Director, Food Services, Nutrition Services
Primary Location San Diego, California
Worker Location Onsite
Facility Zion Medical Center
Job Number 1346409 Date posted 03/27/2025
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Description:
Job Summary:
In addition to the responsibilities listed below, this director level position is also responsible for planning, organizing, and managing the provision of high-quality, cost-effective in-patient and out-patient clinical nutritional services and feeding operations that meet or exceed regulatory and budget requirements. This includes the provision of nutritional services including professional services, nutrition care services, and in- and out-patient feeding and computer nutrition programs. This also includes overseeing department operations, including but not limited to the planning and development of departmental operating and capital budgets; overseeing payroll and non-payroll expenditures; and partnering with the management team to develop short- and long-term departmental goals and objectives in alignment with service area medical center strategic plans.
This position acts as a key partner and liaison with professional staff (e.g., physicians, nurse managers, pharmacists, and other Kaiser staff) to ensure open communications regarding patient food services and nutritional care services. This role also builds and fosters partnerships with the other service area leadership to plan, integrate, and coordinate provision of products and services across customer groups. This includes directing quality assurance programs; developing, implementing, and maintaining policies and procedures for area of responsibility; and ensuring quality care of members, patients, and staff through continuous monitoring and process improvement initiatives.
Essential Responsibilities:
- Prepares individuals for growth opportunities and advancement; builds internal collaborative networks for self and others. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; drives collaboration to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to foster performance improvement. Demonstrates continuous learning; oversees the recruitment, selection, and development of talent; ensures performance management guidelines and expectations to achieve business needs. Stays up to date with organizational best practices, processes, benchmarks, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Motivates and empowers teams; maintains a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning resource plans with business objectives. Provides guidance when difficult decisions need to be made; creates opportunities for expanded scope of decision making and impact.
- Oversees the operation of multiple units within a department by identifying member and operational needs; ensures the management of work assignment completion; translates business strategy into actionable business requirements; ensures products and/or services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies. Gains cross-functional support for business plans and priorities; assumes responsibility for decision making; sets standards, measures progress, and fosters resolution of escalated issues. Communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts and incorporates them into business plans; prioritizes and distributes resources. Removes obstacles that impact performance; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; ensures teams accomplish business objectives.
- Directs the sanitation and maintenance of food services work areas and equipment by revising and establishing companys standards for cleaning and sanitizing procedures, and working with senior directors or above to ensure future budget needs for new equipment or related expenditures are maintained.
- Directs vendor contract management by establishing long-terms needs and aligning relationships with vendors to ensure vendor contracts are in place; implementing standards to ensure vendors are providing services consistent with vendor agreements or regulatory compliance standards; and establishing vendor metrics to ensure service delivery is compliant, safe, sanitary, in support of patient patient satisfaction.
- Directs the procurement, storage, and distribution of food by directing planning for inventory needs across the company, reviewing inventory usage, and providing strategic direction for and signing off on procurement budgets; setting strategic direction and planning/forecasting for stock levels, sufficient inventory, while making considerations such as budget and quality of foods; and driving the use of best practice strategies and procedures for labeling and storage of perishable items to align with company standards and regulatory requirements, within procurement budget.
- Directs the food recall by establishing strategies to return food that has been recalled or is at risk of contamination; and refining communication plans to inform patients and staff about ongoing updates or actions being taken to resolve food recall issues.
- Directs the preparation and production of meal plans by directing the strategic planning and continuous improvement of menu items to meet patient/customer needs, setting standards for how teams are processing meals according to a variety of recipes and/or production schedules, advising and signing off on budgets as needed; driving state-of-the art solutions to ensure food is prepared in a safe manner per food preparation standards and is safe for patients; and ensuring a clear understanding across teams on protocols used to assemble patient meal trays and cafeteria and/or catering services, and directing the planning of resources so that team members can cater food items according to scheduled mealtimes.
- Directs emergency planning by coordinating with leadership across other departments to support workplans that ensure food supply, delivery, and services are efficiently maintained during times of crisis or emergency.
