Nando's UK & IRE
Central Operations Project Lead
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Overall Purpose Of Role
Nando’s is on a journey of Changing Lives Together, creating lasting happiness for our people, our customers, and the communities we work in. Originally started in Johannesburg, South Africa, we pride ourselves on creating memorable experiences for everyone involved in Nando’s: from our employees, communities, founders, and suppliers, but most importantly, our customers.
As Project Lead within the Technical Operations portfolio, you will take full ownership of the end-to-end delivery of high-priority projects. You will be accountable for driving and executing both strategic and tactical initiatives across food, equipment, innovation, and processes, directly aligned with the Nando’s ambition of Running Restaurants Brilliantly and Creating Shared Value.
The role demands a strong balance of strategic vision, financial acumen, data-driven decision-making, and project leadership, underpinned by a deep understanding of operational principles in a multi-channel restaurant environment. You will lead cross-functional collaboration across central operations, influencing and engaging stakeholders at all levels to ensure alignment and successful implementation. With accountability for scoping, planning, execution, and embedding initiatives into business-as-usual, you will ensure projects deliver measurable impact in efficiency, sustainability, and commercial performance. This is a dynamic, hands-on role requiring adaptability, resilience, and the ability to drive results in a fast-changing operational landscape.
A day in the life...
Project Planning
- Lead the workflow of multiple operational projects across process, equipment, and innovation, from inception through to full integration into BAU activities.
- Scope requirements, define objectives, and conduct in-depth analysis to identify opportunities, ensuring delivery of scalable, sustainable, and commercially viable solutions.
- Design, own, and deliver comprehensive project and programme plans, applying structured methodologies to ensure initiatives are executed effectively within agreed scope, time, quality, and resource parameters (people and budgets).
- Build and maintain strong stakeholder relationships at all levels of the organisation, ensuring alignment, clarity of requirements, and proactive management of expectations.
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Project Execution
- Own and lead projects and programmes through the full lifecycle, from initiation to successful delivery and transition into BAU, ensuring outcomes meet agreed objectives.
- Drive cross-functional collaboration, bringing the right expertise and knowledge into the project at the right time to maximise impact and efficiency.
- Direct, coordinate, and oversee project activities, ensuring milestones are achieved on time and in line with the project plan, while actively monitoring and reporting progress to stakeholders.
- Identify, assess, and manage project risks end-to-end, developing and implementing mitigation strategies and contingencies, and proactively addressing obstacles to safeguard project success.
Change Management
- Design and lead change management strategies in line with the Nando’s Operating Model, ensuring smooth adoption and long-term success of project deliverables.
- Champion effective communication and engagement, proactively addressing resistance, concerns, and barriers to change across all stakeholder groups.
- Collaborate with relevant teams to design, facilitate, and embed change initiatives, ensuring projects are integrated seamlessly into BAU and deliver sustained business impact.
Quality Assurance
- Establish and lead project/programme cadence and governance, ensuring robust reporting on progress, delivery, and outcomes. Take accountability for ensuring all deliverables meet defined quality standards and conduct regular reviews to validate success.
- Leverage data and business systems to generate actionable insights, tracking progress against objectives, identifying requirements, and driving continuous improvements.
- Own the identification and mitigation of operational, food, and health & safety risks, proactively implementing controls and ensuring compliance throughout the project lifecycle.
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Hot Skills Required
- Demonstrated track record, 3-5+ years experience, of leading complex projects/programmes, with the agility to adapt and grow expertise across diverse operational challenges.
- Experience from a mid-sized (50+ sites) hospitality business ideal with strong knowledge of Food Safety and Quality Standards, including HACCP and other relevant regulations, ensuring compliance across food production and operations.
- Strong commercial awareness with responsibility for project budgets, P&L management, cost modelling, and delivering value-driven outcomes.
- Proven ability to think strategically and translate insight into actionable, data-driven decisions that deliver measurable business impact.
- Exceptional communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and engage at all levels of the organisation.
- Expertise in process improvement, with experience in identifying inefficiencies, designing solutions, and embedding sustainable operational improvements.
- Proficiency in equipment management, including oversight of installation, maintenance, and optimisation to ensure operational efficiency and resilience.
- Comprehensive risk management capability, with experience in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to safeguard project success and operational continuity.
- Advanced data analysis and reporting skills, leveraging analytics to monitor performance, generate insight, and inform continuous improvement.
Extra Hot Benefits
- Company bonus
- Private healthcare
- 25 days holiday + bank holidays
- Free Nando's at your place of work (and 40% discount when you're not working)
- Annual team trips, AKA a free holiday
- Four-week sabbatical every five years you've been with us
- Reward Gateway membership and access to great discounts
This is a hybrid role based from our Putney office 3 days a week.
We know that great candidates don’t always match every requirement exactly. If your experience is close to what we’re looking for and you’re excited by the role, we’d still love to hear from you.
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