Dietary Director

Mountain View Retirement Village; Tucson (AZ); On-site; USD 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid vacation and sick time

Medical, dental, vision coverage

401(k) plan and retirement savings

Job summary

The Pennant Group, Inc. is seeking a Dietary Director to lead Mountain View Retirement Village’s Dietary Department in Tucson, AZ. You will oversee kitchen operations, dining services, sanitation, budgeting, and staff performance to ensure safe, high‑quality food service for residents.

Ideal candidates have 5+ years in kitchen leadership, a ServSafe certification, and a proven ability to manage large teams while maintaining regulatory compliance and resident satisfaction.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in a commercial kitchen or restaurant setting.
• 3+ years in a supervisory role managing 12+ staff.
• Maintain SERV Safe Manager / Food Protection Manager Certification.
• Maintain level one fingerprint clearance.
• Valid driver’s license and clean driving record.
• Tech-savvy mindset with ability to quickly adopt new software and dashboards.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the Dietary Department operations, including kitchen, dining, sanitation, and staffing.
• Ensure compliance with food safety, HIPAA, and regulatory standards.
• Develop and monitor department systems, procedures, and budgets.
• Hire, train, coach, and evaluate Dietary staff.
• Oversee menus, portions, diet textures, and resident dining satisfaction.

Skills

Supervisory leadership

Food safety knowledge

Staff training

Budgeting

Vendor management

Tools

TECH-SAVVY

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. Pinnacle Senior Living is a dynamic organization in a rapidly expanding Independent and Assisted Living industry. Our focus to create and maintain assisted and independent living communities that set the standard in each of their individual markets. The 52 Pinnacle Senior Living communities operate across 6 states, and we expect our growth to continue. These communities operate independently with the support of the “Service Center,” a world-class service team to allow local leaders and their teams to focus solely on the day-to-day care of their residents and overall operations. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to ensuring that all conditions and privileges of employment, including recruitment, hiring, evaluation, transfer, promotion, discipline, determination of compensation and/or benefits, and termination of employment, for all job classifications, are based on qualifications and work record. No employment decision is made, nor do we discriminate, on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex/pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, veteran status, or disability.