Sous Chef, Operations

gategroup; Chantilly (VA); On-site; USD 75,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

401k with company match

Company sponsored life insurance

Medical, dental, vision plans

Disability insurance

Life, accident, and hospital plans

Employee Assistance Program

Commuter benefits

Employee discounts

Weekly pay for union employees

Free hot meals

Job summary

gategroup is seeking a proactive Sous Chef, Operations to assist the Executive Sous Chef Operations or Executive Chef in designing and preparing meals for airline customers. You will provide culinary leadership, ensure food safety and sanitation, and drive production with Food Supervisors.

This full-time exempt role in the USA requires strong kitchen management, scheduling, and adherence to regulatory standards, with up to 25% travel and potential union coordination.

Qualifications

• Associates degree in Culinary Arts or certification preferred.
• Minimum 1–3 years as a Chef/Sous Chef; 7 years as a cook.
• Experience supervising in high-volume food production or catering.

Responsibilities

• Ensure food specifications and labor objectives meet requirements.
• Supervise department for quality and quantity with proper dating and coding.
• Schedule shifts and assign employees to sections.
• Order raw materials and handle last-minute meal production.
• Prepare daily production sheets and guide staff via production counts.
• Train staff on procedures including ServSafe and safety policies.
• Maintain sanitation and safety standards across kitchens.
• Lead daily production for hot and cold kitchens to ensure consistency.
• Enforce Wage & Hour policies and breaks; control labor costs.

Skills

Leadership

Food production

Team supervision

Training

Time management

Education

Associates degree in Culinary Arts

Tools

ServSafe Certified

Job description

We’re looking for motivated, engaged people to help make everyone’s journeys better.

Reporting to the Executive Sous Chef or the Executive Chef for the unit, the Sous Chef, Operations assists the Executive Sous Chef Operations or the Executive Chef in designing and preparing meals for airline customers.
Provides culinary expertise and leadership; promotes quality food services and ensures food safety and sanitation requirements are followed.
Drives the food production effort with the assistance of Food Supervisors

Annual Hiring Range/Hourly Rate:

• $75K - $80K Per Year

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
• Weekly pay for union employees
• Free hot healthy meals for unit operations roles

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Responsible for ensuring food specifications and labor objectives meet all Company and customer requirements

• Supervises department for quality and quantity; ensures items are produced and dated according to specification, and coding system is adhered to correctly (i.e. - FDA, USDA, HAACP and other governmental regulations)

• Keeps account of attendance, sets up paperwork, sets up each shift and assigns employees to specified sections (schedule optimization)

• Orders raw material from storeroom and produces extra meals at last minute as needed

• Prepares daily production sheet and assigns tasks to employees; works with and directs employees through the use of the production sheet and passenger counts

• Responsible for all food items after requisitioning them from the storeroom; training and recurrent training of all employees on proper procedures of preparation

• Ensures safety procedures are adhered to; maintain cleanliness through shift to ensure quality product

• Manages daily production of hot and/or cold kitchens for quality and consistency

• Ensures compliance with company Wage & Hour policy, including ensuring employees get the rest & meal breaks and ensuring company processes are followed.

• Trains and monitors employees on proper work procedures to ensure maximum productivity with minimum labor and food expenses.

• Monitors daily manpower planning and schedules employees.

• Responsible for employee retention and reducing employee turnover.

• Responsible for coaching, counseling and preparing corrective actions for employees in compliance with the applicable union/collective bargaining agreement(s).

• Reviews and ensures employees in chain of command are in correct cost centers and correct job titles.

• Reviews and ensures union represented employees’ pay rates are correct based on wage scales and seniority.

• Employee must complete all company required training including but not limited to ServSafe

• Compliance with all company required policies, procedures and processes including but not limited to required training

Qualifications

Education:

• Associates degree in the Culinary Arts or a Culinary Arts certification preferred.

Work Experience:

• Minimum 1-3 years of experience as a Chef and/or Sous Chef required.
• Minimum 7 years of experience as a cook required.
• Previous supervisoryexperience working in a high volume, manufacturing, food production, restaurant or catering environmentpreferred.
• In-flight catering experience or experience in a high-volume food service environment preferred.

Job 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 team of 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.

Technical Skills: (Certificates, Licenses and Registration)

• ServSafe Certified is preferred.

Language / Communication Skills:

• Must have excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Bi-lingual in Spanish is a plus.

Job Dimensions

Geographic Responsibility: USA

Type of Employment: Full-Time

Travel %: Yes – Up to 25%

Exemption Classification: Exempt

Internal Relationships: all production areas

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: N/A

Organization Structure

Direct Line Manager (Title): Executive Sous Chef, Operations or Executive Chef, Operations

Number of Direct Reports: Up to 40, varies by unit (Head Cook, Specialty Cook, Assistant Cook in Hot Kitchen)

Number of Dotted Line Reports: N/A__

Estimated Total Size of Team: Up to 40, varies by unit

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

Employees at gategroup are expected to live our Values of Excellence, Integrity, Passion and Accountability. To demonstrate these Values, we expect to observe the following from everyone:

• We treat each other with respect and we act with integrity
• We communicate and keep each other informed
• We put our heads together to problem solve and deliver excellence as a team
• We have passion for our work and we pay attention to the little details
• We foster an environment of accountability, take responsibility for our actions and learn from our mistakes
• We do what we say we will do, when we say we are going to do it
• We care about our coworkers, always taking an opportunity to make someone’s day better

For further information regarding Equal Employment Opportunity, copy and paste the following URL into your web browser: http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf

We anticipate that this job will close on:

10/30/2026

If you want to be part of a team that helps make travel and culinarymemories, join us!