Catering Manager

Leadership; Aylesbury; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 40,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Birthday off

Volunteering days

Pension

Wellbeing Hub

Discounts on breaks

Family discounts

Job summary

PGL, a leader in outdoor education experiences, is seeking a Catering Manager to head a team of chefs, catering assistants and team leaders at our new centre in the UK. You’ll deliver friendly, welcoming dining experiences, while managing budgets and food safety across all service periods.

You will meet national standards in allergen management and health and safety, ensuring high-quality meals within budget and contributing to a positive guest experience.

Qualifications

• Experience leading teams in mid-to-largeScale dining environments.
• Strong knowledge of food safety and allergen handling.
• Proven ability to manage budgets and control costs.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of chefs, catering assistants and team leaders to deliver quality dining experiences.
• Oversee mass food production and maintain consistency with menus.
• Ensure health, safety, allergen and food safety standards are followed.

Skills

Team leadership

Food safety

Budget management

Menu planning

Allergen management

Education

City & Guilds 7061/2

Food Safety Level 3

Job description

• Earn £35,963 (live-off rate) per annum (our pay system is benchmarked and fair)
• Full Permanent Contract
• Joining PGL's newest centre - due to open to guests for the first time early March 2027

Use your catering skills to fuel adventure

PGL creates extraordinary breakthroughs for children through active and life-affirming experiences in the great outdoors.
But that’s not all… we’re part of something bigger. We’re powered by PGL Beyond, a group of inspiring companies with a shared purpose to deliver enriching and transformative experiences to the younger generation.
By joining PGL, you’ll play a key role in delivering on our mission to make outdoor education more impactful, sustainable, and inclusive for future generations. Excited? So are we!

Make a difference as a Catering Manager

You’ll head up a team of talented Chefs, Catering Assistants and Team Leaders, delivering a friendly and welcoming experience to our guests through tasty food and comfortable dining rooms. You’ll have a Friday or Saturday evening off most weeks, especially outside of our peak season (plus limited late nights!), and no working over Christmas - this could be the perfect role to develop your career in catering without sacrificing your social life or that all important family time!

Our centralised team provides all the recipes, enabling you and your team to focus on executing our proven menus; delivering delicious as well as safe food by ensuring all health and safety, allergen safety & food safety standards are followed. You will be taking care of all financial aspects of the catering operation, ensuring the function remains within budget, provides maximum value for money whilst maintaining excellent quality.

Is this you?

• Experience leading teams a mid-to-large scale dining environment
• Has experience and understanding of food mass production
• A confident manager of people with strong organisational and decision-making skills
• Excellent knowledge of food hygiene & handling complex dietary requirements including allergies and intolerances
• You will hold your City & Guilds 7061/2 (or equivalent) and Level 3 or above in Food Safety and Allergen Management

Above all, it’s our core values of FUN, SAFETY, QUALITY, INCLUSIVITY, TEAMWORK and RESPECT that unite us.

A place to thrive

No matter your background, ethnicity, age, neurodivergence or anything else … PGL is a place to be yourself, have fun, use your valuable skills for good and celebrate what makes you brilliantly unique.

Fair pay and benefits for all

• On top of your 25 days annual leave (+ 8 bank holidays), you’ll also enjoy your birthday off, have paid volunteering days to help worthwhile causes and the option to purchase additional holiday.
• A career with ongoing growth, aided development, mentoring, multiple pathways and opportunities to work across different UK or French locations.
• 24/7 access to our Wellbeing Hub alongside our Employee Assistance Program
• Sector leading family friendly policies and a contributory pension
• Access to our financial wellbeing platform where you can borrow or save directly from your salary.
• Free/discounted PGL breaks for your family & discounts at 800+ retailers.

For any enquiries specific to this role please email [e-mail]

We hire the best talent and value a diverse, inclusive team; so, we are dedicated to ensuring our application process is accessible to everyone and are happy to provide helpful adjustments to make it easier to complete. Simply email or call us with detail around the adjustments you need. However, our top priority is the safety of the guests on our centres. Therefore, all centre based employees and some specific Head Office employees must undergo an Enhanced criminal record check (known as DBS or PVG), which we pay for. You will need to provide a 5-year address history and ID (such as passport/birth certificate). Convictions related to violence, drugs, or safeguarding may affect your application. Not all convictions will disqualify you, as we assess each case individually.