Industry recruiting guideRead at source, 29 September 2026

Restaurant Staff Positions List: Front of House, Back of House and Kitchen Roles

A full restaurant staff positions list splits into two sides. Front of house (FOH) is everyone guests see: general manager, assistant manager or shift lead, host, server, bartender, food runner, busser, barback and counter staff. Back of house (BOH) is everyone in the kitchen: executive chef, sous chef, kitchen manager, line cooks, prep cooks, short-order or fast food cooks and dishwashers. Small restaurants combine roles; full-service kitchens split them by station.

Restaurant staff positions list

The table lists each common restaurant position, which side of the house it sits on, the closest Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation, and the national figures for that occupation. BLS counts people in these occupations across all employers (restaurants, but also hotels, hospitals, schools and stadiums), so read the numbers as the size and pay of the whole labor pool you are hiring from, not restaurants alone.

The occupation matches follow the job titles O*NET lists for each occupation: sous chef appears under chefs and head cooks, prep cook and line cook under restaurant cooks, and busser and barback under dining room attendants and bartender helpers. Kitchen manager appears under both chefs and head cooks and first-line food supervisors, and food runners are left out rather than matched to an occupation we could not confirm. Pay for tipped roles such as servers and bartenders varies widely with tip policy and volume.

Front of house staff positions

Front of house covers the dining room, bar, host stand and counter. These are the people who shape a guest's visit, and in most full-service restaurants they earn a meaningful share of their pay in tips.

General manager and assistant manager

The general manager runs the whole restaurant: labor, food and beverage cost, hiring, scheduling and the guest experience. The assistant manager is the deputy who runs a shift or the building when the GM is off. Many restaurants also have shift leads, hourly staff who hold keys and run a shift without full management authority. Decide which of the three you are hiring before you post, because they attract different candidates. The assistant manager job description works through the difference.

Host or hostess

The host greets guests, manages the waitlist and reservations, and seats tables so the servers' sections stay balanced. It is often the first job in a restaurant and a common path to serving.

Server

Servers take orders, sell the menu, run the check and look after a section of tables. With 2,284,400 people employed in 2025, waiters and waitresses are the largest occupation in the table after fast food and counter workers.

Bartender and barback

Bartenders mix and serve drinks, run a bar tab and often serve food at the bar. Barbacks restock ice, glassware, kegs and garnishes so the bartender never leaves the well. Minimum ages for serving alcohol vary by state, so check your state's alcohol control agency before posting a bartender or server role.

Food runner and busser

Food runners carry plates from the pass to the table so servers stay on the floor. Bussers clear and reset tables, refill water and keep the dining room turning. In smaller restaurants one person does both.

Counter staff and cashiers

In quick-service and fast casual restaurants, counter staff take orders, run the register and often assemble orders too. BLS counted 3,855,900 fast food and counter workers in 2025, the largest occupation in this list.

Back of house staff: what BOH means

BOH staff, short for back of house staff, are the restaurant employees guests don't usually see: the cooks, chefs, prep staff and dishwashers who work in the kitchen, dish pit, storage and receiving areas. "Back of the house staff" and "BOH staff" mean the same thing. The term matters in hiring because BOH roles are paid differently (usually an hourly wage with no or smaller tips, sometimes a tip share) and hired on different signals: station experience, speed, and whether the schedule works for the candidate.

Executive chef and sous chef

The executive or head chef writes the menu, sets recipes and plate specs, controls food cost and leads the kitchen team. The sous chef is second in command, runs service on the line and covers for the chef. O*NET lists sous chef as a job title within chefs and head cooks, an occupation BLS counted at 220,300 in 2025 with a $62,470 median.

Kitchen manager

Some restaurants, especially chains and casual dining, use a kitchen manager instead of or alongside a chef. The role is operational: ordering, inventory, scheduling, food safety and cost control, with recipes coming from a corporate or brand standard.

Line cook, prep cook, short-order and fast food cook

Line cooks work a station during service. Prep cooks make everything the line needs before service: cutting, portioning, sauces and stocks. Short-order cooks work fast, simple menus such as diners and breakfast counters. Fast food cooks work a limited, standardized menu. BLS projects restaurant cooks to grow 12.1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 218,600 openings a year, the fastest projected growth of any occupation on this list.

