Sous Chef - Campus Services -103212 - Grade 5

University of Birmingham; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 36,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational institution in Birmingham is seeking a culinary team leader to oversee food preparation and service standards. This role involves training staff, ensuring health compliance, and enhancing the food offerings based on feedback. Ideal candidates should have experience in food preparation and relevant qualifications. The position offers a competitive salary and excellent benefits.

Benefits

40 days paid holiday

Paid volunteering day

Occupational sick pay

Qualifications

• Substantial proven experience as a chef de partie.
• Knowledge of Health and Safety regulations.
• Experience in a food preparation environment.

Responsibilities

• Deliver an excellent culinary service and train staff.
• Proactively monitor menus to meet customer needs.
• Ensure compliance with health and safety legislation.

Skills

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Ability to suggest improvements

PC literate and familiar with Microsoft Office Suite

Education

NVQ in Food Preparation level 3

Food Safety Certificate level 3

Mathematics and English GCSE grade C or equivalent

Job description

Position Details

Campus Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £29,647 to £31,460, with potential progression once in post to £35,388

Grade: 5

Full Time (Annualised hours)

Fixed Term contract up to September 2026

Closing date: 21st October 2025

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

Commercial Business and Operations offers a variety of food and beverage outlets to staff, students and visitors across campus and student accommodation including but not limited to coffee shops, take-aways, bars, restaurants, food stalls, and kiosks. We also provide hospitality services for meetings, conferences and events held on campus. You will be responsible for preparing, producing and presenting food within these operations.

Role Summary

To work alongside and deputise for the Head Chef, contributing to the development of the culinary service, ensuring that food is prepared, produced and served to the required standards, and all supporting financial and administrative work is completed to the specified standard and in line with all relevant policies. In order to flexibly utilise resource you may be requested to work elsewhere in the department or wider University.

Main Duties

Leadership

• You will be responsible for delivering an excellent culinary service and for training, coaching and supporting staff to do the same
• Encouraging participation from staff in developing goals and plans
• Planning delivery, delegating as appropriate to ensure smooth flow of culinary operations and allow consistent delivery of excellent quality food
• Ensuring the kitchen can cope with periods of high volume
• Planning the implementation of operational budgets devised by the Food and Beverage Management Team and Head Chef
• Carry out regular job chats and PDRs with the team, ensuring compliance with the Universities policies and procedures

Planning and Execution

• Proactively monitors the menus on offer, ensuring the food offer is kept relevant, and meets customer needs (taking into account customer feedback)
• You will ensure effective communications across the culinary team, cascading messages as appropriate
• Working closely with the Head Chef you will make sure that resources are used effectively and efficiently, seeking opportunities to increase sales, maintain margins and control costs
• Design and produce weekly or monthly staff rotas if required
• Actively manages and motivates staff by regularly providing feedback and setting objectives to improve staff performance
• Manages ongoing staff performance using performance management tools to support organisational objectives

Policies, procedure and Health and Safety

• Responsibility for ensuring stock is monitored and rotated, food is used before best before dates and that wastage is minimised
• Responsible for monthly food stock take
• Responsible for ensuring the team complies with all relevant Health and Safety legislation and any local departmental policies, taking corrective action on any breaches. These will include COSHH regulations, the hygiene recording system, and HACCP hygiene and allergen recording system
• Promptly reporting equipment failure and taking action to ensure repairs are undertaken to minimise downtime
• Ensuring high standards of hygiene are maintained in the workplace
• Contributing to team briefings and departmental meetings
• To undertake any other reasonable duties/requests as requested from a manager
• Support equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• NVQ in Food Preparation level 3 (or the equivalent City and Guilds qualification)
• Substantial proven experience of working within a food preparation environment which includes experience of working as a chef de partie that will enable you to carry out the duties to the expected standards
• Knowledge of Health and Safety at Work Act, HACCP hygiene and allergen recording systems, COSHH and a relevant Manual Handling course
• A good level of literacy and numeracy. This can be evidenced by achieving Mathematics and English GCSE at grade C (or equivalent level 2 qualification) or able to demonstrate relevant experience such that the tasks detailed in the job description can be carried out effectively
• Food Safety Certificate level 3 Supervisory experience, preferably in a food preparation environment
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, both verbal and in writing
• Ability to suggest improvements in terms of efficiency, safety or service
• PC literate and familiar with the Microsoft Office Suite is desirable
• You should also have the ability to work on an individual basis within a team environment
• An understanding of the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace
• Ability to present yourself well at work: a uniform will be provided to assist in this
• The ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures

Dimensions

This role will have responsibility for the day to day leadership of a team, ensuring the delivery of an excellent service and contribution to the development of the service and menus offered.

Planning and Organising

You will plan your own and others workloads, monitor the service performance, organising staff to deliver an excellent service, and taking corrective action if issues arise.

Problem Solving and decision making

You will need to be able to solve problems which arise and customer complaints on your own initiative. You will also be able to take action to rectify Health and Safety issues, place daily and weekly orders, and dealing with staff sickness and similar issues again on your own initiative.

Internal and External relationships

You will work closely with the Head Chef in developing the service, and have day to day responsibility for your team.

Informal enquiries to Gary Griffiths, email: [e-mail]

View our staff values and behaviours here

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone