Director Food and Nutrition Programs

HCA Healthcare; Nashville (TN); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

401(k) with company match

Tuition assistance

Job summary

HealthTrust seeks a Director of Food and Nutrition Programs to lead and standardize enterprise-wide FNS programs across patient dining and healthcare retail. You will drive the operating model, governance, and performance measures to translate strategy into scalable, safe, and compliant programs.

You will build partnerships with Corporate, Division, and facility leaders to ensure clinical, culinary, supply chain, and IT inputs shape effective programs while maintaining fiscal stewardship and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related field is required; advanced degree preferred.
• 7+ years in progressive food and nutrition services leadership, with multi-site responsibility.
• RDN credential preferred; food-safety certification preferred; healthcare experience valued.

Responsibilities

• Leads enterprise design and continuous improvement of FNS programs across patient dining and retail.
• Establishes enterprise operating model, policies, playbooks, workflows, and governance.
• Identifies gaps and recommends new or enhanced enterprise programs across clinical and retail environments.
• Directs program buildout for patient dining: menus, trays, service workflows, dietary controls, and accuracy.
• Directs retail food environments: merchandising, pricing, digital ordering, and customer experience.
• Sets enterprise culinary and menu standards balancing nutrition, cost, and local flexibility.
• Maintains program lifecycle, including updates for regulatory changes and lessons learned.
• Builds cross-functional partnerships to align enterprise requirements and standards.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Regulatory compliance

Food safety

Education

Bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition, dietetics, foodservice management, hospitality management, healthcare administration, business, culinary arts, or related field

RDN credential preferred

Food protection manager certification preferred

Job description

This position is incentive eligible.

Do you want to join an organization that invests in you as a Director Food and Nutrition Programs? At HealthTrust, you come first. HCA Healthcare has committed up to $300 million in programs to support our incredible team members over the course of three years.

Job Summary and Qualifications

The Director, Food and Nutrition Programs leads the development, maintenance, standardization, and continuous refinement of the enterprise Food and Nutrition Services program across patient dining and healthcare retail environments. This leader is responsible for establishing a comprehensive food and nutrition operating model that translates enterprise strategy, patient experience expectations, clinical and regulatory requirements, culinary and retail best practices, technology capabilities, workforce requirements, supply chain considerations, and financial objectives into scalable programs, standards, tools, and governance. The Director partners with Corporate, Division, and facility leaders to build and evolve the Food and Nutrition program portfolio, establish clear requirements and performance measures, incorporate field and consumer feedback, and ensure programs remain safe, practical, current, measurable, financially responsible, and positioned for successful enterprise implementation and sustained performance.

What you will do in this role:

• Leads the enterprise design, development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of Food and Nutrition Services programs, ensuring the program portfolio aligns with organizational strategy, patient and consumer needs, regulatory and accreditation requirements, operational priorities, and enterprise performance expectations.
• Establishes and continuously evolves a formal enterprise Food and Nutrition Services operating model, including standardized programs, policies, procedures, playbooks, workflows, governance structures, roles and responsibilities, resource requirements, tools, and performance measures for patient services and retail operations.
• Serves as a food and nutrition program-design leader and subject matter partner; assimilates clinical, culinary, operational, regulatory, food-safety, financial, supply chain, technology, workforce, consumer, and field information to identify gaps, prioritize opportunities, and make recommendations for new or enhanced enterprise programs
• Directs programmatic buildout across patient dining, including menu and meal-service models, diet and allergen controls, tray and meal accuracy, patient ordering and delivery workflows, culinary standards, service recovery, patient experience, and coordination with clinical nutrition and nursing stakeholders.
• Directs programmatic buildout across healthcare retail food environments, including retail concepts and service models, menu architecture, merchandising, pricing and promotion frameworks, product assortment, speed of service, convenience, digital ordering, catering, and consumer experience
• Establishes enterprise culinary and menu standards that support quality, consistency, nutrition, cultural relevance, dietary requirements, food safety, operational feasibility, ingredient utilization, and cost stewardship while allowing defined flexibility for local market
• Owns the ongoing Food and Nutrition program lifecycle after initial development, establishing a disciplined process to review program effectiveness, incorporate regulatory changes and lessons learned, add new program components, retire outdated requirements, and continuously mature theenterprise model.
• Establishes program requirements, implementation-readiness criteria, standard work, documentation expectations, and success measures with operational and functional leaders; ensures programs are practical, scalable, measurable, and structured for consistent execution across facilities and divisions.
• Leads cross-functional Food and Nutrition program-development initiatives from concept through approved enterprise solution, building project plans, milestones, decision points, accountabilities, dependencies, risk mitigation strategies, pilots, and deliverables and driving accountability to completion
• Builds strategic partnerships with Corporate, Division, and facility leaders and with Food and Nutrition Services, Clinical Nutrition, Nursing, Support Services, Supply Chain, Finance, Information Technology, Compliance, Regulatory, Infection Prevention, Marketing/Communications, Human Resources, and other stakeholders to align enterprise requirements and standards.
• Develops and maintains benchmarking, analytics, dashboards, program-health measures, and performance indicators to evaluate patient experience, retail performance, food quality, safety and compliance, meal accuracy, participation, revenue, food and labor cost, waste, productivity, and other defined outcomes; uses findings and field feedback to continuously refine the program.
• Partners with Program Enablement, Business Systems, and Performance Enablement to ensure Food and Nutrition programs can be effectively packaged, communicated, system-enabled, implemented, assessed, and sustained; communicates priorities, risks, decisions, progress, and outcomes to senior leadership and escalates barriers requiring action
• Food protection manager certification (e.g., ServSafe Manager or equivalent) preferred; ability to maintain required food-safety training based on organizational and jurisdictional requirements

