Exec Chef, Operations

2139 Gate Gourmet, Inc; Miami (FL); On-site; USD 99,000 - 121,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

401k with company match

Company sponsored life insurance

Medical, dental, vision plans

Voluntary short-term/long-term-disabil

Voluntary life, accident, and hospital

Employee Assistance Program

Commuter benefits

Employee Discounts

Free hot healthy meals for unit

Job summary

Gate Gourmet is seeking an Executive Chef, Operations, to oversee daily meal preparation for multiple airline accounts and lead a team of Chefs, Sous Chefs, and Cooks. You will ensure qualityfood services and strategic execution in a high-volume, fast-paced unit.

Reporting to the General Manager, you will monitor production standards, control costs, and drive continuous improvement in menus and processes, while upholding safety regulations and ServSafe standards.

Qualifications

• Associate or Bachelor degree in Culinary Arts or related field, or 4+ years in an Executive Chef role.
• Minimum 10 years of experience as a Chef and 4 years as an Executive Chef.
• In-flight catering or high-volume food service experience required.
• Strong leadership and coaching ability, with experience managing 2–3 Sous Chefs and 20+ cooks.

Responsibilities

• Oversee culinary operations and ensure adherence to standards and budgets.
• Lead staff training, scheduling, and performance management across the unit.
• Ensure HACCP, FDA and safety compliance; monitor sanitation and safety procedures.
• Collaborate on menu design and cost control; review production records and yields.

Skills

Culinary leadership

Strategic planning

Staff training

Menu design

Food safety

Communication

Education

Associate or Bachelor in Culinary Arts

Tools

MS Office

Job description

We’re looking for motivated, engaged people to help make everyone’s journeys better. Reporting to the General Manager of the unit, the Executive Chef, Operations is responsible for daily monitoring of the preparation of the pre-designed meals for multiple customer accounts with culinary expertise through the management of all Chefs, Sous Chefs and Cooks at the unit, and promoting and providing quality food services to airline clients.

Annual Hiring Range/Hourly Rate

Up to $110,000.00

Benefits

• Paid time off
• 401k, with company match
• Company sponsored life insurance
• Medical, dental, vision plans
• Voluntary short-term/long-term disability insurance
• Voluntary life, accident, and hospital plans
• Employee Assistance Program
• Commuter benefits
• Employee Discounts
• Free hot healthy meals for unit operations role

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Achieves culinary operational objectives by contributing information and analysis to strategic plans and reviews;
• Preparing and completing action plans;
• Implementing production, productivity, quality, and customer-service standards;
• Serving as culinary resource to operations managers;
• Identifying and resolving problems;
• Completing audits;
• Determining system improvements;
• Implementing change.
• Meets culinary financial objectives by estimating requirements;
• Assisting with menu design;
• Anticipating and evaluating response to menu presentation;
• Scheduling expenditures;
• Analyzing variances;
• Initiating corrective actions;
• Evaluating time-saving production techniques;
• Training others in specialty techniques.
• Adheres to recipes and portion specifications as required by the customer by understanding consumer tastes and nutritional needs; reviewing product specifications; evaluating ease of menu preparation; applying established procedures and budgetary constraints.
• Oversees food preparation by consulting with the Buyer; Sous chefs, cooks, and team leaders; overseeing portion size; controlling productivity; providing culinary leadership in areas of personal expertise; monitoring presentations, garnishments, and sauces.
• Improves menu quality and consistency by analyzing food production records and menu expenses; promoting kitchen staff interest in quality improvement; studying, evaluating, and re-designing processes; implementing changes.
• Prepares menu and food preparation reports by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing food, dining, and customer data and trends.
• Maintains safe, secure, and healthy work environment by establishing, following, and enforcing standards and procedures; complying with sanitation and federal, state, and local legal regulations; overseeing food preparation, safety, and security; reviewing and implementing accident and disaster plans.
• Using menu specifications, maintains food ingredients, food preparation, and general supplies by selecting and purchasing menu ingredients; evaluating the quality of fresh food and food product deliveries; maintaining general supplies; establishing inventory levels, re-order points, storage requirements, and cost-controls.
• Maintains culinary equipment by following operating instructions; instructing staff in equipment use; troubleshooting breakdowns; maintaining equipment supplies; performing preventive maintenance; calling for repairs; evaluating new equipment; preparing administrative proposals to justify purchases.
• Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; benchmarking state-of-the-art practices; being sought for opinions as a culinary expert; contributing to professional publications; participating in professional societies and sharing this information with direct reports.
• Accomplishes culinary goals by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests; exploring opportunities to add value to job accomplishments.
• Ensures quality production standards are followed and maintained.
• Ensures employees adhere to HACCP, FDA and safety regulations and compliance with company policies and procedures.
• Trains and monitors employees on proper work procedures and production of products to ensure maximum productivity with minimum labor and food expenses.
• Assists in the development and training of cooks as required.
• Prepares administrative reports as required.
• Ensures maximum productivity and labor costs are maintained according to financial requirements.
• Monitors daily manpower planning and employee turnover.
• Responsible for employee retention.
• Ensures meal cycles are communicated in a timely and accurate basis.
• Monitor yields of products to ensure maximum usage.
• Works with management staff to improve performance of the unit.
• Ensures Menu presentations are properly planned, set up, and specifications reviewed to ensure compliance.
• Maintains labor requirements, food costs, overtime, and all productivity requirements.
• Must ensure all cooks, and Sous Chef employees have the skill and ability to perform all cooking and food preparation requirements of all the Airline Accounts serviced in the Unit.
• Ensures all products are cooked at required temperature according to airline and food safety specification, etc.
• Responsible for coaching, counseling and preparing corrective action for employees.
• Completes all company required training including but not limited to ServSafe Sanitation Manager Certification.

