Catering Manager

Compass Group; City Of London; On-site; GBP 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading catering service provider in London is seeking a Catering Manager to oversee outdoor operations. You will lead a team to deliver excellent service and ensure compliance with food safety standards. The ideal candidate has supervisory experience in high-footfall environments and strong food safety knowledge. This role offers a salary of £35,000 per annum and various employee benefits.

Benefits

Personal Development and Training opportunities

Life assurance scheme

Pension scheme

Holiday allowance

Private medical eligibility

Employee Assistance Programme

Family friendly support

Regular social events

Qualifications

• Proven supervisor/manager experience in quick-service food and beverage.
• Strong food safety and allergen management knowledge.
• Ability to handle high-pressure situations and lead teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead service and manage outdoor points of sale.
• Ensure compliance with food safety and quality standards.
• Drive commercial results through effective management.
• Recruit and train outdoor teams.

Skills

Supervisory/manager experience

Food safety knowledge

Commercially sharp

Strong communication skills

Tools

Lolly Move (or similar POS)

MS Office/Sheets

Job description

Overview

Company of Cooks is looking for a Catering Manager to join our team in London. Location: London EC3N 4AB. Rate of Pay: £35,000 per annum. Working Pattern: 40 hours per week, 5/7, 8:30am - 5:00pm.

We bring places to life through food, service and creativity and we’re looking for a Catering Manager to join our team in London.

Responsibilities

Guest Experience & Service

• Lead a warm, fast, and consistent service culture across all outdoor points of sale.
• Be a visible floor leader during peak trading; handle guest feedback and recover service on the spot.
• Ensure clear, attractive menus/price points and signage suitable for high-footfall, outdoor trading.

Food Safety, Quality & Compliance

• Ensure 100% compliance with HRP/Company of Cooks/Compass standards and EHO requirements.
• Maintain accurate product specifications, allergen matrices and matching labels at every unit; no service without correct labelling.
• Enforce strict separation and handling for vegan/NGCI items; monitor hot-holding, probe temps, date coding and cleaning schedules.
• Keep outdoor units “EHO-ready” at all times; lead corrective actions and verification checks.

Commercial & Results

• Own daily/weekly sales, GP% and labour targets for outdoor units; build action plans when off-track.
• Plan menus/price architecture with GM/Chef for seasonality, weather and events; reduce waste via tight forecasting.
• Use Lolly Move reports for mix, voids, promos and basket insights; drive upsell (meal add-ons, drinks, desserts).
• Control disposables (target ~7% cost for takeaway) and stock losses; complete weekly stock counts and variance reviews.

People Leadership

• Recruit, train and rota outdoor teams in line with agreed minimum structures (non holiday and peak).
• Deliver on-shift coaching (service speed, product knowledge, allergen confidence, cashless/till).
• Manage performance, welfare and conduct fairly; celebrate wins and maintain high morale in all-weather trading.

Operations & Logistics

• Build efficient rotas in Ubeya aligned to forecast and footfall; manage breaks and peak cover.
• Coordinate set-up/pack-down, cleaning and secure movement/storage of carts and equipment.

Health, Safety & Security

• Conduct and record daily H&S checks, equipment pre-use checks and dynamic risk assessments for outdoor trading.
• Enforce PPE, slip/trip controls, manual handling for cart moves, safe hot-drink service and knife policy.

Stakeholder & Site Management

• Guest: Compliments/complaints ratio; service time at peak; mystery/brand audit scores.
• Safety: EHO outcome; internal audit pass rate; zero critical allergen incidents.
• Commercial: Sales vs forecast; GP% on outdoor units; labour % to plan; waste %; disposables cost %.
• People: Retention; training completion; absence; engagement pulse results.
• Compliance: Label/spec alignment 100%; temperature/cleaning record completion 100%.

Skills & Experience

• Proven supervisor/manager experience in high-footfall, outdoor or quick-service F&B.
• Strong food safety knowledge (Level 3 Food Hygiene preferred) and allergen management confidence.
• Commercially sharp: forecasting, labour planning, GP drivers, waste control.
• Systems: Lolly Move (or similar POS), rota/HR platforms (e.g., Ubeya), MS Office/Sheets.
• Physically capable of outdoor trading requirements (weather exposure, safe manual handling of carts/equipment).
• Calm, clear communicator; leads from the front and coaches in the moment.

What’s in it for you?

Working with Company of Cooks has its perks! People are at the heart of everything we do, so we’ve developed a range of benefits to keep you happy.

• Personal Development and Training opportunities
• Life assurance scheme
• Pension scheme
• Holiday allowance
• Private medical eligibility
• Eye care
• A great wellbeing strategy – including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, salary finance
• Family friendly support
• Regular social events and communication with our leaders
• A holiday purchase scheme
• Volunteering days
• Professional subscriptions
• Recognition schemes and people awards
• Long service awards
• Access to some great high street discount vouchers