

Most importantly, you need to love hospitality and people.

We want someone who enjoys knowing the names of their regulars, welcoming people through the door, developing hospitality professionals and creating the kind of venue people want to return to.

What We Offer
We want our senior leaders to have the structure, support and employment conditions to build a long-term career with us.

• Competitive salary, negotiated based on your experience.

• Superannuation paid on top of your agreed salary.

• A regular, structured roster, providing consistency in a senior hospitality role.

• Overtime paid weekly when incurred

• Employment conditions under the Publican.Co Enterprise Agreement.

• Access to our Health & Wellbeing Program.

• Paid Parental Leave.

• Genuine investment in training, development and long-term career progression across the group.

The Support Around You
You’ll have genuine ownership and accountability for the venue, but you won’t be doing it alone.

You’ll be supported by:

• A dedicated Area Manager

• An active and accessible HR function

• CFO and finance support

• A dedicated Group Bookings & Marketing Manager

• Hands-on Owner-Directors

• An established senior management team within the venue

We believe good Venue Managers should be empowered to run their businesses, while having the resources and expertise around them to succeed.

Apply Now
Apply directly through SEEK or email John at ••••@publican.co with the subject line:
Your Name | Venue Manager | Mount Erica

Please include your current resume along with a brief cover letter telling us why you’d like to join the Royal Oak.

Mount Erica is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and life experiences.

Please note: This role is intended for experienced hospitality professionals. Applicants who do not meet the minimum experience requirements outlined above will not be considered.