Dining Operations Associate - University of Chicago : Job Details

The job provides oversight at the direction of the management team of food service operations for students. This position would conduct a broad range of operational activities for the dining program for the University, perform assignments in accordance with existing procedures to solve routine or standard problems and perform other related work as needed.

Responsibilities include:

• Provide support to management in the daily oversight of key functions and employees during the normal course of business
• Assist in ensuring a safe working environment throughout the facility for all employees.
• Assist in creating a vibrant and culinary diverse dining program that fosters community throughout the campus.
• Oversee department vehicle maintenance ensuring appropriate licenses, fueling, and protocol.
• Aid in monitoring facility service requests, work orders, maintenance, inventory, and daily Maximo input.
• Aid in scheduling of facility preventative maintenance and coordinate contractors to perform work within budget.
• Communicate directly with Campus Facility Services and Outside contractors on work orders.
• Monitor Pest Management activities at all dining locations (residential, retail, catering, commissary).
• Provide guidance and support for the execution of all catering events including RSOs, O Week, and high-profile campus events.
• Assist with any clerical, administrative, or recording work that will support the department in operations and services.
• Independently provide oversight to the operations, primarily on nights and weekends.
• Visit units daily to assess, monitor, and ensure the maintenance of industry compliance standards at all dining venues.
• Assist in the maintenance and servicing of programmatic benchmarks, surveys (such as NACUFS and Mystery Diners, etc.), goals and objectives for UChicago Dining and the vendor.
• Provide oversight of the vendor and directly communicate compliance standards with all health department, HACCP, OSHA, and university policies and procedures.
• Keep abreast of new concepts, practices, and trends in food service technology as they relate to institutions of higher education.
• Communicates primarily to internal clients, occasionally vendors, developed either through job-related training and some on-the-job experience.
• With direction, assists in tracking progress and identifying obstacles for project completion.
• Perform other related work as needed.

Minimum qualifications include vocational training, apprenticeships or the equivalent experience in a related field (not typically required to have a four-year degree). Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 2-5 years of work experience in a related job discipline. Preferred qualifications include two or more years of related work experience in hospitality services including restaurants, fast food, catering services, institutional services. A culinary background, food service management experience in a contract-services, healthcare, campus dining, or high-volume hospitality environment, and previous supervisory experience are also preferred.

Preferred competencies include maintaining a professional relationship with all coworkers, vendor representatives, supervisors, managers, and customers, willingness to be open to learning and growing, well organized, detail-oriented, focused, timely, and efficient skills, excellent and efficient communication skills, both orally and in written form, demonstrated knowledge of customer service skills and functions in a hospitality setting, ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously, set priorities, and meet deadlines independently and/or with little supervision, knowledge of the University of Chicago, or the higher education field, demonstrated understanding of the developmental objectives of the college student residential environment, strong computer skills including knowledge of spreadsheets and database applications, experience with client/PC workstation applications, and proficiency with Windows based computers, including the Microsoft Office Suite 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Outlook).

Working conditions include eating at the various dining venues of UChicago Dining, ability to bend, crouch, or sit, ability to stand, sit, or walk for 4 hours or more, this position requires quite a bit walking to assess the dining operations at venues across campus, this position requires working primarily on evenings and weekends, and requires the ability to work independently for periods of 6 hours or more.

Application documents required include a resume/CV.