Restaurant Consultant jobs

The role in summary

In this role, you guide lodge clients through the sales and onboarding journey, from demonstrating Ops and leading commercial conversations to launching it on site and supporting adoption. You help lodge teams make Ops part of how the lodge runs. The first affiliates will help shape the courses, the launch process and the standard that every lodge after them works to.

About Smart Operator

Smart Operator builds Ops, the Operator Performance System, for the people hospitality never built for. The servers, housekeepers, chefs, guides, porters, and shift leads who carry the standard in hotels, restaurants, lodges, bars, QSR kitchens, and safari camps. 81% of the industry's workforce is frontline. Less than 1% of its technology was built for them. We didn't find that acceptable.

Our mission: to build the system the frontline operator was never given — and make them better every shift.

We took this on because it was hard, and because it needed doing. Wild Hospitality is our programme for safari lodges and camps.

What you'll own

You’ll be one of the first people taking Ops into safari lodges, helping clients move from their first demonstration through to a successful launch and ongoing adoption. Their experience will help shape how the programme works. This is an incredible opportunity to create real impact and change, at the heart of what we believe is Africa’s greatest export.

• Client sales. You take qualified lodge leads, which we provide or self-sourced, through the full Ops demonstration and lead the commercial conversation with owners, general managers and heads of department. You help clients understand how Ops can support their operation and guide them towards a signed agreement.
• Client onboarding and on-site launches. Once a lodge signs, you guide it through onboarding and lead the launch on site using our process: interviews and information gathering, a launch for heads of department, and a launch for the full team. The days need not be consecutive. You handle the technical build, and you make sure the lodge and its people are prepared for it.
• Course customisation. Lodges subscribe to the Wild Hospitality course library and adapt it to their own operation. You help them collect their SOPs and supporting documents, and advise where courses need to reflect the lodge's own standards, such as walking safari briefings, early wake-up calls and guest escorts after dark. This forms part of the technical build, which you will lead with the lodge.
• Ongoing client relationships. After launch, you remain the lodge's main point of contact. You hold monthly check-ins, monitor uptake across departments, follow up where usage drops, and identify when a lodge is ready to extend its use of the platform. This ongoing support is also what keeps your implementation commission active.
• Field feedback. You report what you see on the ground: how courses are received, where the Wild Hospitality Standard needs refining, and which properties to approach next. Feedback is logged with JP so that it informs our content and product decisions.

What great looks like within 6 months

• At least 4 meetings per week where qualified lodge clients are taken through demos and commercial conversations towards signed agreements
• Lodges you introduce are registered in the CRM within 48 hours and attributed in line with the affiliate agreement
• At least 4 - 6 lodges have been launched on site using our current process, with all heads of department trained
• Lodges you launched are still active three months after launch, and their managers treat you as their first point of contact
• You lead launches independently, with limited support from the central team
• Your field feedback has led to improvements to our Wild Hospitality offering or the launch process

What we're looking for

• At least five years' experience in safari lodges or camps, in guiding, lodge or camp management, or operations
• Confidence building relationships with lodge owners, general managers, head guides and heads of department
• Confidence presenting to lodge teams at every level, from management to frontline staff
• Available at least 4-8 hours per week, with the option to increase if needed
• Based in, or working regularly across, a safari region, with your own transport and availability for multi-day site visits
• Comfortable using a smartphone and willing to learn the platform. Technical experience is not required, and full training is provided
• Willingness to complete our OPS Certification within 10 days of it being made available to you. There is no cost to you and it is done on our platform
• No current role selling or representing a competing operations, training or quality platform for hospitality teams
• Able to work as an independent contractor, invoice monthly and manage your own tax affairs
• Location: Eastern Cape, Johannesburg, KZN

It helps if you have

• A FGASA qualification, or experience as a registered FGASA assessor or trainer
• Experience training or developing lodge staff
• Bonus: lodge introductions. An established network of lodge owners, general managers, head guides and heads of department is a bonus. If you introduce a lodge from your network, you can present Ops briefly and give them access to the Wild Hospitality demo space through your personal QR code. Register each lead in our CRM within 48 hours of first contact to secure attribution for 120 days. There are no exclusive territories.

Expected hours: 4.0 – 8.0 per week

Application Question(s):

• Do you have a strong network of relationships within the safari industry in your area?
• Are you currently based in KZN, Johannesburg or Eastern Cape?
• Do you have your own transport and a valid driver's licence?
• This is a independent contractor engagement on a revenue share model. Are you comfortable working on that basis?

Willingness to travel:

• 25% (Preferred)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in KwaZulu-Natal