Located on Olympia’s East Bay waterfront, the Hands On Children’s Museum is the leading play-based, early learning institution in Southwest Washington and the most visited children’s museum in the Pacific Northwest hosting 300,000 annually (excluding pandemic). Our mission is to stimulate curiosity, creativity and critical thinking skills through rich, interactive learning experiences. We believe that all children deserve respect and the opportunity to learn regardless of their ability to pay which is why the Museum works hard to serve more than one-third of its visitation through a robust suite of Access programs.

Voted a “Best Place for Kids” for more than a decade, the Museum offers a state-of-the-art LEED Gold facility with 150 indoor exhibits, a half-acre Outdoor Discovery Center and nature play space, Arts Studio, MakeSpace for tinkering and inventing, café and gift shop. Our award-winning education programs including camps, workshops, preschool, parenting classes, field trips, community outreach and family support programs.

This is your chance to bring your quick service restaurant management experience to our growing Play Day Café and be part of an organization that cares about children, families, and community. As the Play Day Café Manager, you will lead your team to provide safe, efficient and customer focused café operations. Our café offers salads, sandwiches, grilled paninis and quesadillas, soup, and other grab and go options to museum patrons, programs, and events. The core schedule for this position is Tuesday through Saturday and will have consistent daytime working hours, some flexibility of hours may be available. Café service hours typically end daily around 3pm, with occasional evening events.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Ensures café areas are clean, safe, well-stocked and inviting daily. Considers the aesthetics of the lobby and café areas and creates a fun family lunch experience through attention to detail.
• Responsible for ensuring exceptional customer service in the café and actively works to delight Museum visitors. Resolves any customer service issues & provide resolutions.
• Makes menu, equipment, or other recommendations to Assistant Director of Operations based on customer preferences and feedback.
• Ensures compliance with all governmental health, safety and sanitation requirements and immediately addresses any concerns.
• Directly supervises café staff team, prepares work schedules, troubleshoots coverage issues, ensures Museum cash handling procedures are followed by all team members and assigns specific duties.
• Provides training, coaching and regular communication with team.
• Prepares regular performance reviews of all team members. Documents positive performance, identifies goals, areas for growth and provides disciplinary documentation if required.
• Manages café budget ensuring that income and expenses are within budget. Ensures accurate tracking of waste/loss and cost of goods. Produces weekly reports monitoring labor costs, sales, waste and café highlights.
• Responsible for monthly Café inventory and reconciliation with the Business Dept.
• Determines par levels and monitors supplies daily and places orders as needed. Creates shopping lists for Museum Purchaser as needed.
• Ensures vendor orders are submitted, stock is rotating, and items are labeled appropriately. Receives and verifies correct items and quantities have been delivered.
• Monitors product quality always.
• Ensures café equipment maintenance.

• Bachelor’s Degree preferred, relevant work experience may substitute.
• 2+ years experience required directly supervising staff of 3 or more including hiring, disciplinary action, scheduling & payroll.
• Experience developing/and or implementing effective staff training in food service setting.
• Experience leading or improving food and supply ordering & monthly inventory process in food service setting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated professionalism.
• Excellent customer service skills required.
• Excellent office skills including: word processing; Excel; e-mail; record keeping.
• Current Food Handler’s Permit or ServSafe Certified preferred.
• Able to work independently with limited direction in a fast-paced environment with a great deal of flexibility and attention to detail.
• Ability to work in a team setting with a high degree of daily communication required. Must care about and value the viewpoints of the other team members and organizational mission.

Workplace Values

Achieving our mission requires great people who actively demonstrate our core values.

When applying, please submit a cover letter, resume, and 3 professional references.

Compensation & Benefits: As a leading non-profit, we offer competitive compensation, medical, dental and vision coverage, an Employee Assistance Plan, paid time off, paid holidays, a 401(k)-retirement plan, and special perks including museum passes and membership, discounts on preschool, camps, in the Museum Store and Café, and paid parking. Benefits vary by number of regularly scheduled hours worked, length of employment, and employment status. See benefit details for this position here.

Hands On Children’s Museum exhibits, education programs, and employment are available to all without discrimination.