Director of Centralized Catering Operations

Compass Group USA; Mountain View (CA); Presencial; USD 190.000 - 230.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

Compass Group USA in Mountain View is seeking a Director of Centralized Catering Operations to lead last-mile logistics, staging, and dispatch, with a focus on hospitality, discipline, and resource optimization. This role partners with Executive Chef teams to maintain schedules and drive operational rigor across handoffs without kitchen oversight.

The candidate balances floor presence with 30,000-foot planning, champions data-driven decisions, and steers AI-enabled scheduling and tech platforms

Formación

• 8–10+ years of progressive operations management in high-volume logistics or centralized catering.
• Proven ability to implement SOPs and manage complex scheduling and variability.
• Hands-on floor presence with 30,000-foot strategic vision and redesign expertise.
• Strong analytics, KPI development, labor modeling, and dashboards.
• Tech‑progressive with AI tools and predictive analytics in operational use.
• Leadership with hospitality focus, developing staff toward guest-centered service.
• Willingness to challenge legacy practices and drive continuous improvement.
• Bachelor’s degree and ServSafe certification or ability to obtain.

Responsabilidades

• Drive end-to-end operational rigor for last-mile logistics, packing, staging, and dispatch with SOPs.
• Balance hands-on floor work with high-level workflow redesign to absorb volume surges.
• Analyze ordering trends and lead times to design agile production schedules.
• Question legacy methods and instill root-cause problem solving across shifts.
• Partner with transportation, fleet logistics, and on-site catering teams for seamless dispatch.
• Establish, monitor, and optimize KPIs including labor, capacity, throughput, and yield.
• Align resources with sales, culinary leads, and event planners before peak periods.
• Lead adoption of catering platforms (Momentus, GEMS), digital inventories, and automation.
• Apply AI/predictive analytics for demand forecasting, scheduling, waste tracking, and workflows.
• Foster hospitality across the team, ensuring warmth in every delivery and touchpoint.

Conocimientos

High-volume logistics

Last-mile dispatch

Operations leadership

Hospitality mindset

Data analytics

AI tools

Educación

Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management or related field

ServSafe Manager Certification

Herramientas

Momentus

GEMS

Descripción del empleo

The Director of Centralized Catering Operations is an essential senior leadership role reporting to the VP of Catering. This role is established to oversee, stabilize, and elevate our regional centralized catering operations—the primary engine producing the majority of our volume and our greatest opportunity for operational discipline and resource optimization. Focused primarily on last-mile logistics, assembly, staging, and dispatch rather than direct kitchen oversight, this leader partners closely with the Executive Chef team to ensure production schedules are strictly maintained and organizational rigor exists across all handoffs. Rather than expecting this leader to solve deficits on paper, we require a trusted partner to master schedule and volume variability and optimize available resources.

Crucially, a central mandate of this role is overcoming the perception that high-volume catering has become largely transactional. Although we serve food at a massive scale, genuine hospitality must remain at the very core of what we do. This leader will develop and coach both operational leadership and frontline staff to be deeply grounded in hospitality, ensuring that every delivery, guest interaction, and service touchpoint reflects warmth, attentiveness, and care. The ideal candidate balances hands‑on floor presence in logistics with 30,000-foot strategic vision, challenging the status quo and questioning the 'why' behind legacy practices. Metrics-focused, organized, and tech-progressive with working knowledge of AI tools, this leader makes decisive business decisions while leading with deep empathy to motivate and align a high-performing team.

