Executive Director

About Social Bite:

Founded by Josh Littlejohn MBE and Alice Thompson, Social Bite began life as a small cafe in Edinburgh, Scotland, in August 2012. They quickly became involved in the homelessness issue, when a young homeless man named Peter Hart came into the cafe one day to ask them for a job. When Josh and Alice offered this young man employment, this was the origin of an unexpected 9 years of charitable work and campaigning on the homelessness issue.

Through their extensive fundraising, the profits from their hugely popular chain of social enterprise sandwich shops, and now their award winning restaurant in the west end of Edinburgh, Vesta Bar & Kitchen, headed up by David Hall, formerly of Tigerlilly and Innes & Gun, Social Bite are able to run a number of Scottish, UK and Global initiatives aimed at ending homelessness and food poverty, such as:

• Food Provision and Homeless Engagement Programmes
• Nationwide Employment Programmes
• The Social Bite Village
• Housing First Scotland
• Academic Studies and Lobbying
• Christmas Dinner and Present Initiatives
• Supporting Other Charities

For more information on Social Bite and the great work they do, please visit their website:

About Us – Social Bite (social-bite.co.uk)

As a result of their on-going growth, future plans and the with the purpose of scaling for success we are delighted to be partnering with Social Bite to recruit the newly created role of Executive Director – Operations.

Purpose (Why the role exists)

The senior operations executive in the charity, with full responsibility and accountability for the management, operational decision making, safe operation, performance, systems, process and governance for the organisation.

This role will take on the oversight and management of the following areas:

• Social Bite Ltd (cafes, kitchen, catering, brownies, food safety etc)
• Social Bite Restaurants Ltd
• Liaising and reporting into relevant subsidiary boards
• Social Impact and Services (academy, food provision, jobs first, innovation engine, SB village, safeguarding)
• HR and People
• Policies and governance

Key Objectives

• To work closely with the Executive Director Founder, to operationalise the 3-year vision and strategy for Social Bite, in consultation with the Executive Chair and SBF Board of trustees.
• Accountable for the operations across Social Impact and Social Bite Ltd, human resourcing and social impact services delivered by the organisation to support the successful delivery of the 3-year plan.
• This role is accountable for identifying, communicating and mitigating the overall strategic risks for the charity, including the maintenance of an appropriate level of unrestricted reserves.
• Accountable for ensuring all parts of the charities operation and all employees, understand and comply with the relevant legal standards and requirements – as appropriate by activity and function.
• To work closely with the Executive Director Founder, along with the Executive Chair, to describe, communicate, enable, measure and evolve the culture and values of the charity.
• To personally embody the agreed, unique and compelling values of Social Bite. Responsibility for the operations of the charity and delivery of the KPI’s as agreed with the Executive Chair.
• Accountable for the safety of all who engage with the services and activities of Social Bite.
• To act as the bridge between SBF and the various boards that operate within the charity, delivering excellent and timely communication to ensure all parties are aligned.
• To act as senior contact between the charity and the regulator OSCR.

How to Apply:

For more information or to apply please contact Michael Dickson, Director at FWB Park Brown, via michael@fwbparkbrown.com or call him on 0131 539 7087 for an initial confidential discussion.