Market General Manager

Market General Manager — Chicago

Roggenart | Chicago, IL

Multi-Unit Bakery Café Operations

Full-Time

Compensation: $80,000 Base Salary + Sales Percentage of Growth Generated

About Roggenart

Roggenart is a growing European-inspired bakery, café, and bistro built around exceptional food, warm hospitality, beautiful spaces, and the belief that everyday moments should be enjoyed.

As we continue to grow, we are looking for a Market General Manager to lead our Chicago market.

This is not a traditional corporate district or regional manager position. We are looking for a builder, operator, and entrepreneur at heart — someone who wants genuine ownership of a market and is energized by the opportunity to make it stronger.

The Opportunity

The Market General Manager will have responsibility for our two Chicago bakery cafés, leading the teams and owning the operational and commercial performance of the market.

We are looking for a player-coach.

Approximately 30% of your time may involve being directly in the operation — coaching on the floor, working alongside the team, helping during a difficult shift, solving a production issue, or supporting the bakery and kitchen.

The other 70% should be spent working on the business: developing managers, building systems and accountability, managing labor and COGS, improving purchasing, growing sales, developing catering and B2B business, building community relationships, recruiting and training talent, and making the Chicago market increasingly self-sufficient.

When something goes wrong, we don't want your first instinct to be, "Who should I call?"

We want you to become the person people call.

What You'll Own

As Market General Manager, you will:

• Lead the overall performance of both Chicago locations, including sales, labor, COGS, profitability, guest experience, product quality, and people development.
• Take ownership of labor performance, including scheduling, productivity, staffing levels, overtime, and aligning labor with sales.
• Manage COGS and purchasing, including vendor relationships, pricing, ordering, inventory levels, waste, product usage, and opportunities to consolidate purchasing and reduce costs.
• Review weekly sales, labor, food cost, purchasing, and other key operating metrics and turn those numbers into specific actions.
• Develop strong store managers and leadership teams capable of operating successfully without constant supervision.
• Create structure where structure is missing by implementing routines, checklists, training programs, communication systems, accountability, and consistent follow-through.
• Maintain Roggenart's standards for baking, food quality, kitchen execution, coffee, service, cleanliness, merchandising, and hospitality.
• Work comfortably across FOH and BOH and understand bakery and kitchen operations well enough to identify problems and coach toward solutions.
• Recruit, onboard, train, coach, and retain strong people while addressing underperformance quickly and fairly.
• Build a culture of ownership, accountability, teamwork, hospitality, and continuous improvement.
• Oversee local administrative requirements, including licenses, permits, certifications, inspections, renewals, and regulatory compliance.
• Drive local store marketing and serve as an active representative of Roggenart within the Chicago community.
• Develop relationships with local businesses, residential communities, organizations, schools, hotels, offices, Chambers of Commerce, and other potential partners.
• Build and grow catering and B2B sales rather than simply waiting for customers to walk through the door.
• Identify opportunities to increase customer traffic, frequency, average check, catering, events, partnerships, and local brand awareness.
• Solve problems independently while understanding when an issue genuinely requires ownership or senior leadership involvement.
• Protect and strengthen Roggenart's standards, culture, and values as the company grows.

Grow the Business and Participate in the Growth You Generate

We don't want this position to be measured solely by keeping the stores running.

We want someone who is motivated to grow the Chicago market, and we believe that person should participate financially in the growth they generate.

In addition to the $80,000 base salary, the Market General Manager will receive a percentage of year-over-year sales growth generated across the Chicago market.

Growth can come from both increasing existing store sales and developing new revenue channels, including:

• Catering and corporate accounts
• Local business partnerships
• Community relationships and events
• Increased customer traffic and frequency
• Increased average check
• Local marketing initiatives
• B2B sales
• Strategic partnerships
• Other market-level sales initiatives

The structure is designed to create genuine alignment:

As you grow the Chicago market, your compensation grows with it.

