Key Areas

Key Responsibilities and Duties of the Job

Culinary Vision & Strategy

• Establish and articulate a clear, five-year vision for the organization’s culinary future that aligns with mission, brand, financial, and strategic priorities.
• Lead the evolution of culinary experience across all service lines, ensuring offerings remain relevant, differentiated, and responsive to resident and participant expectations.
• Serve as the primary thought leader for culinary innovation, balancing creativity with feasibility, scalability, and fiscal responsibility.

Operational Excellence & Resident Satisfaction

• Maintain enterprise accountability for resident, participant, and guest satisfaction related to food quality, service, and dining experience.
• Ensure culinary operations consistently meet or exceed internal performance benchmarks for satisfaction, efficiency, quality, and consistency.
• Provide oversight and leadership across both centrally managed and partner-supported communities, adjusting approach based on operational model while retaining full accountability for outcomes.
• Identify performance risks early and lead corrective action plans to address quality, staffing, workflow, or experience gaps.
• Ensure culinary operations are structured to operate at a high level of reliability, readiness, and efficiency across all communities.

Culinary Development & Standards

• Develop and maintain enterprise culinary standards, including menus, recipes, dietary frameworks, service models, and presentation guidelines.
• Lead menu development that accounts for nutritional needs, cultural preferences, dietary restrictions, wellness goals, and evolving food trends.
• Establish staffing models, role definitions, and labor ratios that support quality, consistency, and operational sustainability.
• Provide guidance on kitchen design, layout, workflow, and equipment selection to support future builds, renovations, and operational efficiency.

Financial, Regulatory & Audit Alignment

• Ensure culinary programs and standards align with approved budgets and support long-term financial sustainability.
• Partner with finance and operations to develop cost models, pricing strategies, and margin expectations tied to culinary offerings.
• Maintain awareness of regulatory and audit requirements, ensuring culinary development decisions are compliant and defensible.
• Serve as the responsible executive holder of the organization’s liquor licenses and be eligible and willing to hold and maintain licensure in the states of Nebraska and Iowa, ensuring full compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and reporting requirements.

Vendor & Supply Change Management

• Provide executive oversight of all culinary vendor relationships, including food suppliers, equipment vendors, distributors, and service partners.
• Establish vendor standards, contract expectations, and performance metrics to ensure quality, reliability, cost control, and regulatory compliance.
• Partner with procurement, finance, and operations to evaluate vendors, negotiate contracts, and manage cost structures while protecting quality and resident experience.
• Lead vendor transitions or consolidations when necessary to improve performance, mitigate risk, or align with strategic priorities.

Training & Capability Building

• Design and oversee enterprise culinary training frameworks that support onboarding, skill development, leadership growth, and consistency.
• Ensure training materials and expectations are clear, practical, and scalable across diverse communities and service lines.
• Support the development of culinary leaders and teams through coaching, mentorship, and clear performance expectations.

Culinary Systems, Technology, & Data

• Provide executive ownership of all culinary-related software platforms, systems, contracts, and reporting tools that support operations, compliance, staffing, procurement, and resident experience.
• Ensure technology investments are fully leveraged to drive operational efficiency, quality, regulatory performance, and resident satisfaction.
• Partner with IT, finance, operations, and vendors to evaluate, select, implement, and optimize culinary systems and tools.
• Establish clear data, reporting, and dashboard standards that provide timely, accurate insights for decision-making at the enterprise, regional, and community levels.
• Maximize return on investment for culinary technology by driving adoption, accountability, and continuous improvement in how systems are used.

Executive Leadership

• Serve as an active, transparent member of the Home Office leadership team, collaborating closely with other Vice Presidents across operations, clinical, finance, marketing, and experience.
• Build strong, trust-based partnerships with Executive Directors, recognizing the importance of local leadership in a centralized model.
• Communicate proactively and consistently, ensuring communities understand the “why” behind culinary direction, standards, and changes.
• Actively participate in executive leadership meetings, leadership retreats, summits, and enterprise planning forums.
• Contribute to strategic initiatives, task forces, and work groups that span multiple disciplines, bringing a culinary and experience lens to organization-wide decisions.
• Collaborate with peers across operations, clinical, finance, marketing, experience, and support services to advance shared priorities and integrated solutions.

Other

• Performs other duties as assigned or requested