Operations Manager - Commercial Food Production

LSG Sky Chefs; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 94,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

SkyChefs in San Jose is seeking an Operations Manager for the Cold Food Department to lead frontline leadership and production teams, ensuring safe, high-quality meals for customers.

You will collaborate across departments, drive continuous improvement, and foster accountability, safety, and exceptional service while meeting daily production goals. Strong leadership and GMP knowledge are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; equivalent combination of education and relevant experience will be considered.
• 3-5 years of food production experience in a supervisory or management role required.
• 1-3+ years of experience working in a food production or manufacturing environment.
• Experience in using and managing Variable Production Systems and schedules
• Strong presentation, communication, training and interpersonal skills
• Proven success in improving work processes and leading change in a complex, fast environment
• Excellent analytical and conceptual skills
• Demonstrable record of understanding and meeting customer expectations
• Proven track record of understanding the drivers of product and labor cost variances
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office and Windows-based computer application

Responsibilities

• Plan, organize and manage a department with daily hours, schedules, productivity, quality and safety.
• Control department costs to budget through manpower planning and overtime usage.
• Ensure compliance with customer specs, FDA, HACCP, safety and environmental rules.
• Ensure on-time, accurate production in food/equipment preparation and catering.
• Investigate customer quality issues and implement corrective actions.
• Maintain positive relationships with internal and external customers.
• Attend daily operations briefing and support KPI reporting.
• Provide data for annual business planning and budgeting.

Skills

Presentation skills

Communication skills

Training skills

Interpersonal skills

Process improvement

Change management

Analytical thinking

Cost variance analysis

MS Office

Education

Bachelor's degree

Equivalent experience

Tools

Variable Production Systems

Production scheduling

Windows-based applications

Job description

Operations Manager - Commercial Food Production

• Careers Home
• View Careers

View Profile Employee Login Job Description Posting Start Date: 8/19/26

Job Title:Operations Manager - Commercial Food Production
Job Location:San Jose-USA-95110
Work Location Type:On-Site
Salary Range:$93,618.64 - 110,000.00

About us

Since 1942, SkyChefs has taken culinary excellence to new heights. As a trusted partner to the nation’s leading airlines and retailers, we proudly deliver millions of meals and exceptional service experiences every year across 43 sites throughout the United States. Built on a legacy of operational excellence, culinary expertise, and continuous innovation, we are committed to setting the industry standard in aviation culinary, airline services, last-mile logistics, and retail commerce. From the kitchen to the runway, our teams work together to deliver quality, reliability, and service at every altitude. Our people are the heart of everything we do. At SkyChefs, a career is more than a job – it’s an opportunity to grow, lead, and make an impact in a fast-paced, team-driven environment. Join America’s first, foremost, and finest and take your career to new heights.

Role Purpose Statement

At our San Jose operation, excellence in food production starts with exceptional leadership.

Our San Jose team is looking for an Operations Manager to lead the Cold Food Department, managing frontline leadership and production teams responsible for delivering safe, high-quality products to our customers.

This role requires a strong collaborator who can build partnerships across departments, drive continuous improvement, and create a culture of accountability, safety, and exceptional service while ensuring daily production goals are achieved.

Main Accountabilities

• Strategically plan, organize, and manage a department with regards to daily hours, schedules, productivity, quality and safety.
• Responsible for department costs to budget through effective manpower planning, scheduling and overtime usage
• Ensure compliance with customer specifications, quality standards, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), safety, health, environmental and other regulations
• Ensure on-time and accurate production in the preparation of food/equipment and catering of flights
• Investigate customer quality issues, develop and implement corrective actions
• Maintain an ongoing, positive and pro-active relationship with all internal and external customers
• Attend the daily operations briefing
• Ensure par levels of customer inventory and customer specific goods
• Provide data for the development of an annual business plan and budgeting for the department
• Ensure optimal deployment of human, technical and material resources in the department
• Initiate and control continuous optimization of processes

Leadership

• Ensure that the area of responsibility is properly organized, staffed and directed
• Guide, motivate and develop the subordinate employees within the Human Resources Policy
• Participates in coaching the expanded Global Performance System (GPS) process, as well as additional career development activities to enhance the effectiveness and potential of the team
• Make the company's values and management principles live in the department(s)
• Plan / Implement and control the cost budget in the area of responsibility; initiate and steer corrective actions in case of deviations
• Participate and support company sponsored initiatives such as Global Quality Standard (GQS), HACCP, Lean Manufacturing, Employee Safety

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Bachelor's degree required; equivalent combination of education and relevant experience will be considered.
• 3-5 years of food production experience in a supervisory or management role required.
• 1-3+ years of experience working in a food production or manufacturing environment.
• Experience in using and managing Variable Production Systems and schedules
• Strong presentation, communication, training and interpersonal skills
• Proven success in improving work processes and leading change in a complex, fast environment
• Excellent analytical and conceptual skills
• Demonstrable record of understanding and meeting customer expectations
• Proven track record of understanding the drivers of product and labor cost variances
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office and Windows-based computer application
  

SkyChefs is an EEO and Affinitive Action Employer of Women/Minorities/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities.

SkyChefs is an EEO and Affinitive Action Employer of Women/Minorities/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities.