Food Assembly Manager - Airline Catering

Gategourmet; Melbourne; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Gate Gourmet is seeking a Food Assembly Manager at Melbourne Airport to lead a fast-paced airline catering operation. This hands-on leadership role focuses on floor presence, people development and relentless process improvement to meet stringent dispatch deadlines.

You will champion lean practices, safety and quality while driving productivity and on-time meals for global airline customers in a highly regulated environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading assembly, production, manufacturing or high-volume operational teams.
• Strong track record developing frontline leaders and upskilling talent.
• Genuine commitment to Lean, continuous improvement and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Lead from the floor to drive performance, quality and safety across the food assembly operation.
• Own end-to-end production delivery, balancing people, productivity and service.
• Drive productivity through labour, equipment and material planning to meet tight airline schedules.
• Coach and develop supervisors and team leaders; embed a culture of accountability and ownership.
• Partner with planning, logistics and QA to ensure seamless, compliant operations across shifts.

Skills

Leadership

Lean principles

People management

Operational excellence

High-volume production

Food safety awareness

Job description

Food Assembly Manager – Airline Catering

Hands-On Leadership | People & Performance | Lean Process Improvement

• Lead from the floor
• Develop your people
• Drive operational excellence

Gate Gourmet, a Gate Group company, is the world's largest independent provider of catering and provisioning services to the airline industry. With a proud 95-year history, we support more than 300+ Aviation carriers across over 68 countries serving over 700 million passengers in the sky annually. Our operations combine culinary excellence with stringent food safety and production standards, enabling us to deliver high-quality, reliable catering solutions to over 680 million travellers annually.

The Opportunity

We are seeking an energetic, hands-on and people-focused Food Assembly Manager to lead our airline food assembly operation based at Melbourne Airport, in a fast-paced, high-volume and highly regulated production environment.

This is an opportunity for an operational leader who thrives on the floor, inspires high-performing teams and drives a culture of accountability, ownership and continuous improvement. You understand that operational excellence is achieved through engaged people, disciplined processes and consistent execution.

With a strong focus on leadership, productivity and process improvement, you will take ownership of end-to-end food assembly operations, ensuring airline meals are assembled safely, accurately and efficiently, while consistently meeting customer specifications, quality standards and demanding dispatch deadlines. We are looking for a leader who leads by example, challenges the status quo and turns operational opportunities into measurable improvements.

• Lead from the floor: Maintain a visible and active presence across daily operations, engaging with employees and supervisors to drive performance, resolve issues and maintain operational standards.
• Own operational delivery: Take accountability for end-to-end food assembly operations, balancing people, productivity, quality and service delivery.
• Drive execution: Coordinate labour, equipment, materials and production priorities to achieve throughput targets and meet critical airline departure schedules.
• Lead with accountability: Establish clear expectations, monitor performance and address operational challenges promptly, constructively and decisively.
• People & Performance Build high-performing teams: Develop an engaged, accountable and results-driven workforce that takes pride in delivering quality outcomes.
• Coach and develop leaders: Strengthen the capability of supervisors and team leaders through regular coaching, feedback, performance management and leadership development.
• Create a culture of ownership: Empower employees to take responsibility for their performance, support their colleagues and contribute to operational success.
• Drive productivity: Improve labour efficiency, workforce utilisation, throughput and schedule adherence while maintaining high standards of quality and safety.
• Strengthen engagement: Foster a positive, respectful and collaborative workplace where people understand expectations, feel valued and are motivated to perform.
• Lean Process Improvement Challenge the status quo: Identify inefficiencies, eliminate unnecessary steps and implement practical improvements that deliver measurable operational benefits.
• Embed Lean principles: Apply continuous improvement methodologies to reduce waste, rework and bottlenecks while improving workflow and productivity.
• Standardise best practice: Establish and maintain consistent processes that deliver reliable results across all shifts.
• Use data to drive decisions: Translate operational KPIs and performance trends into meaningful actions that improve efficiency, quality and service delivery.
• Maintain rigorous standards: Ensure full compliance with food safety, hygiene, allergen management, quality assurance and customer requirements.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration Work closely with production planning, food preparation, logistics, quality assurance and other operational leaders to ensure seamless coordination across the operation.
• Align production priorities, resources and operational processes to meet customer expectations and time-critical airline schedules.
• Proactively communicate challenges, resolve issues and implement solutions that support consistent service delivery.

What Success Looks Like Success in this role means delivering sustainable improvements across people, performance and processes, including:

• Engaged, accountable and high-performing teams that consistently deliver against expectations.
• Reliable production and dispatch performance, meeting customer requirements and critical airline departure schedules.
• Improved labour efficiency and productivity, with effective workforce planning and resource utilisation.
• Reduced waste, rework and operational bottlenecks through practical, measurable process improvements.
• Consistent quality and compliance, with uncompromising standards in food safety, hygiene, allergen controls and customer specifications.
• Standardised operational processes that deliver predictable, repeatable results across every shift.
• A positive, performance-driven culture built on teamwork, ownership, respect and continuous improvement.

What You’ll Bring:

You are an energetic, practical and people-oriented leader who understands that successful operations are built on strong leadership, disciplined execution and well-designed processes.

About you:

• Proven experience leading assembly, production, manufacturing, food processing or a similar high-volume operational environment.
• A strong track record of leading frontline teams and developing supervisors, team leaders and emerging talent.
• A genuine commitment to Lean principles, continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• The ability to translate operational data, KPIs and performance trends into practical actions on the floor.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the confidence to challenge existing practices and drive better ways of working.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence, coach and hold people accountable at all levels.
• A practical understanding of labour planning, productivity, workflow optimisation, quality control and operational compliance.
• The ability to remain calm, decisive and solutions-focused in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.
• A hands-on leadership style, with the willingness to work alongside your teams and lead by example.
• The flexibility and operational discipline to deliver results in a time-critical environment where customer specifications and airline departure schedules are non-negotiable.

Experience in airline catering, high-volume food assembly or a similarly time-sensitive production environment will be highly regarded.

Why This Role?

This is an opportunity to make a tangible impact on a complex, time-critical operation where leadership, teamwork and operational excellence directly influence customer satisfaction and business performance.

You will have the opportunity to build capable teams, strengthen operational discipline and drive meaningful improvements across the entire food assembly operation.