The great things you will be expected to do:

Operational Rigor & High-Altitude Process Improvement:

• Drive end-to-end operational rigor across last-mile logistics, packing, staging, and dispatch operations, establishing clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that guarantee timing, safety, and consistency; partner closely with the Executive Chef team to ensure production schedules are kept and organizational discipline exists across all culinary handoffs (role does not have operational oversight of the kitchen).
• Balance altitude with intention: know precisely when to roll up your sleeves on the floor to troubleshoot logistics and dispatch bottlenecks, and when to elevate to the 30,000-foot level to analyze systemic workflows and drive structural change.
• Master schedule and volume variability: analyze regional ordering trends and lead-time patterns to design agile production schedules that absorb volume surges without operational friction or burnout.
• Challenge the status quo: rigorously question legacy methods, challenge the \"why\" behind current production cadences, and instill a culture of root‑cause problem-solving and continuous iteration across all shifts.
• Partner closely with transportation, fleet logistics, and on-site catering teams to ensure seamless dispatch, precise delivery windows, and rigorous temperature/safety chain compliance.

Metrics, Resource Optimization & Strategic Planning:

• Establish, operationalize, and review core operational metrics and KPIs, including labor efficiency per volume output, shift capacity thresholds, throughput rates, and food yield percentages.
• Bring quantitative rigor to resource allocation: optimize shift staffing structures, equipment utilization, and overtime controls against actual volume curves and production forecasts.
• Develop long‑range strategic operational plans and volume capacity models, collaborating with regional sales, culinary leads, and event planners to proactively align resources ahead of peak periods.
• Serve as an objective, trusted business partner to regional operations and finance leadership, identifying operational cost drivers and unlocking sustainable efficiencies without compromising culinary standards.
• Cultivate a tech-progressive operational culture, driving full adoption and optimization of catering platforms (such as Momentus and GEMS), digital inventory systems, and automated production tools.
• Leverage modern AI tools and data analytics as active resources for predictive demand forecasting, intelligent labor scheduling, waste tracking, and workflow automation.
• Continuously research and pilot innovative culinary technologies, ergonomic kitchen equipment, and sustainable packaging solutions that reduce physical strain and boost team productivity.

Hospitality Culture, Client Experience & People Leadership:

• De-transactionalize the catering experience: actively transform client and guest perceptions by embedding hospitality into every phase of last-mile delivery, setup, and on-site interaction, ensuring high volume never diminishes attentiveness, presentation, or personal care.
• Develop hospitality-grounded teams: coach, train, and mentor both operational leadership and frontline associates (captains, drivers, staging crews) to master the art of guest interaction, actively listening and demonstrating genuine hospitality at every touchpoint.
• Mentor, develop, and inspire supervisory and frontline staff, creating transparent career progression pathways, cross-training opportunities, and ongoing skills development.
• Communicate strategic business priorities with clarity and purpose, translating overarching program objectives into meaningful daily priorities that frontline teams can execute with pride.
• Build collaborative partnerships across regional food program leads, Executive Chefs, workplace managers, and vendor partners to ensure unified operational alignment.

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum 8–10+ years of progressive operations management experience leading high-volume last-mile logistics, centralized catering staging/dispatch, commissary distribution hubs, or multi‑unit hospitality logistics.
• Proven track record of instilling operational rigor, implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and successfully managing complex schedule and volume variability.
• Demonstrated dual-altitude capability: proven track record of hands‑on, roll‑up-your‑sleeves floor presence combined with 30,000-foot strategic vision and workflow redesign expertise.
• Strong analytical and metrics orientation, with demonstrated experience establishing operational KPIs, labor models, capacity planning benchmarks, and performance dashboards.
• Tech-progressive acumen with demonstrated experience leveraging modern digital platforms and working knowledge of AI tools and predictive analytics as practical operational resources.
• Exceptional leadership presence with high emotional intelligence; proven track record of developing both leadership and frontline staff to be grounded in hospitality, transforming transactional service into authentic guest connection while motivating a diverse workforce.
• Fearless approach to continuous improvement: demonstrated history of challenging the status quo constructively, asking the critical \"why\", and transforming legacy operations.
• Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management, Culinary Arts, Business Administration, Operations Engineering, or equivalent practical leadership experience.
• ServSafe Manager Certification (or ability to obtain upon hire).