Operations Manager in Fort Worth, Texas at NJ Regan Enterprises Inc

O'Neill's Inflight Catering provides high-quality inflight catering and aviation support services to commercial, private, charter, military, and corporate aviation customers. Our operations require precision, food safety, security, consistency, and strict adherence to customer specifications and flight schedules.

Our teams operate in a fast-paced, time-sensitive environment where production, assembly, logistics, dispatch, food safety, and customer service must work together seamlessly to ensure every order is produced accurately and delivered safely and on time.

The Operations Manager is a key member of the facility leadership team and serves directly below the General Manager and Assistant General Manager in the operational chain of command.

The Operations Manager is responsible for overseeing day-to-day facility operations, including food production, cold food preparation, order assembly, tray setup, warehousing, dishwashing, dispatch, transportation, inventory, sanitation, and operational staffing.

This position is expected to take ownership of the operation during assigned shifts and, when necessary, assume operational leadership of the facility in the absence of the General Manager and Assistant General Manager.

The Operations Manager must ensure that customer orders are produced accurately, safely, and on schedule while maintaining company food safety, security, quality, documentation, and operational standards.

This is a hands-on leadership position requiring strong decision-making, organization, accountability, and the ability to manage multiple operational priorities simultaneously in a deadline-driven aviation environment.

• Direct and oversee daily kitchen, production, warehouse, assembly, dishwashing, dispatch, and delivery operations.
• Ensure all customer and flight orders are produced, checked, staged, dispatched, and delivered on time and to specification.
• Act as the senior operational leader on duty when the GM or Assistant GM is unavailable.
• Coordinate staffing and workflow across production areas based on workload, flight schedules, customer requirements, and operational priorities.
• Conduct shift briefings and ensure supervisors and employees understand workload, priorities, special orders, customer requirements, and potential operational challenges.
• Monitor flight schedules, order changes, delays, cancellations, additions, and last-minute customer requests and adjust production and dispatch accordingly.
• Maintain effective communication between the kitchen, assembly teams, dispatch, drivers, management, and customers.
• Ensure proper order verification before dispatch, including quantities, specifications, labeling, packaging, special requests, and required supporting documentation.
• Oversee dispatch and delivery activity and ensure drivers are assigned appropriately based on airport, FBO, aircraft, customer, and required delivery time.
• Ensure proof-of-delivery and other required delivery documentation or photographs are completed correctly.
• Monitor inventory levels and coordinate with purchasing/procurement to prevent shortages, excessive inventory, or unnecessary waste.
• Assist with receiving and ensure products are received, stored, rotated, labeled, and handled according to company procedures.
• Ensure FIFO/FEFO principles and proper date labeling are consistently followed.
• Monitor operational waste, overtime, labor utilization, food costs, productivity, delivery performance, and other key operational metrics.
• Identify operational inefficiencies and implement corrective actions and continuous-improvement initiatives.

The Operations Manager is responsible for actively enforcing the company's food safety and operational compliance programs during their shift.

Responsibilities include:

• Ensure compliance with company HACCP programs, FDA Food Safety Plan requirements, GMPs, SOPs, local health regulations, and customer-specific food safety requirements.
• Ensure employees complete required food safety and operational records accurately and at the required frequency.
• Verify proper temperature control throughout receiving, storage, production, assembly, holding, dispatch, and transportation.
• Ensure employees follow company requirements for handwashing, glove use, cross-contamination prevention, allergen controls, sanitation, chemical handling, and personal hygiene.
• Ensure refrigeration and temperature-monitoring procedures are followed, including appropriate response to temperature excursions.
• Ensure corrective actions are taken and documented whenever food safety, quality, or operational standards are not met.
• Maintain readiness for internal audits, regulatory inspections, customer audits, and other compliance reviews.
• Work closely with the GM, Assistant GM, and Compliance Director to address deficiencies and implement corrective actions.
• Ensure food defense, facility security, chain-of-custody, and other applicable security procedures are followed.
• Ensure any applicable military/DoD production and handling requirements are followed when assigned to the facility.

