Restaurant Cafe jobs in Kent

Turn your hospitality experience into a career in consultancy

Are you a hospitality graduate with a couple of years’ experience under your belt and ready for something different?

At MYA, we’re looking for ambitious, commercially minded people to join our growing consulting team. You might currently be working in hotels, restaurants, contract catering, visitor attractions or another food and beverage environment and wondering what the next step looks like.

This could be it.

You’ll work alongside experienced consultants on exciting food and beverage projects across the UK and internationally, helping some fascinating organisations rethink how their F&B operations work.

From understanding what happens behind the scenes in a busy operation to analysing data, developing new concepts, building business cases and helping bring new restaurants and catering operations to life, no two projects are quite the same.

This is a hands-on role with real responsibility, but you won’t be expected to know everything on day one. We’re looking for potential, curiosity and a strong grounding in hospitality. We’ll help you develop the consulting skills around it.

What you’ll do

You’ll be involved throughout the life of a project, working with colleagues and clients to turn ideas and analysis into practical solutions.

Your work could include:

• Visiting and reviewing restaurants, cafés, hotels, visitor attractions and other F&B operations
• Analysing sales, labour, menus, capacity, customer behaviour and operational performance
• Researching markets, trends and competitors to identify new opportunities
• Helping develop F&B strategies, concepts, menus and operating models
• Looking at how kitchens, service areas and customer spaces need to work operationally
• Supporting financial modelling, benchmarking and business cases
• Helping clients with catering tenders, procurement and supplier selection
• Producing clear, engaging reports and presentations
• Attending client meetings, workshops and project presentations
• Working with our in-house design team to help translate operational thinking into physical spaces
• Contributing to proposals, case studies and thought leadership as you develop your consulting experience

As your experience grows, so will your responsibility, including managing your own workstreams and developing direct client relationships.

Who we’re looking for

We’re particularly interested in someone at the beginning of an ambitious career in hospitality and consultancy.

Ideally, you’ll have:

• A degree in hospitality management, hotel management, food and beverage, business with a hospitality focus, or another closely aligned field
• Around two years’ professional experience following graduation, ideally within hospitality, foodservice or a related environment
• A genuine interest in how successful food and beverage businesses work commercially and operationally
• Strong analytical skills and confidence working with numbers
• Good Excel, Word and PowerPoint skills
• The ability to write clearly and communicate your thinking
• Curiosity, initiative and the confidence to ask good questions
• A practical understanding of hospitality operations and the realities of delivering great guest experiences
• A professional, personable approach with clients and colleagues
• The ambition to learn quickly and take on increasing responsibility

You should be based within reasonable travelling distance of Hastings, or willing and able to travel to our Hastings offices regularly. Our work also involves visiting client sites across the UK and occasionally internationally, so flexibility to travel is important.

Nice to have

You don’t need to tick every box, but we’d be interested to hear about experience in areas such as:

• Hotels, restaurants, contract catering or multi-site F&B
• Visitor attractions, cultural venues, leisure or events
• Financial or operational analysis
• Catering design or kitchen operations
• Procurement or tender processes
• Food safety and compliance
• Accessibility and inclusive design

Most importantly, we’re interested in people who are bright, curious and genuinely interested in the business of hospitality.

Why MYA?

At MYA, you won’t spend your first few years sitting on the sidelines.

You’ll work alongside experienced consultants and designers, meet clients, visit operations, contribute ideas and see projects move from a blank sheet of paper through to opening and operation.

You’ll get exposure to different sectors, businesses and challenges much faster than you typically would in a single hospitality operation.

We offer:

• Ambitious and varied F&B projects in the UK and internationally
• Real responsibility and client exposure from an early stage
• Structured development and support from experienced consultants
• Funded training and opportunities to build specialist expertise
• Competitive salary, profit share and performance bonus
• Clear opportunities for progression as MYA grows
• A collaborative team where good ideas are valued regardless of job title

We’re looking for someone who wants to build a career with us, not simply fill a role.

About MYA

Founded in 1992 and led by CEO Carla McKenzie, MYA is an independent food and beverage consultancy working across the UK and internationally.

We combine strategy, data, operational expertise and in-house design to help clients create better-performing F&B businesses and experiences.

Our work can start with a simple question – “How could this work better?” – and take us all the way through strategy, commercial modelling, design, procurement and implementation.

Ultimately, clients come to us for outcomes: better throughput at peak, stronger margins, smarter use of space, more sustainable operations and better guest experiences.

In other words, the things that matter once the glossy mood board has gone home.

Interested?

Please email your CV and covering letter to jeroen.schuijt@mya-consulting.co.uk with the subject line Management Consultant (F&B).

We’d also love to see two examples of work you’re proud of. These don’t have to be formal consultancy reports – they could be university projects, presentations, business plans, analysis, proposals or work you’ve produced professionally.

If your experience doesn’t match everything above but you think you’d be great at the role, tell us why. We’d still like to hear from you.

MYA is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and particularly encourage candidates who bring different perspectives, experiences and ideas to our team.

Pay: £32,000.00-£35,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Free parking
• Health & wellbeing programme
• On-site parking

Application question(s):

• Location and ability to commute to TN38 9UH.

Education:

• Bachelor's (required)

Experience:

• Professional Hospitality, foodservice or related environment: 2 years (required)

Willingness to travel:

• 25% (preferred)

Work Location: In person