What are the responsibilities and job description for the Associate - Strategy & Corporate Development position at Kent Hospitality Group?
Associate - Strategy & Development plays a key role in providing data-driven insights to optimize financial performance and operational efficiency across KHG. Additionally, it will support all growth functions of the business (organic new business and M&A). This position is ideal for candidates with 1-2 years of experience in finance, strategy, consulting or investment banking with strong proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, DAX, and Power BI, and a passion for leveraging data to drive strategic decision-making.
The Associate will be responsible for creating and maintaining weekly reports on cash flow and restaurant-level performance, analyzing trends, KPIs, working with leadership to identify opportunities for cost optimization and profitability improvement, and supporting sourcing and underwriting of new business opportunities.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Reporting & Strategy
The Associate will be responsible for creating and maintaining weekly reports on cash flow and restaurant-level performance, analyzing trends, KPIs, working with leadership to identify opportunities for cost optimization and profitability improvement, and supporting sourcing and underwriting of new business opportunities.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Reporting & Strategy
- Advise Executive team and Board of Directors on financial strategy by developing models and dashboards that optimize restaurant-level performance, food & beverage costs, labor efficiency, and revenue opportunities.
- Own cash flow forecasting and financial reporting at both the restaurant and corporate level, providing clear insights to drive real-time decision-making.
- Identify high-impact trends across sales, cost structures, and operational expenses, helping leadership make smart, data-driven business decisions.
- Collaborate with chefs and GMs to implement menu engineering and purchasing strategies that drive profitability.
- Work with internal teams to streamline financial reporting systems in Power BI, integrating data from multiple platforms to create a single source of truth for leadership.
- Develop scalable financial processes to improve efficiency across inventory management, purchasing, and cost control initiatives.
- Assist in restaurant-level budgeting, ensuring targets are met and costs are optimized.
- Support new business expansion by building financial models and presentations for new restaurant openings and M&A investments
- Maintain company operating model and support fundraising efforts
- Play a key role in managing the new business pipeline, both organic and inorganic, interfacing with brokers, landlords and target companies
- Lead training sessions and financial literacy workshops to help chefs, GMs, and team members understand financial KPIs and make data-driven decisions.
- Support leadership in presenting financial insights to investors and stakeholders.
- Advanced proficiency in Excel (Pivot Tables, VBA, Array Formulas, Dashboards).
- Experience with Power BI, DAX, SQL, or Python for data analysis and reporting.
- Strong understanding of financial modeling and data visualization.
- Strong communication skills, ability to think on your own and to arrive at solutions.
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, Computer Science, or a related field.
- 1-2 years of experience in Finance, Business Intelligence, Consulting, Investment Banking or FP&A.