The Person We're Looking For

We are looking for a builder, not a caretaker.

You are likely someone who has worked in a growing restaurant, bakery, café, hospitality, or foodservice company where you had to wear multiple hats and work directly with an owner or entrepreneurial leadership team.

You don't need a large corporate department behind you to make things happen.

You are highly organized, but you don't require someone else to create the organization for you.

When you see a problem, you naturally think:

"How do I solve this — and how do I build a system so we don't keep having the same problem?"

You take responsibility for outcomes rather than explaining why something wasn't your responsibility.

You can move comfortably between reviewing a P&L, analyzing labor and food costs, coaching a manager, inspecting a croissant, helping behind the counter during a rush, negotiating with a vendor, meeting a potential catering client, and developing an action plan for an underperforming store.

Most importantly, you have a strong sense of ownership and accountability. You believe your actions can change results, and you behave accordingly.

Ideal Experience

Our ideal candidate has:

• 5+ years of restaurant, bakery, café, hospitality, or foodservice leadership experience.
• Experience overseeing multiple locations or significant responsibility for a high-volume operation.
• Experience in a smaller, entrepreneurial, founder-led, franchisee, or rapidly growing organization is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to develop managers and build high-performing teams.
• Strong understanding of restaurant economics, including sales, labor percentage, COGS, purchasing, food cost, productivity, inventory, and profitability.
• Experience managing vendors, purchasing, inventory, and cost-control initiatives.
• Experience with both FOH and BOH operations.
• Strong organizational and problem-solving abilities.
• A track record of improving an operation rather than simply maintaining one.
• Experience with catering, local marketing, community engagement, or business development is highly desirable.
• Experience managing restaurant licenses, permits, inspections, or other administrative requirements is preferred.
• The maturity and confidence to work independently while communicating openly with ownership and senior leadership.

You Will Probably Love This Role If...

You enjoy responsibility.

You like fixing things.

You get satisfaction from turning chaos into structure.

You enjoy looking at numbers and figuring out why they're moving and what to do about it.

You enjoy developing people and watching them become capable of operating without you.

You are comfortable making decisions.

You would rather build a process than repeatedly solve the same problem.

You are excited by the opportunity to participate financially in the sales growth you generate.

And when everyone else sees a problem and starts looking around for someone to take ownership of it, you're usually already working on the solution.

This Role May Not Be for You If...

You need a detailed corporate playbook before making decisions, prefer managing primarily from an office, expect another department to handle recruiting, training, purchasing, marketing, quality, licensing, or operational problems, or believe your responsibility ends when your scheduled shift ends.

Our Chicago market operates with significant independence from our Maryland headquarters.

That autonomy is an opportunity — but it also comes with accountability.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first year, we should see:

• Two consistently well-run stores with strong managers and leadership teams underneath you.
• Disciplined labor and COGS management.
• A structured purchasing and inventory process with strong vendor relationships and reduced waste.
• Meaningful year-over-year sales growth.
• Growing catering, B2B, and community relationships.
• Consistently excellent product and hospitality standards.
• Stronger recruiting, onboarding, training, and employee development.
• Administrative and licensing requirements handled proactively and on time.
• Increased profitability across the Chicago market.
• Teams that increasingly solve problems without escalation.

Ultimately, your success will be measured by something bigger than whether the stores run well when you're there:

Can you build a Chicago market that performs at a high level even when you're not in the building?

Compensation

$80,000 Base Salary + Sales Percentage of Growth Generated

In addition to the $80,000 annual base salary, the Market General Manager will receive a percentage of year-over-year sales growth generated across the Chicago market.

This structure is designed to directly reward growth and entrepreneurial performance. As you increase sales through stronger operations, customer traffic, catering, B2B business, partnerships, events, local marketing, and other initiatives, you participate financially in the growth you generate.

The sales percentage will be tied to maintaining strong operating performance, including labor, COGS, profitability, product quality, and service standards.