Dishwasher

Dishwashers clean dishes, pots and equipment and keep the kitchen stocked with clean wares, and in many kitchens they also help with prep and closing. It is a common first kitchen job and the start of the path to prep and line.

Kitchen staff positions list

Kitchen staff positions depend on how the kitchen is organized. A small kitchen might run with a cook, a prep cook and a dishwasher. A full-service kitchen splits the line into stations, each with its own cook:

• Executive chef or head chef: menu, costing, leadership.
• Sous chef: runs the line during service, second in command.
• Kitchen manager: ordering, inventory, scheduling, standards.
• Expediter (expo): calls tickets and checks every plate before it leaves the pass.
• Grill cook: steaks, burgers, proteins on the grill or broiler.
• Saute cook: pan dishes, pastas and sauces made to order.
• Fry cook: anything from the fryers.
• Pantry or garde manger cook: salads, cold appetizers and desserts.
• Prep cook: everything the line needs before service.
• Dishwasher or kitchen porter: clean wares, pots, floors and trash.

For one job description that covers the whole group, see the kitchen staff job description.

Which positions a restaurant needs, by format

Hiring for each position: what the ad needs to say

Restaurant candidates check a few things before they read duties, and they differ by side of the house:

• FOH: the base rate and how tips work (pooled, shared or kept), the days and shifts, and the kind of restaurant. A server deciding between two jobs is comparing sections and covers, not job descriptions.
• BOH: the hourly rate, the station, the schedule and end time, and whether there is a path from dish to prep to line. A kitchen that names the station gets candidates who can work it.
• Managers: salary or rate, bonus basis, hours per week and how many units.

Food safety credentials are set locally. The FDA publishes the Food Code as a model that local, state, tribal and federal regulators use to develop their own food safety rules, and the model includes a section on food protection manager certification. Check your state and county health department rules before you list a certification as required. Sample ads for servers, cooks, hosts and crew are in our restaurant job ad templates.

Filling the list: where restaurant staff come from

• Promote from within. Dishwasher to prep to line, host or busser to server, server or bartender to shift lead. A visible ladder is a recruiting message in its own right.
• Referrals. Restaurant workers know other restaurant workers. Pay part of the bonus after a set number of shifts worked.
• Culinary and hospitality programs. Community college and career school programs for cooks and managers.
• Free listings. Indeed, Facebook Local Jobs, your state job bank and your own careers page, covered in free job posting sites.
• Paid social ads. Facebook and Instagram job ads reach cooks and servers who are working somewhere else tonight and not browsing job sites. Boostpoint's 2026 benchmark does not break out restaurants as its own role family; across all 891 campaigns the median campaign paid $13.88 per applicant, including management. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.

For the channel-by-channel playbook, see hospitality recruiting.

Restaurant staff titles: which name to put in the posting

The same restaurant job often goes by three or four titles, and candidates search for the one they already call themselves. The title on the ad should be the plain one that people in your market use; the house title can go in the body. The table groups common restaurant staff titles by the position in the list above.

Two habits help. Name the station or format in the title when it changes the job ("Grill Cook, Dinner Shift" or "Banquet Server"), and use gender-neutral titles such as server and host rather than waitress and hostess. If you use a house title such as "guest ambassador" or "culinary team member", put the plain title first, because candidates search for the plain one. Each position has its own template: see the server, host, cook and kitchen staff job descriptions.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025-35 and May 2025 median annual wages for food service managers, first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers, hosts and hostesses, waiters and waitresses, bartenders, dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers, fast food and counter workers, chefs and head cooks, restaurant cooks, short-order cooks, fast food cooks, food preparation workers and dishwashers; O*NET OnLine reported job titles for 35-1011, 35-1012, 35-2014 and 35-9011; US Food and Drug Administration, FDA Food Code and Summary of Changes in the 2026 FDA Food Code; Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark. Read at source 29 September 2026.