Education

Associate Degree or Bachelor Degree in the Culinary Arts or a related field, (formal culinary education) required or at least 4 years of experience in an Executive Chef role

Work Experience

• Minimum 10 years of experience as a Chef required.
• Minimum of 4 years of experience as an Executive Chef required.
• Minimum of 1-3 years of supervisory experience working in a high volume, manufacturing, food production and restaurant or catering environment required.
• In-flight catering experience or experience in a high-volume food service environment required.

Technical Skills

• Ability to cook meals according to detailed specifications.
• Ability to work in a fast paced, deadline driven environment.
• Must have strong and effective leadership skills, and the ability to successfully manage a staff of 2 to 3 Sous Chefs and over 20 cooks.
• Current or previous labor relations experience is a plus, but not required.
• Candidate must be comfortable with all levels of employees and have the ability to drive positive program change.
• Ability to train others required.
• Must have the ability to give negative and positive feedback to employees on a daily basis.
• Excellent time management skills required.
• Ability to handle multiple tasks without losing focus on priorities.
• Strong organizational, analytical, communication and leadership skills required.
• Must be innovative and have the ability to make changes to the operation as needed to further improve the work environment and unit performance.
• Experience with menu design a plus.
• Basic computer skills required.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office products preferred.
• ServSafe Certified preferred.

Language / Communication Skills

• Must have excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Multi-lingual a plus.

Job Dimensions

• Geographic Responsibility: Unit
• Type of Employment: Full-Time
• Travel %: Yes – Up to 10%
• Exemption Classification: Exempt
• Internal Relationships: all internal departments
• External Relationships: airline customers
• Work Environment / Requirements of the Job: Regularly, stands, bends, lifts, and moves intermittently during shifts of 10+ hours. In a normal production kitchen facility there may be physical discomfort due to temperature and noise. Must be able to lift, push, pull and move product, equipment, supplies, etc., in excess of twenty-five (25) pounds. A rotating schedule of over 55 hours per week is typical.
• Budget / Revenue Responsibility: USD
• Organization Structure Direct Line Manager (Title): Director, Assembly
• Dotted Line Manager (Title, if applicable): TBD
• Number of Direct Reports: TBD
• Number of Dotted Line Reports: TBD
• Estimated Total Size of Team: TBD

Gate Group Competencies Required to be Successful in the Job

• Thinking – Information Search and analysis & problem resolution skills
• Engaging – Understanding others, Team Leadership and Developing People
• Inspiring – Influencing and building relationships, Motivating and Inspiring, Communicating effectively
• Achieving – Delivering business results under pressure, Championing Performance Improvement and Customer Focus

Demonstrated Values to be Successful in the Position

We are expected to live our Values of Excellence, Passion, Responsibility and Respect. To demonstrate these Values, we expect to observe the following from everyone:

Excellence We put the customer at the forefront of everything we do, taking time to understand their needs, wishes and desires. We constantly learn by giving and receiving feedback, improving from our mistakes and bettering ourselves.

Passion Hospitality, in its purest form, comes down to a single, core principle: care. We do everything with thoughtfulness, attention, and care. We have a growth mindset, a resilience that makes us determined to bounce back from failures and setbacks.

Responsibility We care about what we do, and we understand the impact we have on others and the planet. We always look out for each other –creating a safe workplace environment is everyone’s responsibility.

Respect Every job matters. We each do our part to ensure our colleagues and our customers succeed in their goals. We respect each other’s voices and foster a workplace that supports inclusion and belonging. We are all one gategroup.

Equal Employment Opportunity

gategroup - an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to workforce diversity and actively encourage all qualified persons to seek employment with us, including, but not limited to, racial and ethnic minorities, women, veterans and persons with disabilities. http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf

We anticipate that this job will close on: 12/15/2026

Company Overview

gategroup is the global leader in airline catering, retail-on-board and hospitality products and services. gategroup provides passengers with superior culinary and retail experiences, leveraging innovation and advanced technology solutions. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, gategroup delivers operational excellence through the most extensive catering network in the aviation industry, serving passengers from over 200 operating units in over 60 countries/territories across all continents.

We work in an exciting industry – fast-paced and ever-changing. Industry trends and customer expectations are constantly evolving and it is critical that we are agile, innovative and ready for change - and our people are our driving force.

We offer attractive opportunities to be part of this fast-paced and truly international working environment. For further information, please visit www.gategroup.com.