Job Description

Kitchen Manager

Location: Chicago, IL (Fulton Market)

Employment Type: Full-Time (30-40 hours)

About OMAKAI

OMAKAI is a traditional sushi restaurant with one aim: to be known for blowing people's minds. Everything we do rests on three guarantees: warm rice for contrast, crispy nori for texture, and kind service. Every guest, every visit.

We serve high-quality traditional sushi at an accessible price, and we are growing across South Florida and expanding to other cities nationally with our full-service restaurants and hand roll bars. We aim to hold ourselves to a five-star hotel standard in a casual dining room, which means the details matter here more than they do in most restaurants.

We treat every guest with genuine kindness and focus heavily on execution. Our team runs on accountability, reliability, and doing what we say we will do.

Position Overview

We are seeking an exceptional Kitchen Manager with at least three years of sushi or Japanese kitchen experience, including at least one year leading a back-of-house team. Strong knife skills and working knowledge of prep, slicing, nigiri, and hand roll stations are required.

The Kitchen Manager runs the kitchen and is accountable for its people, its numbers, and its standards. You will lead, manage, and hold the entire back-of-house team and the Assistant Kitchen Manager accountable, set the tone for performance and culture on every shift, own training and development for all back-of-house staff, drive the kitchen's key metrics including food cost, labor, and waste, oversee inventory, safety, and sanitation compliance, and step into Assistant Kitchen Manager duties whenever the kitchen needs it. We are looking for a skilled sushi chef who leads by example, pulls up the recipe to coach rather than to shame, spots operational problems early, and knows what excellence looks like on a busy line.

Responsibilities

Leadership and Team Accountability

• Lead, manage, and hold the entire back-of-house team and the Assistant Kitchen Manager accountable every shift, setting the tone for performance, culture, and standards
• Lead by example on the line, stepping onto a station when the kitchen needs it
• Coach in the moment by pulling up the recipe and showing a chef rather than shaming them
• Protect team morale and motivation, and surface operational issues to upper management early

Kitchen Operations and Station Oversight

• Perform every Assistant Kitchen Manager responsibility when needed, running back-of-house in their absence
• Oversee kitchen operations across prep, service, and breakdown, with every station set up correctly before service, running smoothly during, and cleaned and restocked afterward
• Enforce recipe adherence to OMAKAI standards, correcting a deviation in technique, portioning, or presentation before it reaches the pass, and re-sequencing the line when a station falls behind or an ingredient runs short

Training and Development

• Lead onboarding and ongoing development for all back-of-house staff, assigning shadow shifts and tracking checklist completion
• Own training standards and sign off on staff readiness before a chef works a station alone
• Train the team on recipes and standard operating procedures, and identify growth opportunities for high performers

Performance and Scorecard Results

• Track and drive kitchen performance against key metrics, including food cost, labor, waste, and operational targets
• Review results with the team regularly and course correct when the numbers are off track
• Own the food cost and waste numbers, and report results and operational risks to upper management early with practical solutions ready to execute

Operational Standards and Compliance

• Oversee inventory counts, tracking, and reporting, and flag discrepancies or shortages promptly
• Receive deliveries, verify orders against invoices, and place vendor orders on assigned days
• Enforce safety protocols and sanitation compliance so health, safety, and operational standards are met consistently, with violations addressed immediately

Qualifications

• Three years of sushi or Japanese kitchen experience required, including at least one year in a back-of-house management or lead role
• Experience leading, coaching, and holding a kitchen team accountable during peak volume
• Knife skills and station knowledge across prep, slicing, nigiri, and hand rolls
• Food manager and sexual harassment prevention certifications required, and all can be obtained during training. We cover the cost of both certificates once you pass the 90-day probation mark
• Full open availability, including nights, weekends, and holidays
• Able to learn and memorize every recipe and standard operating procedure in detail, including ingredients, cuts, portioning, and plating
• Comfortable with scheduling, labor and inventory tracking, ordering, and reporting, including basic math under pressure
• Communicates clearly and calmly with the team and upper management, even during a rush
• High school diploma or equivalent preferred but not required
• Reliable transportation to and from the restaurant
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States

Working Conditions

• Indoor kitchen environment in a restaurant that handles fish, seafood, vegetables, fruits, wheat products, rice, dry seaweed, sauces, and many other food and beverage products
• Candidates with food allergies must inform management during the application process
• Regular exposure to raw fish and seafood, sharp knives, hot surfaces, and walk-in cooler temperatures
• Noise levels vary depending on how busy the restaurant is
• Standing at a station for long periods, with some bending and kneeling to reach items such as pans, containers, sauces, and dry goods
• Lifting and moving up to 50 pounds, including fish cases, rice, and receiving deliveries
• Repetitive knife work and plating throughout the shift
• Time split between the line and administrative work such as scheduling, inventory, ordering, and reporting

Characteristics We Value

• Genuinely kind, with humility that shows in how you coach and correct
• Reliable without exception, running a tight, prepared kitchen every shift
• Detail-oriented, correcting a cut, temperature, or plating that is not quite right
• Composed under pressure, calm and focused through the busiest turns
• Resourceful, re-sequencing the line and finding solutions while keeping quality intact
• Honest and accountable, including about your own misses on food cost, waste, or sanitation
• Ambitious, driven to run a tight, clean, profitable kitchen and grow beyond this seat
• Team first, developing your chefs and giving credit where it belongs

Core Values

• Hospitality from the heart, applied to your team as much as your guests. You lead the back-of-house team with humility, protect morale, and coach a chef by pulling up the recipe and showing them rather than shaming them.
• Be Reliable.You run a tight, prepared kitchen every shift and own the food cost and waste numbers. When something goes wrong, you take accountability instead of blaming the team.
• Blowing Minds.A five-star hotel mentality in a casual room, where mediocrity bothers you. You hold every station to recipe and to OMAKAI's culinary vision, and you instinctively correct a cut, temperature, or plating that is not quite right.
• Make It Happen.Three layers of solutions before you escalate. When a station falls behind or an ingredient runs short, you jump in, re-sequence the line, and find a solution while keeping quality intact.
• No Drama.You keep the kitchen calm and focused under pressure and shut down gossip at the source. You surface real issues to upper management rather than venting frustration, and the best idea wins no matter who it comes from.
• Build Trust.You operate in the open with food safety and with your numbers, and you own mistakes rather than covering them. You never cut corners on sanitation or quality to save time.

This May Not Be the Right Fit If

• You see this seat as a senior chef who also does some ordering, rather than the leader of the kitchen
• You would rather just cut fish and be left alone, and see leading the team, training, and compliance as someone else's job
• You do not want to own team leadership, training standards, scorecard results, or safety and sanitation compliance
• You get frustrated with how things are going but hold the issues back instead of raising them with upper management
• You let ego get in the way of the team, or let morale drop by tolerating complaints and drama
• You bring negativity, gossip, or dark energy into the kitchen, or tolerate it from others
• You have excellent knife skills but no bandwidth for leading people, tracking numbers, and owning compliance at once

Compensation & Benefits

• $76,000 to $82,000 base depending on experience
• Quarterly bonuses depending on performance and hitting kitchen and store targets
• Paid time off
• Sick days
• Additional personal unpaid time off
• Medical and other insurance reimbursements
• Daily meal when working
• $500 monthly credits for personal use at any of our locations
• 50% meal discount if credits run out
• Paid food manager and sexual harassment prevention trainings after passing 90-day probation period
• Free parking
• Flexible scheduling
• A dedicated onboarding and training program

Equal Opportunity Employer

OMAKAI is an equal opportunity employer. This employer must notify all applicants of their rights under federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.