ABOUT THE DREAM
The Dream is a community-driven live music venue built on a simple belief: music lives here. We exist to give artists a stage and audiences a home, and much of what happens on any given night is made possible by a dedicated team of volunteers who welcome, feed, and care for our guests. As a new organization, we are trying to combine the warmth of a grassroots community space with the standards and reliability of a professional hospitality operation.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Front of House Manager is a full-time, paid leadership role responsible for everything our guests experience from the moment they arrive until the moment they leave. Reporting to the Executive/Operations Director, the Front of House Manager leads and inspires a team of front-of-house volunteers — greeters, cashiers, servers, bartenders, cooks, fixers, and cleaners — to deliver a warm, safe, and seamless experience at every event. This is a hands-on role that blends people leadership, hospitality operations, and volunteer engagement, ideal for someone who thrives in a live-events environment and loves building community.
Leading Our Volunteers
Volunteers are the heart of The Dream, and this role lives or dies by how well they are treated and led. Almost everything the Front of House Manager needs to accomplish on a given night can and should be delivered through volunteers — so the single biggest factor in whether the job feels smooth or overwhelming is the manager's ability to make volunteering here a genuinely enjoyable, rewarding experience. When volunteers feel welcomed, supported, well-organized, and appreciated, they show up, they stay, they take initiative, and the whole operation runs itself. When they don't, every shift becomes harder to staff and every task becomes heavier to carry.
We are looking for someone who understands this in their bones: a leader who invests in people, sets them up to succeed, notices and celebrates their contributions, and builds a front-of-house culture that volunteers are proud to be part of and eager to return to. Inspiring, supporting, and retaining our volunteer team is not a side task of this role — it is the core of it.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Guest experience & hospitality
- Own the end-to-end guest experience for every event, ensuring a welcoming, inclusive, and memorable atmosphere.
- Set and uphold service standards across greeting, seating, food and beverage service, and guest support.
- Serve as the on-the-floor point of contact during events, responding to guest questions, feedback, and issues with professionalism and care.
Volunteer leadership & engagement
- Make volunteering at The Dream an enjoyable, rewarding experience — this is the most important measure of success in the role.
- Recruit, onboard, train, and schedule the volunteer front-of-house team, ensuring every shift is appropriately staffed.
- Provide clear direction, encouragement, and in-the-moment coaching so volunteers feel confident, valued, and set up to succeed.
- Recognize and celebrate volunteers' contributions, building loyalty and strong retention so the same familiar faces keep coming back.
- Foster a positive, appreciative, inclusive volunteer culture that people are proud to be part of and that strengthens community ties.
- Coordinate volunteer roles across greeting, cashiering, serving, bartending, kitchen support, repairs, and cleaning.
Operations & event execution
- Open and close the front of house, ensuring the space is clean, stocked, safe, and event-ready before doors and properly reset afterward.
- Coordinate closely with the Technical Director, Programming team, and hosts to align front-of-house service with each night's show.
- Oversee food and beverage service flow, including bar and kitchen support, to keep wait times low and quality high.
- Manage point-of-sale and cash handling at entry and service points, ensuring accuracy and accountability.
Safety, compliance & standards
- Uphold health, safety, food-handling, and responsible-alcohol-service standards, and ensure volunteers are trained accordingly.
- Enforce venue capacity, accessibility, and emergency procedures to keep guests and volunteers safe.
- Maintain cleanliness and presentation standards throughout front-of-house and guest areas.
Administration & continuous improvement
- Track attendance, service metrics, and guest feedback, and report insights to the Operations Director.
- Help manage front-of-house supplies, inventory, and vendor needs within budget.
- Contribute to process improvements that make each event run more smoothly than the last.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
Required
- Prior experience in hospitality, food and beverage, events, or venue operations, including time in a supervisory or lead role.
- Demonstrated ability to lead, motivate, and coordinate teams — experience working with volunteers is a strong asset.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with a genuine warmth toward guests and team members alike.
- Calm, solutions-focused judgment under the pressure of a live event.
- Strong organizational skills and comfort managing scheduling, cash handling, and basic reporting.
- Availability to work evenings, weekends, and event days as required.
Preferred
- FoodSafe and Serve-It-Right certifications (or willingness to obtain).
- Familiarity with point-of-sale systems and basic inventory management.
- A passion for live music and community-centered spaces.
- First aid / emergency response training.
WHY JOIN US?
At The Dream, you'll be at the heart of a venue where music brings people together night after night. You'll build and lead a team that makes newcomers feel like regulars, shape the guest experience from the ground up, and play a central role in a mission-driven organization that genuinely values the people who make it run.
Compensation & Benefits
This is a full-time, paid position. The proposed salary range is $40,000 - $70,000 per annum commensurate with experience. While we are still finalizing the details, we intend to offer a full benefits package as soon as the organization qualifies to do so.
Pay: $20.00-$35.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Flexible schedule
Work Location: In person
