About the Role

RDMS is hiring a Restaurant Advisory Operations Manager to help keep client work moving when communication, coordination, or follow-through becomes the obstacle.

This is not an accounting production role. This person will not be responsible for doing bookkeeping, preparing financial statements, managing accounting staff, or reviewing accounting quality. Those responsibilities remain with our accounting leadership team.

This role is for someone who can step in when a client-facing issue is stuck, figure out what needs to happen next, communicate clearly with the right people, and make sure the issue gets resolved.

We primarily serve independent restaurant groups and founder-led hospitality businesses. The ideal candidate understands the realities of working with entrepreneurial operators where communication, priorities, and processes may be less structured than in large corporate organizations.

The person in this role will work directly alongside a Partner at first. Training will happen through direct exposure, shadowing, client meetings, internal discussions, and hands-on follow-through. For example, if the Partner attends a client meeting, this person may attend, prepare the recap, identify next steps, and help make sure the deliverables are completed.

Over time, this person will also be trained to lead new client implementations from kickoff through steady-state service.

What This Role Does

The Client Operations Manager helps resolve issues that are not strictly accounting issues, but that affect the accounting work.

Examples include:

• A client is not responding to requests from the AP, payroll, or accounting team.
• A vendor or third party is holding up progress.
• A client does not understand a deadline, request, process, or expectation.
• A department has already tried to resolve an issue, but it still is not complete.
• A new client implementation needs coordination, follow-up, and clear communication.
• A meeting creates action items that need to be tracked and completed.
• Internal teams need help getting information, answers, approvals, or decisions from a client.

This role does not manage a fixed list of clients. Instead, it supports the company across clients and departments when client or vendor communication becomes the bottleneck.

The goal is not to become a permanent middleman between the client and the accounting teams. The goal is to help get issues unstuck, strengthen the process, and return ownership to the correct department once the issue is resolved.

Primary Responsibilities

Client Implementations

• Lead new client implementations from kickoff through transition into regular service.
• Coordinate client meetings, information requests, timelines, internal handoffs, and follow-up.
• Help clients understand RDMS processes, tools, deadlines, and expectations.
• Track open items and make sure required information is received.
• Work with internal teams to make sure the client is set up correctly and ready for ongoing service.

Client Communication and Follow-Through

• Attend client meetings with a Partner during the training period.
• Prepare meeting recaps, action items, and follow-up communication.
• Help move client requests and deliverables to completion.
• Communicate clearly with clients, vendors, and internal teams.
• Follow up until an issue is resolved, reassigned, or escalated.

Operational Issue Resolution

• Step in when a client-facing issue is preventing normal work from moving forward.
• Work with Supervisors, the Director of Accounting, and Partners to understand the issue.
• Identify what is blocking progress.
• Contact clients, vendors, or third parties when needed.
• Recommend practical next steps.
• Keep the right people informed until the issue is resolved.

Internal Coordination

• Support departments when client or vendor communication is holding up their work.
• Help clarify expectations, deadlines, ownership, and next steps.
• Make sure issues do not get lost between departments.
• Support process improvements when repeated client issues are creating delays.

Advancement Opportunities

This role is designed to grow over time for someone who demonstrates strong judgment, communication skills, ownership, and the ability to drive results.

As experience is gained, the Client Operations Manager will have opportunities to learn how RDMS analyzes and presents financial information to restaurant operators in an operational and decision-making context.

This may include learning how to:

• Interpret restaurant financial statements and key performance indicators.
• Connect financial results to operational drivers such as labor, food cost, sales mix, and operational execution.
• Participate in client financial review meetings.
• Present portions of financial and operational reporting to clients.
• Lead certain client P&L review meetings when requested by the client and approved by the Partners.

The goal is not to develop this role into an accounting position. Rather, it is to create opportunities for the right person to expand their business, operational, and client advisory skills while taking on increasing levels of responsibility within the organization.

What This Role Does Not Do

This role does not:

• Perform accounting production work.
• Manage accounting staff.
• Own accounting quality control.
• Make final technical accounting decisions.
• Handle staff performance issues.
• Replace department supervisors.
• Become the permanent communication layer between every client and every department.

Accounting execution, staff development, capacity planning, and accounting quality remain with the accounting leadership team.

Who This Role Reports To

This position reports directly to Tom Rutledge, Partner.

The role also works closely with:

• Accounting Supervisors
• Director of Accounting Operations
• Partners
• Client contacts
• Vendors and third parties, when needed

Required Experience and SkillsBusiness Number Literacy

You do not need to be an accountant. We will teach you how we do finance.

You should understand how a business is managed using financial information.

For example, you should have experience with things like P&Ls, food cost, labor cost, sales, margins, budgets, or operating results.

If you have never managed a hospitality based business, department, or operating area using numbers, this role will likely be difficult.

Operational Experience

You should have experience managing people, priorities, projects, departments, locations, or client-facing work.

Strong candidates may come from backgrounds such as:

• Independent restaurant or hospitality operations
• Multi-unit restaurant management (non-franchise/corporate)
• Director of Operations roles

Communication Skills

This role requires strong written and verbal communication.

You must be able to:

• Communicate clearly with busy restaurant operators.
• Follow up without being pushy or passive.
• Handle unclear situations calmly.
• Build trust with clients and internal teams.
• Explain what is needed, by when, and why.
• Keep issues moving without creating unnecessary conflict.

Restaurant or Hospitality Knowledge

Restaurant, hospitality, or multi-unit operations experience is required.

It is helpful if you understand common restaurant systems such as:

• POS systems
• Online ordering platforms
• Inventory systems
• Event systems
• Payroll or scheduling systems
• Vendor portals

You do not need to be an expert in every system, but you should be comfortable learning how systems connect to daily operations and accounting workflows.

Good Fit

You may be a strong fit if you:

• Are good at getting stuck issues finished.
• Can work with incomplete information and still identify the next step.
• Are comfortable talking to clients, vendors, operators, and internal teams.
• You are comfortable working with entrepreneurial business owners who often wear multiple hats, move quickly, and may not have large corporate support structures.
• Know how to follow up until something is actually done.
• Can build trust without taking over everyone else’s job.
• Understand that service businesses depend on both process and people.
• Are willing to learn through shadowing, direct feedback, and real client situations.
• Can work remotely but are available for Bay Area client or office meetings when needed.

Poor Fit

This role is probably not a good fit if you:

• Need every task to have a perfectly defined process before you can act.
• You are most comfortable working within highly structured corporate environments where responsibilities, communication channels, and escalation paths are rigidly defined.
• Avoid follow-up when people do not respond.
• Prefer accounting production work over communication and coordination.
• Want to manage a fixed client portfolio.
• Want to manage accounting staff.
• Create dependency instead of helping teams resolve issues.
• Struggle to communicate clearly with clients or internal teams.
• Are not located in the Bay Area.

Benefits

• Medical benefits
• 401(k)
• Paid time off
• Years 1 through 4: 2 weeks
• Year 5 and after: 3 weeks

Pay: $95,000.00 - $115,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Retirement plan
• Vision insurance

Application Question(s):

• Do you have 5+ years of hospitality/restaurant specific multi-unit management?

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Petaluma, CA 94955