Director of Culinary Operations & Compliance

POSITION SUMMARY

The Director of Culinary Operations & Compliance provides hands-on oversight of the organization’s Valdosta and Thomasville commercial kitchens, ensuring safe, efficient, compliant, and professional food-service operations. Commercial Kitchen Operations Direct daily operations and readiness of both commercial kitchens; coordinate production schedules, supplies, food, storage, equipment, and staffing with the Kitchen Production Manager and program teams.

Monitor workflow, resolve operational barriers, and provide hands-on support during shortages, events, emergencies, disasters, and high-volume production. Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance Ensure food is safely received, stored, rotated, prepared, held, transported, and documented in accordance with law, policy, and established procedures.

Maintain temperature logs, sanitation records, cleaning schedules, inspection documentation, and corrective-action records; promptly escalate significant concerns. Keep refrigeration, freezer, dry-storage, preparation, production, and sanitation areas inspection-ready and support audits, health inspections, and regulatory reviews.

Child Nutrition Program Compliance Maintain current working knowledge of applicable federal and state Child Nutrition Program rules, meal requirements, documentation, storage, production, and service standards. Partner with program staff to ensure purchasing, receiving, preparation, packaging, distribution, inventory records, and production information support compliance.

Prepare operations for monitoring visits and audits, complete required training, and promptly correct deficiencies. Inventory and Supply Management Manage food, supplies, disposables, chemicals, and operational inventory through the designated system, including receiving, issuing, transfers, counts, reconciliation, and documentation.

Equipment and Maintenance Keep commercial kitchen equipment safe, clean, operational, and properly maintained through inspections, preventive maintenance, and accurate service records. Staffing and Labor Management Supervise, schedule, train, coach, and evaluate culinary and kitchen support staff based on production, catering, event, and organizational needs.

Meeting Room and Catering Coordination Coordinate timely setup, food service, audiovisual needs, supplies, signage, breakdown, cleaning, and reset of meeting and catering spaces. Facility Cleanliness and Readiness Keep kitchens, storage, meeting areas, catering, and related areas clean, organized, pest-controlled, and inspection-ready through monitored cleaning and sanitation schedules.

Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Maintain kitchen, food, equipment, staffing, and production readiness for emergency and disaster feeding. ​MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS Associate or bachelor’s degree in culinary, food service, hospitality, business, nutrition, operations, or a related field preferred; substantial relevant experience may substitute.