Fast Casual District Manager

Chicken Ayres dba Zaxbys•New Albany, IN

21h•Hybrid

About The Position

Chicken Ayres is seeking an experienced District Manager to lead a group of high-volume restaurants throughout the Kentuckiana area. This is not a role for someone who simply visits stores, identifies problems, and sends reports. We need a hands-on multi-unit leader who can develop General Managers, establish clear expectations, hold teams accountable, and create systems that continue working when they are not physically present. Our District Manager will be responsible for the operational and financial performance of their assigned restaurants, with bonus potential tied directly to the results of the stores they oversee. At Chicken Ayres, our purpose is to serve great food, elevate our people, support our community, and drive growth through meaningful connections. Our five core values— Community, Teamwork, Passion, Elevate, and Growth —guide how we lead, communicate, and make decisions.

Requirements

At least three years of successful multi-unit restaurant leadership experience preferred.
Experience directly supervising and developing General Managers.
Strong understanding of restaurant financials, including sales, labor, food cost, profitability, and controllable expenses.
Proven ability to improve underperforming restaurants.
Strong coaching, communication, organization, and conflict-resolution skills.
Willingness to have direct and sometimes difficult performance conversations.
Ability to balance people development with operational accountability.
Comfortable using performance data, scorecards, restaurant reports, and financial statements.
Ability to travel regularly between assigned restaurant locations.
Valid driver’s license and reliable transportation.
Availability that reflects the realities of restaurant operations, including occasional nights and weekends.

Nice To Haves

Believe accountability and employee development should work together.
Can coach a promising leader without lowering the standard.
Know the difference between helping a manager and rescuing them.
Are willing to inspect what you expect.
Remain calm, factual, and direct during difficult conversations.
Enjoy teaching leaders how to think critically and make better decisions.
Are motivated by building strong teams rather than being the person who saves every shift.
View discomfort and failure as necessary parts of meaningful growth.

Responsibilities

Develop General Managers by conducting meaningful weekly one-on-one coaching conversations, helping GMs develop their Assistant Managers and shift leadership teams, identifying performance gaps and creating clear, time-bound improvement plans, and recognizing when a leader needs coaching, additional training, or stronger accountability.
Create Accountability by establishing clear expectations and following through consistently, addressing missed deadlines, incomplete work, poor execution, and repeated excuses directly, ensuring commitments made during meetings result in measurable action, and holding leaders accountable without taking over their responsibilities.
Drive Restaurant Performance by overseeing sales, labor, food cost, staffing, training, guest experience, speed of service, and operational execution, reviewing restaurant financial statements and identifying practical opportunities for improvement, ensuring schedules, inventory controls, training systems, checklists, and operating routines are completed accurately and on time, using store visits to coach leaders and validate execution, creating specific action plans for underperforming restaurants and following through until results improve, and protecting brand standards, food safety, cleanliness, and hospitality expectations.
Build Sustainable Leadership Teams by reducing dependence on “hero managers” who attempt to do everything themselves, helping GMs delegate responsibilities clearly across their management teams, ensuring managers understand what they own and how their performance will be measured, building stores that operate consistently without constant intervention from above-store leadership, and developing internal candidates for future General Manager and multi-unit leadership opportunities.
Strengthen Culture by modeling enthusiasm, gratitude, professionalism, and respect, building an environment where every guest and team member matters, encouraging leaders to learn from failure rather than hide mistakes or shift blame, and supporting local schools, organizations, first responders, and community partnerships.