Sr. Onboarding Specialist (12 month contract)

Location: Paris, France
Team: Global Onboarding
Travel: Up to 50%, varying by account and client requirements
Languages: Fluent French and English required

Role summary

The Senior Onboarding Specialist (Senior OBS) is a product expert and lead practitioner within OpenTable’s global Onboarding team. They own the end-to-end onboarding journey for complex and high-profile restaurant partners, from signed contract through configuration, integration, training, and go-live.

Using a consultative, high-touch approach, the Senior OBS translates restaurant operating needs into effective OpenTable configurations and practical training. They combine strong individual delivery with team-level impact by mentoring colleagues, supporting escalations, managing workflow, leading test projects, and identifying improvements that increase onboarding quality, speed, and customer value.

This Paris-based role will involve regular client-facing work on site. The successful candidate should be comfortable travelling up to 50%, with the exact level varying by account, implementation complexity, and client requirements.

What you’ll do

• Own complex implementations from initial handoff through successful go-live, including configuration, product setup, integrations, data readiness, and tailored staff training.
• Act as a trusted advisor to restaurant partners, using a consultative approach to understand their operations, challenge assumptions constructively, and recommend setups that support adoption and long-term value.
• Configure OpenTable products to reflect each restaurant’s floor plan, guest flow, operating model, and business needs.
• Coordinate with restaurant teams, POS providers, third-party partners, and internal technical teams to resolve integration, data, and configuration issues.
• Deliver engaging training to restaurant owners, managers, and staff in French and English, both remotely and on site.
• Represent OpenTable professionally during client-site visits, workshops, implementation meetings, and go-live support.
• Manage a dynamic portfolio and daily workflow, balancing implementation speed, quality, client needs, and team service-level agreements (SLAs).
• Serve as a point of escalation for complex, unusual, or high-impact onboarding cases, partnering with Tier 2 Support, Product, Sales, Customer Success, Billing, and other teams to drive resolution.
• Mentor and support Onboarding Specialists by sharing product knowledge, configuration approaches, training techniques, and practical case guidance.
• Contribute to team training, knowledge sharing, internal channels, and the development of onboarding materials, playbooks, and process documentation.
• Lead or contribute to test projects for new products, tools, workflows, and company initiatives; define milestones, identify blockers, analyse results, and communicate recommendations to management.
• Identify bottlenecks and opportunities across the onboarding journey, using operational data and customer insight to recommend and implement improvements.
• Champion effective use of AI, automation, and role-specific tools to improve preparation, documentation, communication, workflow efficiency, and implementation quality.
• Maintain accurate account records, implementation milestones, training notes, and status updates so that internal stakeholders have clear visibility of progress and risk.
• Proactively communicate emerging risks and partner needs before they affect the customer experience or downstream handoff.

What you’ll bring

Experience and qualifications

• Typically 4–5 years of experience in software implementation, customer success, professional services, operations, or a comparable customer-facing role.
• At least 1 year of direct experience as an Onboarding Specialist or in a similar technical implementation role.
• Demonstrated experience implementing SaaS, restaurant technology, POS, booking, or other operational software.
• Experience training customers or non-technical users on software products, including delivering training to groups in person and remotely.
• Strong understanding of restaurant operations and the realities of front-of-house hospitality.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent implementations, competing priorities, and time-sensitive deliverables with minimal supervision.
• Fluent French and English, with the ability to communicate clearly and confidently with restaurant partners and internal stakeholders in both languages.
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 50%, depending on account and client requirements.

Skills and capabilities

• Expert knowledge of OpenTable products and features, or the ability to quickly develop equivalent product mastery.
• Strong consultative communication, presentation, phone, and in-person facilitation skills.
• Sound judgement and ethical decision-making in ambiguous or fast-moving situations.
• Advanced organisation, documentation, prioritisation, and time-management skills.
• Ability to analyse implementation performance, identify root causes, and use data to support recommendations.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder-management skills.
• A leadership mindset, with the ability to mentor colleagues, lead by example, and act as a trusted resource without formal people-management responsibility.
• Confidence leading projects from definition through execution, reporting, and follow-up.
• Practical fluency with CRM, project-management, reporting, and collaboration tools such as Salesforce, Google Workspace, and equivalent platforms.
• Comfortable using AI and automation tools as part of daily work, and willing to share effective practices with the wider team.

Preferred qualifications

• Direct experience working in restaurant operations is preferred, for example as a restaurant manager, maître d’, lead host, or in a comparable hospitality role. Experience in another high-volume service environment is also valued.
• Experience with complex POS integrations, web-based widgets, APIs, data migration, or third-party technology deployments.
• Experience supporting multi-site restaurant groups or strategically important accounts.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience or certification.

How we’ll measure success

• Implementation quality and speed: Complex accounts are delivered accurately, with strong right-first-time performance and within agreed time-to-value benchmarks.
• Partner readiness and adoption: Restaurant teams demonstrate confidence and proficiency at go-live, with configurations that support effective ongoing use.
• Client experience: On-site and remote interactions build trust, resolve issues efficiently, and represent OpenTable to a high standard.
• Workflow and SLA performance: Personal and team workflow is actively managed, risks are surfaced early, and agreed SLAs and quality standards are consistently met.
• Mentorship impact: Junior team members benefit from practical coaching, escalation support, and knowledge sharing.
• Process improvement: At least one meaningful process, automation, or AI-enabled improvement is identified, tested, or implemented and its impact is communicated.
• Stakeholder trust: Sales, Customer Success, Support, Product, and other partners have clear visibility of onboarding status, risks, and next steps.

Working relationships

The Senior OBS works closely with restaurant partners and with OpenTable’s Sales, Customer Success, Customer Support, Billing, Product, Tier 2 Support, and Onboarding leadership teams. The role is expected to navigate the organisation independently while building alignment around the best outcome for the restaurant and the business.

Benefits and Perks

• Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday:
• 25 days of paid vacation, plus RTTs (reduction in work time days)
• Additional paid time off for key life moments, including your wedding
• Enhanced paid parental leave
• Health and life insurance coverage through Malakoff Humanis 
• Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year
• Focus on mental health and well-being:
• Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
• Company-paid subscription to Headspace
• Annual company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!)
• Focus on your career growth:
• Development Dollars
• Leadership development
• Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings
• Travel Discounts
• Employee Resource Groups

OpenTable’s approach to inclusion

OpenTable is committed to building an inclusive workplace where people can do their best work. We welcome applicants with different backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and ways of working, and we assess candidates based on their skills, experience, and potential to contribute.