Dietary Director

Access Home Health; Tucson (AZ); On-site; USD 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid Vacation and Sick time

Medical, Dental, Vision options

401k, and more

Job summary

Mountain View Retirement Village is seeking a Dietary Director to lead the dietary department, including kitchen operations, dining services, sanitation, and compliance with regulations. You will oversee staff, budgeting, and menu execution while ensuring high resident satisfaction.

The role requires strong leadership, food safety expertise, and a track record of managing 12+ staff in a fast-paced kitchen environment, with a focus on quality and resident-centered care.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in a commercial kitchen or restaurant setting.
• 3+ years in a supervisory leadership role managing 12+ staff.
• SERV Safe Manager/Food Protection Manager Certification valid.
• Fingerprint clearance (level one) in place.
• Clean driving record and valid state driver’s license.
• Tech-savvy with software platforms and dashboards.

Responsibilities

• Lead Dietary Department operations across kitchen, dining, sanitation, and staff.
• Develop, implement, and monitor procedures, checklists, and workflows.
• Hire, train, supervise, coach, and evaluate dietary staff.
• Oversee purchasing, inventory, budgeting, and par levels.
• Ensure menus meet quality, dietary, and patient/resident needs.
• Collaborate with clinical leadership and administration on resident care.

Skills

Kitchen leadership

Food safety

Staff coaching

Digital dashboards

Vendor relations

Education

Culinary arts or hospitality degree/certificate

Tools

eMenu Choice platform

Job description

About us

Mountain View Retirement Village is a large senior living community, serving residents across multiple levels of care including independent living, assisted living, and memory care.

Position Summary
The Dietary Director provides overall leadership and management of the Dietary Department, including kitchen operations, dining services, sanitation, food safety, staffing, training, scheduling, purchasing, inventory, budgeting, regulatory compliance, and resident satisfaction. This position is responsible for developing, implementing, maintaining, and monitoring department systems, processes, and standards to ensure consistent, safe, efficient, and high-quality food service from kitchen operations through dining room service.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Ensures the CAPLICO Core Values and Code of Conduct are always demonstrated and upheld within the Dietary Department.

• Ensures compliance with Resident Rights, HIPAA, food safety standards, infection control practices, and all applicable federal, state, local, and company dietary regulations.

• Provides overall leadership, organization, and accountability for all Dietary Department operations, including kitchen production, dining room service, dishwashing, sanitation, storage, inventory, and special functions.

• Develops, implements, maintains, and monitors department processes, systems, and standards, including written procedures, checklists, routines, and expectations for food preparation, meal service, cleaning, sanitation, food storage, equipment use, and department workflow, to ensure the Dietary Department operates efficiently, safely, and consistently.

• Interviews, hires, trains, supervises, coaches, disciplines, develops, and evaluates Dietary Department staff in accordance with company policy and community expectations.

• Manages department operations including purchasing, food ordering, inventory controls, par levels, portion control, menu execution, supply usage, waste reduction, and budget expectations.

• Ensures menus are followed appropriately and that meals are prepared and served according to quality, presentation, portion, temperature, texture, and diet requirements, including the accurate preparation and service of special diets, therapeutic diets, modified textures, food allergies, and resident preferences as directed by physician orders, care plans, or community policy.

• Monitors food quality, presentation, meal satisfaction, service timing, and the overall resident dining experience, adjusts as needed, and responds professionally and timely to resident, family, and staff concerns related to dining services, food quality, service, or dietary needs.

• Maintains a professional, service-focused dining culture that promotes resident dignity, choice, satisfaction, and a positive dining experience.

• Ensures kitchen equipment, dining equipment, smallware, and supplies are properly used, cleaned, maintained, stored, and reported for repair when needed, and coordinates with Maintenance regarding preventative maintenance, equipment concerns, repairs, and kitchen safety needs.

• Communicates and collaborates with department heads, clinical leadership, activities, housekeeping, maintenance, and administration to support resident needs and overall community operations, and participates in community meetings, stand-up meetings, resident-related discussions, quality assurance meetings, and other meetings as directed.

Supervisory Responsibility

• Administrative and functional supervision over all Dietary Department staff.

• Provides direction, coaching, training, accountability, and performance management for all Dietary team members.

• Ensures staff understand and follow department policies, procedures, job duties, safety expectations, sanitation standards, and resident service expectations.

Schedule Expectations

• Flexibility is required, including holidays and weekends. Our kitchen operates from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. 365 days a year, and scheduling may vary based on resident needs and department coverage. One day may require breakfast coverage, while another may require dinner coverage. This is not a set-schedule position; however, there are no late-night shifts.

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of working in a commercial kitchen or restaurant environment
• 3+ years in a relevant supervisory leadership role, managing 12 or more employees
• Maintain SERV Safe Manager / Food Protection Manager Certification (FPMC) meeting state and local health department standards.
• Maintain level one fingerprint clearance
• Clean driving record and valid state driver's license
• Tech-savvy mindset with a proven track record of quickly adopting and mastering new software platforms, vendor ordering portals, and performance dashboards.

Preferred qualifications

• 2+ years of leadership experience within senior living, retirement community, or specialized healthcare dining environments.
• Degree or certificate in culinary arts, restaurant management, or hospitality
• Responsible alcohol service or management certification
• Experience using eMenu Choice platform or similar

Company benefits may include

• Paid Vacation and Sick time
• Medical, Dental, Vision options
• 401k, and more

We are an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

The employer for this position is stated in the job posting. The Pennant Group, Inc. is a holding company of independent operating subsidiaries that provide healthcare services through home health and hospice agencies and senior living communities located throughout the US. Each of these businesses is operated by a separate, independent operating subsidiary that has its own management, employees and assets. More information about The Pennant Group, Inc. is available at http://www.pennantgroup.com.