What qualifications you will need:

• Baccalaureate degree in food and nutrition, dietetics, foodservice management, hospitality management, healthcare administration, business, culinary arts, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred
• Seven or more years of progressive food and nutrition services, healthcare foodservice, hospitality, retail food operations, program development, or related leadership experience, including multi-site or complex organizational responsibility. Demonstrated success developing and standardizing foodservice programs, leading cross-functional initiatives, managing patient and/or retail service models, analyzing operational and financial performance, and influencing operational stakeholders is required. Healthcare food and nutrition services experience strongly preferred.
• Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) credential preferred for candidates whose background is indietetics or clinical nutrition
• Food protection manager certification (e.g., ServSafe Manager or equivalent) preferred; ability tomaintain required food-safety training based on organizational and jurisdictional requirements

Benefits

HealthTrust, offers a total rewards package that supports the health, life, career and retirement of our colleagues. The available plans and programs include:

• Comprehensive benefitsfor medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, behavioral health and telemedicine services
• Wellbeing support,including free counseling and referral services
• Time away from workprograms for paid time off, paid family leave, long- and short-term disability coverage and leaves of absence
• Savings and retirement resources, including a 401(k) Plan with a 100% match on 3% to 9% of pay (based on years of service), Employee Stock Purchase Plan, flexible spending accounts, preferred banking partnerships, retirement readiness tools, rollover support and financial wellbeing counseling
• Education supportthrough tuition assistance, student loan assistance, certification support, dependent scholarships and a partnership with Galen College of Nursing
• Additional benefitsfor fertility and family building, adoption assistance, life insurance, supplemental health protection plans, auto and home insurance, legal counseling, identity theft protection and consumer discounts

Learn more about Employee Benefits

Note: Eligibility for benefits may vary by location.

In today's challenging business environment of cost pressures, supply disruptions, and workforce shortages, it is crucial for providers to efficiently manage expenses and enhance performance. HealthTrust, in collaboration with 1,800 hospitals and health systems, offers a specialized group purchasing organization (GPO) membership model designed to deliver immediate and sustainable cost savings. Their team of experts provides tailored value acceleration engagements to address specific needs, delivering unparalleled benefits. With nationwide purchasing power and a focus on overall spending management, HealthTrust offers unmatched pricing advantages on supplies, along with industry-leading benchmarks and best practices. The dedicated team is committed to guiding and implementing performance enhancements in cost, quality, and outcomes.

HCA Healthcare has been recognized as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies® by the Ethisphere Institute more than ten times. In recent years. HCA Healthcare spent an estimated $3.7 billion in costs for the delivery of charitable care, uninsured discounts, and other uncompensated expenses.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.