General Services Manager - Restaurant & Catering Group

About the Role

A leading hospitality group in Doha seeks a seasoned General Services Manager responsible for overseeing the group's essential shared support services comprising Transport & Fleet, Maintenance, Staff Accommodation, Cleaning, and Laundry operations. This role facilitates the implementation of structured procedures, accountability frameworks, and elevated service standards that critically influence employee welfare, uninterrupted operations, and overall outlet performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee and coordinate shared services including Transport & Fleet, Maintenance, Staff Accommodation, Cleaning, and Laundry across multiple sites.
• Develop and enforce clear operational procedures, schedules, and service standards to ensure consistency and accountability in all departments.
• Manage transport logistics, including planning routes, schedules, vehicle use, driver coordination, and alignment with kitchen production and staffing requirements.
• Supervise fleet maintenance, monitor vehicle uptime, utilization, costs, and plan for replacement.
• Take charge of preventive and emergency maintenance activities for Central Kitchen, restaurant outlets, offices, and accommodation, setting and monitoring SLAs with internal teams and external contractors.
• Conduct periodic inspections and maintenance to ensure staff accommodation meets hygiene, safety, capacity, and regulatory standards.
• Direct cleaning and housekeeping functions, establishing quality schedules and ensuring thorough monitoring of both internal and outsourced teams.
• Manage laundry services for uniforms and linens, ensuring adequate capacity and timely distribution, while monitoring associated costs and stock.
• Handle vendor and contractor relationships for maintenance, pest control, waste management, cleaning, laundry, transport, and other facility-related suppliers. Negotiate contracts and monitor performance against service agreements.
• Control and monitor operating and capital budgets for shared services, analyzing variances and recommending cost-efficiency measures.
• Ensure compliance with Qatar’s health, safety, Civil Defence, and municipal regulations, keeping all documentation and certificates up to date.
• Act as first escalation point for critical operational issues in shared services, and devise contingency plans for potential disruptions.
• Provide detailed weekly, monthly, and periodic reports covering shared services performance, maintenance status, fleet operation, accommodation compliance, vendor management, and budget adherence to the General Manager.

Qualifications and Experience

• Minimum of 6 to 8 years’ experience in facilities, general/shared services, or administration management roles.
• Demonstrated capability managing multiple sites within hospitality, restaurant, catering, retail, or similarly operationally intensive sectors.
• Proven track record managing staff transport operations and vehicle fleets.
• Experience overseeing staff accommodation or labor housing, ideally within Qatar or the GCC region.
• Extensive experience supervising maintenance teams, contractors, and service-level agreements.
• Background in managing cleaning, housekeeping, and laundry operations is highly advantageous.
• Strong skills in budgeting, cost control, and vendor management across diverse functions.
• Prior exposure to Qatar or GCC hospitality environments is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with Qatar’s occupational health, safety, Civil Defence, and municipal requirements is beneficial.

Ideal Candidate Attributes

• Exceptional multi-site management and organizational skills.
• Strong leadership in vendor negotiation and contractor management.
• Hands-on problem solver with a pragmatic approach.
• Capability to simultaneously prioritize and manage multiple departments and projects.
• Calm under pressure with decisive communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.
• Collaborative mindset to work closely with Operations, HR, Finance, Central Kitchen, and restaurant management teams.

Performance Metrics

• Vehicle fleet availability and uptime.
• Timely resolution of maintenance requests per agreed SLAs.
• Decrease in recurring maintenance problems.
• Compliance and inspection outcomes for staff accommodation facilities.
• Reduction of transport-related staff attendance issues.
• Adherence to shared services budget.
• Contractor and vendor service-level agreement compliance.
• Closure of outstanding maintenance, safety, and facilities issues.
• Upholding cleaning and laundry quality standards.
• Overall satisfaction levels of operational units with shared service delivery.