- Leads improvements to the customer and patient care experience by driving open communication and collaboration across teams to develop innovative solutions that increase customer/patient satisfaction, advising senior management on the resolution of service recovery issues; ensuring operational and strategic plans are in place so that unit-based teams are able to support food service and delivery operations and help the business unit deliver quality care; reviewing reported patient responses to quality control survey questions, establishing cohesive strategies used by others to submit quality control reporting, integrating knowledge of metrics to assess quality control and quality performance across businesses to align on strategy; driving state-of-the-art efforts to reduce critical control points to acceptable levels and improve the care experience; and participating in interdisciplinary teams that review customer/patient concerns to ensure that each is addressed/resolved.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelors or Masters degree in nutrition, health sciences and administration, or directly related field AND minimum ten (10) years of experience in food service or a directly related field. Additional equivalent work experience in a directly related field may be substituted for the degree requirement. Relevant Masters degrees may be substituted for a portion of the work experience requirements.
- Four (4) years of supervisory experience with direct reports.
- Three (3) years experience working with operational or project financials.
- Food Protection Manager Certification from World Food Safety Organization OR International Certified Food Safety Manager from National Registry of Food Safety Professionals OR Food Protection Manager Certification from Trust20 OR Food Protection Manager Certification from Responsible Training OR Food Protection Manager Certification from My Food Service License OR Food Safety Manager Certification from National Registry of Food Safety Professionals OR ServSafe Manager Certification OR Food Protection Manager Certification from AAA Food Handler OR Food Protection Manager Certification from State Food Safety OR Food Manager Certification from Always Food Safe OR Food Manager Certification from EduClasses OR Food Protection Manager Certification from Learn 2 Serve
- Registered Dietitian OR Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Certification
Additional Requirements:
Primary Location: California,San Diego,Zion Medical Center
Scheduled Weekly Hours: 40
Shift: Day
Workdays: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
Working Hours Start: 08:00 AM
Working Hours End: 06:00 PM
Job Schedule: Full-time
Job Type: Standard
Worker Location: Onsite
Employee Status: Regular
Employee Group/Union Affiliation: NUE-SCAL-01|NUE|Non Union Employee
Job Level: Director/Senior Director
Specialty: Food Services
Department: ZION MEDICAL CENTER - Food Service Admin - 0801
Pay Range: $171800 - $222310 / year
Kaiser Permanente strives to offer a market competitive total rewards package and is committed to pay equity and transparency. The posted pay range is based on possible base salaries for the role and does not reflect the full value of our total rewards package. Actual base pay determined at offer will be based on labor market data and a candidate's years of relevant work experience, education, certifications, skills, and geographic location.
Travel: No
On-site: Work location is on-site (KP designated office, medical office building or hospital).
Worker location must align with Kaiser Permanente's Authorized States policy.
At Kaiser Permanente, equity, inclusion and diversity are inextricably linked to our mission, and we aim to make it a part of everything we do. We know that having a diverse and inclusive workforce makes Kaiser Permanente a better place to receive health care, a more supportive partner in our communities we serve, and a more fulfilling place to work. Working at Kaiser Permanente means that you agree to and abide by our commitment to equity and our expectation that we all work together to create an inclusive work environment focused on a sense of belonging and wellbeing.
Kaiser Permanente is an equal opportunity employer committed to fair, respectful, and inclusive workplaces. Applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic or status.
For jobs where work will be performed in unincorporated LA County, the employer provides the following statement in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
Consistently supports compliance and the Principles of Responsibility (Kaiser Permanente's Code of Conduct) by maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of information, protecting the assets of the organization, acting with ethics and integrity, reporting non-compliance, and adhering to applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations, accreditation, and licensure requirements (where applicable), and Kaiser Permanente's policies and procedures.
Models and reinforces ethical behavior in self and others in accordance with the Principles of Responsibility, adheres to organizational policies and guidelines; supports compliance initiatives; maintains confidences; admits mistakes; conducts business with honesty, shows consistency in words and actions; follows through on commitments.
Job duties with at least occasional or possible access to: (1) patients, the general public, or other employees; (2) confidential protected health information and other confidential KP information (including employee, proprietary, financial or trade secret information); (3) KP property and assets, for example, electronic assets, medical instruments, or devices; (4) controlled substances regulated by federal law or potentially subject to diversion.
Submit Interest
Kaiser Permanente is an equal opportunity employer committed to fair, respectful, and inclusive workplaces. Applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic or status.
For jobs where work will be performed in unincorporated LA County, the employer provides the following statement in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
