Pre-Opening Manager

Pre-Opening Manager
Sixth Sense
Reports to: Pre-Opening Department Head
Location: [Erbil], Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with regular travel to venue sites
Employment type: Full-time

About Sixth Sense

Sixth Sense is a dynamic hospitality group that creates and develops unique concepts and international franchises across the Kurdistan Region. Our portfolio covers fine dining, fast-casual restaurants, cafés and entertainment venues. Everything we open aims to raise the standard of the local food and beverage scene, with the highest standards of product quality, service and atmosphere. We design each project to delight and inspire our guests and to contribute positively to the community.

Role Purpose

As Pre-Opening Manager, you will own the full readiness of new restaurant and café venues, from project handover to grand opening and stabilised operations. You will manage several launches at the same time and coordinate fit-out, procurement, people, systems and compliance. Your job is to make sure every venue opens on time, on budget and fully aligned with franchise standards, brand identity and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) requirements. This is a hands-on, highly cross-functional leadership role for someone who thrives on complexity and can influence senior stakeholders. You will need to hold many workstreams to a consistently high standard.

Key Responsibilities

Pre-Opening Planning and Governance

• Build and own the master pre-opening plan for each venue, covering the critical path, milestones, dependencies and accountable owners from project handover to grand opening.

• Lead regular pre-opening progress meetings with all functions, and track decisions, actions and deadlines until they are closed.

• Own readiness checklists, site inspections and the final go/no-go launch decision for each venue.

• Manage several concurrent openings, rebalancing resources, priorities and timelines as project conditions change.

Fit-Out and Site Readiness

• Work with the Fit-Out Manager, design consultants and contractors to monitor construction progress, resolve snagging items and secure the site handover.

• Make sure the kitchen design, back-of-house flow and front-of-house layout meet brand, franchise and operational requirements.

• Oversee procurement, delivery and installation of furniture, fixtures and equipment, kitchen equipment, smallwares and operating supplies, on schedule and to specification.

• Make sure point-of-sale, inventory, information technology, security and audio-visual systems are installed, tested and fully working before the soft opening.

Compliance, Quality and Brand Standards

• Ensure full compliance with franchise operating standards and brand guidelines. Secure franchisor approvals at every stage, including design sign-off, the pre-opening audit and the opening approval.

• Lead food safety and quality readiness together with the Quality Assurance and Quality Control Specialist, in line with ISO 22000 and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points principles.

• Obtain all required licences, permits, civil defence and fire safety approvals, and municipality and health authority clearances before opening.

• Keep complete, audit-ready documentation for every launch.

People Readiness

• Work with Human Resources on manpower planning, recruitment timelines and onboarding for each venue team.

• Work with the training team so that every team member completes brand, service, food safety and systems training before opening. Coordinate the schedules of any franchisor training teams.

• Plan and run mock services, trial runs and friends-and-family events, so that teams are confident and ready from day one.

Operational Readiness

• Work with the operations, culinary and supply chain teams to finalise menus, recipes, supplier agreements and opening inventory.

• Make sure standard operating procedures, opening and closing checklists and service standards are in place and understood.

• Work with marketing on pre-launch campaigns, signage, digital presence and grand opening events.

Budget and Commercial Control

• Track and control pre-opening budgets. These cover capital spending on fit-out and equipment, and pre-opening operating costs such as payroll, training and marketing.

• Spot cost deviations early, propose cost-effective alternatives, and escalate risks to the Pre-Opening Department Head.

• Review contractor and supplier quotations and variation requests together with procurement.

Launch, Handover and Continuous Improvement

• Lead the soft opening and grand opening.

• Support each venue through its stabilisation period (the first [60 to 90] days), tracking performance against targets before a formal handover to operations.

• Run a post-opening review after every launch, capture lessons learned, and keep improving the Sixth Sense pre-opening playbook and templates.

Leadership and Stakeholder Management

• Direct the work of your indirect reports: the Fit-Out Manager, the Quality Assurance and Quality Control Specialist, and external contractors.

• Act as the main point of contact between the Pre-Opening function, franchise partners, landlords or mall management, and site-level leadership.

• Provide structured weekly readiness reports and dashboards to leadership that flag risks and recommend corrective actions.

How Success Is Measured

• Venues open on the agreed date.

• Pre-opening spending stays within the approved budget.

• Each venue passes the franchisor's opening audit the first time.

• All licences and approvals are in place before opening, with no compliance findings.

• Every team member is fully trained before the soft opening.

• Venues reach their operational and guest satisfaction targets within the first 90 days.

Qualifications and Experience

Education

• A bachelor's degree in hospitality management, Project Management, Business Administration, Engineering or a related field.

• Preferred: Project Management Professional certification or PRINCE2 (Projects in Controlled Environments) certification, and food safety certification (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, Level 3 or above).

Experience

• 5 to 7 years of experience in hospitality, restaurant or café operations, or venue launch management, including at least 3 years in pre-opening or new-venue launch roles.

• A proven record of opening at least [three] restaurants or cafés end to end, ideally including several openings running at the same time.

• Experience with international franchise brands is strongly preferred.

• Hands-on experience managing fit-out projects with contractors and design consultants.

• Experience in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq or the wider Middle East is an advantage.

Technical Skills

• Confident use of project planning tools (such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet or Asana) and advanced Excel for budget tracking.

• Able to read floor plans, kitchen layouts and equipment specifications.

• Working knowledge of point-of-sale, inventory and back-office systems.

Key Competencies

• Advanced planning and timeline management across several sites and concurrent launches.

• Strong financial discipline, with early and proactive escalation.

• Rigorous compliance and documentation standards.

• Able to align and lead cross-functional teams under tight deadlines without direct authority.

• Confident stakeholder management with franchise partners, contractors and senior leadership.

• Sound judgement and decisive problem-solving in fast-paced, high-pressure environments.

• Able to manage and develop both direct and indirect reports across functions.

Languages

• Fluent English is required. Kurdish and/or Arabic is strongly preferred.

Working Conditions

• Willing to work extended hours, including evenings and weekends, around opening dates.

• Regular travel between venue sites.