How To Become A Lead Server: What It Is and Career Path

What is a lead server and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

If you're the kind of people-person who can manage a customer service job and are willing to go above and beyond for customers, you might consider yourself for the role of lead server. Whether you're new or a veteran of the game, a career as a lead server brings you new ways to hone in on your serving skills. Moreover, a role as a lead server may offer you strong wages, flexible hours, the ability to move around, a chance to earn fine tips, and appreciation for your services.

As a lead server, you may act as an integral member of the restaurant team, creating distinctively different and authentic experiences for your guests. Typically, your day consists of greeting guests, taking orders, checking on guest satisfaction, coordinating the service staff activities, and ensuring a better service flow. Another great advantage of becoming a lead server is that you can pretty much work anywhere as a server. You may work in hotels, cruises, fast food restaurants, banquet facilities, casinos, and other food and beverage service establishments.

There are no formal education requirements to become a lead server. You may be able to get this role with only a high school diploma or GED. However, earning an associate degree in hospitality management and previous experience working in a fast-paced food and beverage service establishment may help you become an ideal candidate for the role of lead server. Being the head of restaurant service, you may earn an average annual salary of 108,000 along with perks of free food or drinks. Not only that, but the employment outlook for restaurant servers expect to increase 6 percent by 2026, which means more jobs are foreseeable for you as a lead server.

ScoreLead ServerUS Average

Salary

2.2

Avg. Salary $28,677

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.2

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.83%

Asian 8.68%

Black or African American 11.31%

Hispanic or Latino 19.75%

Unknown 5.71%

White 53.72%

Gender

female 62.48%

male 37.52%

Age - 25

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 25

Stress Level

6.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.1

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

10.0

Work Life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a lead server

Explore lead server education requirements

Most common lead server degrees

Bachelor's

49.3 %

Associate

22.6 %

High School Diploma

18.6 %

Start to develop specific lead server skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	21.51%
New Servers	11.35%
Fine Dining	9.04%
POS	7.26%
Food Service	5.87%

Complete relevant lead server training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New lead servers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a lead server based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real lead server resumes.

Research lead server duties and responsibilities

Establish payroll policies and manage multiple areas of restaurant operations.
Manage technical support, business analysis, project management, application development and support, training, and facilitation.
Provide leadership to crew and shift managers guaranteeing great quality, customer service and cleanliness according to the public health code.
Train new employees on police, procedures, and micros system.

Get lead server experience

Prepare your lead server resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your lead server resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a lead server resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Lead Server Resume templates

Build a professional Lead Server resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Lead Server resume.

Apply for lead server jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a lead server job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do lead servers rate their job?

-/5

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1 Star

Lead Server reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020

Cons

Many restaurants are corporate or franchisees, and they dont really have good management, which leads to not hiring people on skill, but just to fill the space, which leads to high turn over rates for both FOH, BOH and management. There's no stability