Senior School Food Operations Specialist

Chef Ann Foundation; San Jose (CA); Remote; USD 91,000 - 124,000; Full time

Job summary

The Chef Ann Foundation seeks a Senior School Food Operations Specialist to enhance school nutrition programs across California. This role involves supporting scratch cooking initiatives in schools, leading training, and ensuring compliance with USDA regulations. Candidates should have a culinary or nutrition degree and extensive experience in school food service management.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

403(b) retirement plan with a match

Paid time off and holidays

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• Four years in School Food Service Management required.
• Demonstrated experience in training school food professionals.
• Bilingual in Spanish and English preferred.

Responsibilities

• Answers questions regarding school food operations and USDA regulations.
• Provides operational support to partner districts.
• Conducts assessments of school food departments.

Skills

Leadership

Training

Menu Planning

Technical Expertise

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Culinary, Nutrition, Food Service, or related field

Tools

K-12 recipe/menu software

G-Suite

Microsoft Office

Salesforce

Job description

Senior School Food Operations Specialist

Join to apply for the Senior School Food Operations Specialist role at Chef Ann Foundation

Senior School Food Operations Specialist

Join to apply for the Senior School Food Operations Specialist role at Chef Ann Foundation

This range is provided by Chef Ann Foundation. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

$91,350.00/yr - $123,900.00/yr

Full-time Remote, Limited Service through December 2026.

This role is open to California residents only

Multiple Openings

About the Chef Ann Foundation

Founded in 2009, the Chef Ann Foundation (CAF) believes that all children should have equal access to fresh, healthy, delicious food providing them the foundation to thrive and meet their true potential. We ensure that school food professionals have the resources, funding and support they need to provide cook-from-scratch meals that support the health of children and our planet. To date, we’ve reached over 16,000 schools and over 4.4 million children in all 50 states with our school food programming.

Job Description

This position is part of our School Food Operations team and reports directly to the Senior Director of West Coast Operations. This is a full-time position working alongside the programs and operations teams at the Chef Ann Foundation with school district partners to support increasing scratch cooking in school food programs.

Join our School Food Operations team in a specialized limited-service role designed for experienced K-12 school food nutrition leaders. This full-time position spans the 2025-2026 school year through December 2026, with potential for extension, offering seasoned professionals the opportunity to leverage their expertise in a new capacity. Reporting to the Senior Director of West Coast Operations, you'll collaborate directly with school districts, primarily in the Healthy School Food Pathway (HSFP) and our programs and operations teams to advance scratch cooking initiatives in school food programs. This role offers an ideal transition opportunity for current department leaders seeking to make a broader impact on student nutrition on both the national and local stages, while working alongside the Chef Ann Foundation's mission-driven team to continue building healthier, more sustainable school meal programs.

About the Healthy School Food Pathway (HSFP) Program. HSFP is a work-based learning experience that aims to prepare individuals for job opportunities in healthy, scratch-cooked school food programs. The HSFP program focuses on supporting workforce readiness and professional growth for new and incumbent school food operators. The pipeline from entry-level positions through management and school food leadership (Pre-Apprenticeship, Apprenticeship, Fellowship) offers professionals the resources, hands-on training, and network to become confident leaders with in-depth knowledge and experience in creating and running successful scratch-cooked meal programs. This includes an emphasis on CAF’s five key areas: food, finance, facilities, human resources, and marketing.

Key Responsibilities

• Answers technical and operational questions regarding USDA regulations, procurement, school food operations, etc.;
• Provides onsite and virtual operational expertise and support to partner districts to further their transition to a scratch-cook operation;
• Reviews various district operations and provides feedback with recommendations for technical assistance to assist districts in scratch cooking;
• Attends meetings as needed with funders and stakeholders to answer operational questions;
• Develops and presents presentations for webinars, conferences, district, and other public presentation opportunities that are focused on specific areas of school food operations;
• Conducts on-site facilities assessments of a school food department;
• Develops partnerships with organizations to ensure CAF utilizes existing resources and maintains strong relationships with other entities working in this space;
• Ensures CAF initiatives are managed at the highest level and represents the organization's commitment to quality, results-driven programming;
• Works both independently and collaboratively with internal (School Food Operations & Programs teams) and external partners (school food operators, funders, and program partners;
• Leads school food operational initiatives, providing strategic direction for program elements that will lead to the greatest change based on the program's capacity;
• Other duties as assigned within the scope of this position.

Position Requirements

• Four (4) years of college or equivalent advanced training to qualify for a Bachelor’s Degree with a relevant major: Culinary, Nutrition, Food Service, or other related field;
• Minimum of four (4) years of experience in School Food Service Management, with a preference for a cook-from-scratch program.
• Demonstrated work experience training school food professionals;
• Demonstrated work experience in using/understanding K-12 recipe/menu software;
• Demonstrated work experience in developing annual fiscal budgets of at least $500,000 and modeling for school food programs;
• Demonstrated work experience in menu planning as it relates to ingredient-based, cook-from-scratch meal programs;
• Ability to work in a remote environment and adapt to various school environments;
• Ability to work virtually.

Preferred Education, Formal Training, and Experience

• Bilingual in Spanish and English
• Previous experience working in food service leadership in a school nutrition environment;
• Advanced knowledge of NSLP regulations and is proactive about staying informed on new regulations;
• Advanced knowledge of K-12 procurement, including RFPs, purchasing cooperatives, and inventory management;
• Strong writer and editor, with the ability to create and edit content for school food operators;
• Strong proficiency in G-Suite platforms and Microsoft Office and, especially on Mac OS. Experience preferred in Salesforce, Asana, Zoom, and Adobe.

Licenses, Registrations, and Certifications

• Food Managers Certificate: must be acquired within 90 days of initial employment.
• Ability to create and run impactful training programs for school food operators;
• Organized and able to meet targeted outcomes;
• Ability to represent CAF at a high level in meetings/conferences with Government officials and other key influencers to build interagency relationships ensuring awareness and partnership of our programs;
• Ability to learn and engage with new technology programs;
• A team player;
• A passion for food systems and a strong interest in childhood health and wellness;
• Strong professional relationship management skills that translate into building strong partnerships;
• Ability to build new programing and manage implementation;
• Resourcefulness in finding solutions to unique problems and making pivots to ensure outcomes;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
• Flexible mindset and innovative thinker;
• Willingness to engage in continuous learning and training.

Compensation

Compensation ranges between $91,350 - $ 123,900 per year and will be commensurate with the candidate’s previous experience and credentials. The Chef Ann Foundation is a great place to work. It provides its staff with a competitive benefits package, including medical, pharmacy, dental, vision, short-term disability, long-term disability, group life insurance, accident insurance, critical illness insurance, hospital indemnity, 403(b) retirement plan with a match, holidays & paid time off. We are a fully remote national organization whose headquarters are located in Boulder, CO, with team members spread across the US. This position is remote and can be based anywhere within California.

Posting will close on June 27, 2025.

The anticipated position start date is August 18, 2025.

At the Chef Ann Foundation, our work to ensure access to fresh, healthy school food for all is built on the idea of equity. We support and celebrate differences; our team and community are stronger with every new voice. CAF is proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Other

• Industries

  Non-profit Organizations

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