Rahid's CV
Rahid JILANI
GENERAL MANAGER | OPERATIONS MANAGER | MULTI-UNIT F&B & HOSPITALITY LEADERSHIP
Profile summary
Strategic General Manager with 14 years shaping multi-unit F&B and hospitality outcomes across the GCC, fluent in English, Arabic, and Hindi. Known for full profit and loss accountability, pre-opening leadership, and multi-cultural team building. Committed to driving commercial growth, cost control, and operational excellence across complex multi-channel portfolios.
Career highlights
Multi-Unit P&L Management: Held full commercial ownership of a 5-outlet premium dining group, managing a 65-person team and repositioning strategy to drive 34% revenue growth in the first 90 days.
Multi-Channel Operations: Shaped commercial strategy with full P&L accountability for a 9-outlet portfolio, directing operations and supplier negotiations while cutting the operating cost base 12 percent.
Multi-Outlet Launch Leadership: Directed pre-opening and launch operations across multiple venues, executing recruitment, training, and standard operating procedure implementation through to stable trading.
HACCP Food Safety: Maintained food safety compliance standards through supervision of daily dining operations and adherence to HACCP guidelines.
Key skills
Professional experience
Directed commercial and operational oversight for a five-outlet premium dining group. Managed a sixty-five-person team across daily service delivery and administrative workflows, reporting directly to ownership.
- Repositioned menu and commercial strategy, driving 34% revenue growth in the first 90 days.
- Raised gross margin by 9 points while holding the cost of sales under 24% and cutting food wastage 22% through tighter procurement and inventory management.
- Structured training and performance management programs, lifting labour productivity 30% and reducing turnover 22%.
- Led pre-opening operations for a new outlet from an empty site to launch-ready, encompassing team build, SOP development, and site readiness.
- Built KPI dashboards tracking revenue, labour productivity, and waste to provide ownership with real-time commercial visibility.
Defined commercial strategy with full profit and loss accountability for a multi-channel portfolio spanning dine-in, delivery, and wholesale. Steered a multi-site workforce across all locations, directing daily operations and supplier negotiations.
- Commercial and promotional planning drove 27 percent revenue growth across the portfolio.
- Budgeting discipline and supplier renegotiation cut the operating cost base 12 percent.
- Launched 4 new outlets from the ground up, directing recruitment, training, standard operating procedure rollout, and supplier onboarding.
Guided multi-unit hospitality operations encompassing large-scale events, banquets, and catering across a lifestyle group, steering a 90-person team while enforcing brand consistency, commercial targets, and operational standards.
- Directed pre-opening and launch of 6 outlets, executing recruitment, training, and standard operating procedure implementation through to stable trading.
- Managed a portfolio of 3 outlets and the events division, including one flagship outlet generating 146,000 in average monthly sales.
- Oversaw large-scale outdoor and offsite catering operations, managing vendor and inventory logistics while sustaining standards under high-volume conditions.
Steered daily front-of-house and back-of-house operations for a major Dubai food and beverage brand, maintaining five-star service standards across 200 daily covers.
- Managed pre-opening and launch operations for 3 additional Dubai outlets, executing recruitment, training, and standard operating procedure rollouts through stabilisation.
- Delivered monthly sales of AED 208,000, maintaining consistent revenue performance across the outlet.
- Streamlined table-turn processes to increase service speed during peak dining periods.
- Organized pre-shift briefings for floor staff to align service delivery with daily capacity goals.
- Oversaw banquet operations.
- Coordinated execution of special events.
- Monitored daily food preparation and service areas to ensure adherence to safety regulations.
- Checked equipment functionality and staff compliance with sanitation protocols.
Education
Tourism & Hotel Management
- Mumbai
Certifications
Languages
English · Fluent
Arabic · Intermediate
Hindi · Native