The Operations Manager will:

• Oversee vehicle dispatch and ensure catering deliveries are coordinated with aircraft departure schedules.
• Ensure drivers conduct required vehicle checks and follow company transportation and safety procedures.
• Ensure employees follow airport, ramp, FBO, aircraft-approach, and high-loader safety procedures where applicable.
• Ensure catering is loaded and transferred safely without damage to aircraft, equipment, vehicles, or customer property.
• Respond immediately and appropriately to vehicle accidents, ramp incidents, employee injuries, equipment failures, severe weather, aircraft changes, and other operational emergencies.
• Ensure incidents, injuries, accidents, customer complaints, and operational irregularities are immediately escalated and properly documented.
• Maintain professional communication with FBOs, airline representatives, flight crews, ground handlers, and other aviation partners.

The Operations Manager is expected to be a visible, hands-on leader within the facility.

Responsibilities include supervising, coaching, mentoring, and holding employees accountable for performance and company standards; assisting with training and ensuring employees understand applicable SOPs; identifying performance or conduct issues and escalating them appropriately; supporting onboarding of new employees; ensuring employees are positioned appropriately based on workload and operational needs; maintaining professional standards of appearance, conduct, attendance, and workplace behavior; and helping develop supervisors and other high-potential employees.

The Operations Manager must be capable of making timely operational decisions while understanding when an issue requires escalation to the Assistant GM, GM, Compliance Director, HR, or senior leadership.

The Operations Manager will help maintain strong relationships with customers and aviation partners and is expected to:

• Investigate order discrepancies, late deliveries, quality concerns, and customer complaints.
• Take immediate action to correct operational problems whenever possible.
• Escalate significant customer or service failures to facility leadership.
• Protect customer confidentiality and follow customer-specific requirements.
• Ensure finished products meet company presentation, quality, portioning, packaging, and specification standards.
• Promote a culture in which accuracy and customer satisfaction are considered operational responsibilities, not simply kitchen responsibilities.

• Minimum 3 years of operations, food service, catering, logistics, hospitality, aviation, manufacturing, or similar management experience.
• Previous experience directly supervising employees and coordinating multiple departments or work areas.
• Strong understanding of food safety, sanitation, temperature control, and regulatory compliance.
• Ability to manage a fast-paced, time-sensitive operation with rapidly changing priorities.
• Demonstrated leadership, decision-making, problem-solving, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Strong organizational and multitasking abilities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to read and interpret customer orders, production requirements, SOPs, schedules, and operational documentation.
• Comfortable working with scheduling, inventory, dispatch, temperature-monitoring, ERP, and other operational software.
• Basic computer proficiency, including email, Microsoft Office, and web-based operational platforms.
• Valid driver's license and ability to obtain required airport/FBO/security credentials.
• Ability to work early mornings, evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays as required by aviation operations.
• Ability to work in refrigerated areas and commercial kitchen/warehouse environments and perform the physical duties normally associated with catering operations.

• Previous inflight, airline, private aviation, or aviation catering experience.
• ServSafe Manager or equivalent food safety certification.
• HACCP training or experience.
• Experience with FDA-regulated food operations.
• Experience with dispatch, logistics, fleet, or airport operations.
• Experience with continuous temperature-monitoring systems.
• Bilingual abilities are a plus.

Success in this role will be measured through on-time delivery performance, order accuracy, customer satisfaction, food safety compliance, audit performance, labor efficiency, waste reduction, inventory control, employee performance, documentation compliance, safety performance, and the overall reliability of the operation.

The Operations Manager is expected to proactively identify problems before they affect a customer or flight and take ownership of resolving operational issues within their authority.

Facility Operational Leadership

1. General Manager
2. Assistant General Manager
3. Operations Manager
4. Supervisors / Leads
5. Operational Employees

The Operations Manager therefore has authority to direct operational employees and supervisors during their assigned shift and is expected to exercise management authority consistent with company policies and instructions from the GM and Assistant GM.