Play Cafe Manager

About Leisure Lab and The Bean Play Cafe

Leisure Lab, established in 2018, is a leisure and entertainment business focused on developing, operating, and enhancing leisure ventures with an emphasis on guest experience and operational excellence. The company integrates international expertise across various sectors including attractions, family entertainment, hospitality, sport, and destination operations. Leisure Lab operates in three core areas: developing and operating leisure ventures, advising owners and investors on performance, and training teams through its Leisure Academy. This role is based at The Bean Play Cafe in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a family leisure and food & beverage concept.

Role Overview: Play Cafe Manager

The Play Cafe Manager serves as the central figure for The Bean Play Cafe, connecting the team, guests, and founders. This role involves leading daily operations, fostering community engagement, and identifying business development opportunities. The manager will be responsible for transforming ideas into practical initiatives to attract new guests, encourage repeat visits, and drive business growth. Working closely with the founders, the Play Cafe Manager will contribute to the development of The Bean, prioritizing safety, service, and team culture. This full-time position requires 5-10 years of experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Cultivate The Bean community through relationships with families, local businesses, nurseries, schools, compounds, and community groups.
• Identify and develop opportunities for external events, pop-ups, partnerships, and private or corporate bookings.
• Collaborate with founders to convert commercial opportunities into profitable experiences.
• Maintain a visible and approachable presence for guests and the team, upholding The Bean’s hospitality standards.
• Integrate café operations, entertainment, guest experience, and sales to ensure consistent service delivery.
• Develop team capabilities and operating standards to support future expansion.
• Manage daily opening readiness, safe staffing, capacity control, station allocations, relief, and closing procedures.
• Lead hiring, induction, coaching, performance reviews, scheduling, and sign-offs; appoint competent duty cover.
• Oversee food and play safety implementation, safeguarding escalation, incident follow-up, and documented corrective actions.
• Manage sales, labor, stock, controllable costs, cash reconciliation, approved purchasing, and operating reports within delegated limits.
• Resolve escalated complaints and coordinate maintenance, supplier support, and founders’ decisions; protect guest information.
• Support reception, floor hospitality, POS, or basic beverage service as needed, while maintaining a named person in charge.
• Manage venue sales plan, inquiry pipeline, packages, memberships, repeat visits, and team coaching.

Candidate Qualifications

• Operational Leadership: Proven experience managing a café, hospitality venue, family entertainment business, or leisure operation, with responsibility for team performance, guest satisfaction, and business results.
• Community Engagement: Outgoing, community-minded personality with the ability to build relationships with families, colleagues, and local partners.
• Commercial Acumen: Ability to identify opportunities, develop practical ideas, and execute them, from promotions to new events.
• Business Development: Confidence in approaching schools, nurseries, community groups, and corporate clients to secure bookings.
• Event Management: Capability to coordinate people, equipment, and logistics for safe and commercially successful events.
• Ownership and Entrepreneurial Mindset: Takes responsibility, makes sound decisions, and contributes to business growth, comfortable working with founders and adapting to evolving priorities.
• Coordination and Follow-through: Connects various operational aspects and external partners, ensuring alignment and delivery of commitments.
• People Development: Skilled in recruiting, coaching, and building a confident, multifunctional team.
• Financial and Performance Awareness: Understands sales, margins, labor, stock, and waste, translating business results and feedback into actions.
• Safety and Service Judgment: Ensures the safety of children, guests, and colleagues, maintains standards under pressure, and escalates issues appropriately.
• Growth Ambition: Motivated to shape operations, build repeatable standards, and earn broader leadership responsibility.

Preferred Experience

Experience in opening a new venue, growing a local community, developing partnerships, or delivering external events and pop-ups is considered a significant advantage for this role.

Work Environment

This full-time position is based at The Bean Play Cafe in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The role involves working closely with the founders and contributing to a team-oriented environment where safety and service are paramount. There is potential for growth into broader leadership responsibilities as the business expands.