Culinary Operations Director in Jacksonville, Florida at REGIONAL FOOD BANK OF NORTHEAST FLORIDA INC

Title: Culinary Operations Director Job Group Category: exempt Type: Full-Time

Unit: Nutrition Schedule: Mon – Fri, some weekends and evenings Hours: 40/week

Direct Reports: Kitchen Managers, volunteers, interns Reports to: VP of Nutrition

Location: Jacksonville, FL

About Feeding Northeast Florida

Feeding Northeast Florida (FNEFL) is the regional Feeding America food bank serving a 12-county area across Northeast Florida. Through food distribution, nutrition programs, and strategic partnerships, FNEFL works to strengthen lives and communities by ensuring access to nutritious food for all.

Feeding Northeast Florida is building a commercial kitchen designed to increase access to nutritious prepared meals across Northeast Florida communities. This kitchen will support high-volume meal production, medically supportive meal initiatives, small events, catering, and other mission-driven culinary operations.

This role offers a unique opportunity to help build and shape a growing culinary operation from the ground up while working in a collaborative, mission-driven environment focused on innovation, operational excellence, and community impact.

Position Summary:

The Culinary Operations Director is a hands-on culinary leadership role responsible for overseeing daily operations within Feeding Northeast Florida’s high-volume commercial production kitchen. This position works closely with the VP of Nutrition and Director of Nutrition Programs to support production planning, medically supportive meal initiatives, operational growth, and cross-functional collaboration across nutrition and culinary operations programs.

In addition to daily production leadership, this role is responsible for supporting and developing operational systems related to menu planning, recipe implementation, purchasing, inventory management, cost management, production planning, kitchen software administration, and workflow coordination.

This is a working kitchen role, not a traditional office-based management position. The Culinary Operations Director is expected to actively cook, prep, package, clean, organize workflows, and problem-solve alongside the team throughout the shift while also leading kitchen operations, supervising kitchen leadership staff, and supporting the continued growth of the commercial kitchen program.

The ideal candidate is calm under pressure, adaptable, highly organized, mission-driven, and able to maintain professional kitchen standards without contributing to toxic kitchen culture. Candidates who enjoy building systems and adapting in a startup-style environment will thrive in this role.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

Kitchen Operations and Food Production
· Lead and participate in daily food production including high-volume meal production, batch cooking, catering, small events, and medically supportive meal initiatives.
· Work alongside Kitchen Managers and kitchen staff to execute production plans and maintain efficient workflow throughout production shifts.
· Collaborate with nutrition leadership on menu implementation, recipe development, medically supportive meal production, and operational planning.
· Maintain consistency, quality, organization, and operational standards across culinary operations.
· Adapt production plans and workflows in response to changing operational priorities and donated product availability.

Operational Leadership and Systems Development
· Develop, implement, and refine culinary operations systems, workflows, standard operating procedures, and operational documentation.
· Support launch and scaling of Feeding Northeast Florida’s commercial kitchen operations.
· Manage and maintain foodservice software systems including production planning, recipe management, inventory functions, labeling systems, and operational workflows.
· Utilize operational data and foodservice systems to support production efficiency and kitchen organization.
· Assist with purchasing, inventory oversight, vendor coordination, and operational decision-making in collaboration with leadership.
· Support implementation of scalable operational systems that can grow alongside the organization’s culinary operations programs.

Leadership and Volunteer Coordination
· Supervise and support Kitchen Managers, volunteers, and interns.
· Provide day-to-day operational leadership and volunteer coordination within the kitchen environment.
· Assist with onboarding, training, scheduling coordination, coaching, and performance management with leadership approval and collaboration.
· Foster a professional, respectful, collaborative kitchen culture grounded in accountability, adaptability, and teamwork.

Food Safety and Compliance
· Ensure compliance with food safety, sanitation, labeling, temperature monitoring, and operational documentation requirements.
· Maintain oversight of kitchen cleanliness, organization, equipment care, and inventory rotation practices.
· Support kitchen opening and closing procedures and ensure operational readiness.
· Maintain ServSafe and food safety best practices across all culinary operations.

Cross-Department Collaboration and Growth
· Collaborate closely with nutrition leadership to support medically supportive meal programs and evolving Food is Medicine initiatives.
· Work collaboratively with staff across departments to align culinary operations with organizational goals and community needs.
· Support evolving operational and reporting responsibilities as the commercial kitchen program grows.
· Assist with operational problem-solving, process improvement, and long-term kitchen development initiatives.

Job Qualifications

Required

· Minimum of 5 years of professional culinary or foodservice experience.
· Minimum of 3 years of leadership or supervisory experience within culinary, foodservice, production, or institutional kitchen environments.
· Experience in restaurant, institutional foodservice, catering, commissary, nonprofit foodservice, healthcare foodservice, or other high-volume production environments.
· ServSafe Manager Certification required or ability to successfully complete certification upon hire.
· Strong operational understanding of food production systems, kitchen workflow, sanitation, and food safety practices.
· Experience leading teams while remaining actively engaged in production work.
· Strong organizational skills with ability to manage multiple competing operational priorities.
· Basic to intermediate computer proficiency including Microsoft Office programs, tablets, email, and foodservice software systems.
· Comfort learning and managing technology systems within a production kitchen environment.
· Ability to work collaboratively with staff, volunteers, community partners, and cross-functional teams.
· Flexible, solution-oriented mindset with comfort operating in evolving and ambiguous environments.
· Commitment to professionalism, respectful communication, and collaborative leadership practices.

Preferred
· Experience with foodservice production or inventory management software such as Parsley or similar systems.
· Experience launching, scaling, or improving kitchen systems and workflows.
· Experience working with donated product streams, nonprofit foodservice operations, or mission-driven organizations.
· Experience collaborating with dietitians or medically supportive meal programs.

Competencies:
· Ability to maintain calm, professionalism, and sound judgment in fast-paced operational environments.
· Demonstrated emotional intelligence and collaborative leadership style.
· Ability to balance operational discipline with adaptability and creative problem-solving.
· Strong leadership presence without reliance on authoritarian or toxic kitchen management practices.
· Ability to build systems while simultaneously operating within evolving workflows.
· Commitment to mentoring, coaching, and supporting staff and volunteers in a respectful and team-oriented manner.
· Growth mindset with willingness to evolve alongside the organization and expand leadership responsibilities over time.Work Environment:

This position operates in a dynamic, mission-driven nonprofit environment within a commercial kitchen and warehouse setting. Work includes exposure to heat, steam, refrigeration, cleaning chemicals, kitchen equipment, and noise associated with food production operations.

Semi-flexible daily schedule: 40 hours a week or more as needed. Most work will occur during business hours Monday through Friday. Occasional early mornings, evenings, weekends, and special events may be required based on operational needs.

A food bank is a warehouse environment; offices and kitchen spaces experience occasional exposure to environmental effects of operations.

Physical Demands:

Work involves prolonged periods of standing and walking, repetitive motion, bending, lifting, pushing, pulling, and extended food preparation activities. Must be able to safely lift and move up to 50 pounds. Work may include occasional assistance with food distribution activities and exposure to indoor and outdoor environmental conditions.

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here represent those that an employee must meet to perform the essential functions of this job successfully. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions. The above job description is not an exhaustive list of duties, responsibilities, and skills of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions and perform other related duties assigned by their supervisor.