Director of James Nutrition Services

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Job Title:

Department:

Scope of Position:

The Director for Food and Nutrition Services at the James Cancer Hospital provides site-based leadership and operational oversight for all assigned food and nutrition services, and community engagement and outreach. The role is accountable for translating system strategy into effective operations, ensuring service quality, regulatory compliance, workforce effectiveness, and financial performance. The Director leads and develops the local team, resolves cross-functional issues that impact operations, and partners closely with the Senior Director, James stakeholders, and other system leaders to ensure alignment with organization priorities. Oversees a budget of $6.7M expense and approximately 110 employees.

Position Summary:

Provides operational leadership for  food, nutrition, and hospitality retail services across patient dining, culinary medicine, assigned retail hospitality venues (Au Bon Pain, West Campus, SSCBC), the Bloch Executive Suite, and mobile education within the James Cancer Hospital. Develops cohesive leadership and employee teams that execute organizational strategy, elevate patient and customer experience, meet regulatory and safety standards, and operate within established business objectives. Partners with James stakeholders and the WMC Food and Nutrition Services team to implement programs, processes, and service models that meet the needs of the organization. Ensures operations are well managed, employee performance aligns with health system performance management expectations, and financial targets for staffing, supplies, and revenue are achieved. Directly leads the Assistant Director for Patient Food Operations for the James.

Duties and Responsibilities:

10% STRATEGY

Strategic Execution

• Implements strategy aligned with organizational priorities, patient and customer experience goals, and  staff experience.
• Organizes and prioritizes projects balancing successful execution of current operations with operational planning, sequencing, and  implementation needs of new programs or spaces.
• Collaborate with James medical and administrative leadership to engage the community through nutrition and wellness programs

40% OPERATIONS OVERSIGHT

Service Execution

• Oversees the development and implementation of  systems, structure, and leadership needed for reliable, safe, and high-quality service delivery across all operations.
• Collaborates closely with culinary leadership to foster a food-focused culture that values quality, consistency, and pride in execution across all food service environments.
• Ensures the team has the resources they need to complete their jobs such as  equipment, technology, and workflow processes.
• Evaluates opportunities to advance services through innovation, technology, best practices, and continuous learning through pilots and LEAN practices.
• Directs  emergency or disaster planning problem solving, service adjustments/execution in alignment with organization needs and standards for the James.

Stakeholder Relationships and Alignment

• Builds collaborative relationships and promotes alignment with James stakeholders and WMC Food and Nutrition Services team to implement programs and processes that support organization priorities.
• Navigates cross-departmental and system-level issues that impact operations or team performance, partnering with stakeholders to resolve barriers beyond direct departmental control.

Customer Focus:

• Develops and implements expectations, standards, and service models that consistently improve the patient, visitor, and staff experience.
• Creates a service culture within team.
• Evaluates customer satisfaction/engagement performance and communicates outcomes within organization and team.

25% TEAM AND TALENT

Leadership Development & Positive Work Culture:

• Develops leader team and pipeline to promote quality service execution, positive work culture, regulatory compliance, and business performance.
• Implements programs and processes to promote employee engagement, retention, and staff growth.
• Aligns the team to vision, mission, and purpose.
• Ensures employees have a voice in decision making.
• Evaluates employee recognition programs, turnover, retention, and employee engagement or culture scores and oversees development of tactics and implementation to improve.

Workforce Development:

• Ensures leader team uses department/organization processes for employee hiring, onboarding, training, skill development, and performance management appropriately.
• Coaches, counsels, and holds leader team accountable for work and employee performance.
• Ensures clear and consistent title and roles across the department by aligning role scope, functions, performance expectations, and career pathways to support execution. Identifies and resolves title and role challenges that impact performance.
• Ensures employees have the skills and training required for their role.

10% REGULATORY AND SAFETY

Regulatory Compliance:

• Ensures compliance for food and nutrition services in the James, ensuring leaders maintain readiness for regulatory, accreditation, and food safety requirements.
• Collaborates with James stakeholders for healthcare regulatory priorities and  needs.
• Ensures policies, procedures, and practices are established to promote regulatory compliance.
• Ensures a safe working environment including infection control, universal precautions, hazardous materials management, disaster preparedness, fire safety practices and general safety.
• Ensures compliance with department food safety program and promotes a food-safety culture given high risk status of James patients.

15% FINANCE AND EFFICIENCY

Financial Accountability:

• Maintains responsibility and accountability for effective fiscal management of the assigned areas/cost centers including operating expenses and supply management, staffing models and benchmarks, capital expenditures, and revenue maximization.
• Develops assigned budgets in alignment with organization priorities.
• Develops staffing models that ensure adequate qualified and competent persons provide quality services while balancing labor productivity and financial targets.
• Implements department policies, procedures, and practices to support fiscal responsibility and accountability. 
• Evaluates financial performance, identifies, and implements corrective actions as necessary.
• Guides resource decisions that support organizational priorities.

Organizational Expectations 

Works within the Medical Center's and the Department's policies and procedures. Demonstrates Medical Center mission, vision and values through positive and effective interactions with staff, patient, and guest relations. Maintains professional conduct and promotes a positive team attitude by adhering to organizational expectations. Promotes teamwork through mutual respect for co-workers, developing positive interpersonal relationships and lending assistance as needed.

Minimum Qualifications:

For Hire: Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred. Minimum of 7 years of relevant food service leadership required with at least 5 years of this experience in healthcare foodservice leadership. Ohio Department of Health Manager Certification in Food Protection within 6 months of hire. Ohio Registered Licensed Dietitian (RDN -LD) or Certified Dietary Manager (CDM) preferred.

Job Relationships

Supervisory Responsibility: Patient Food Operations team and James-relevant retail teams, including Assistant Director and front line team members.

Contacts: Physicians, management, patients, visitors, patient families, technologists, ancillary personnel, information technology leadership, materials management, clinical engineers, vendors, customer service, University and community leaders.

Responsible to: Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Services and matrix accountability to hospital leadership at James.

Physical/Visual/Mental Requirements: 

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Work Environment:

The work may involve everyday risks or discomfort which requires normal safety precautions typical of such places as offices and meeting rooms (i.e. use of safe work practices, avoidance of trips and falls, and observance of fire regulations and traffic signs) and additional safety education and/or health risk monitoring; may be required to use protective clothing or gear such as masks, gowns, coats, goggles, gloves, etc.

Note:   The above statements are intended to describe the essential functions and related requirements of persons assigned to this job.  They are not intended as an exhaustive list of all job duties, responsibilities, and requirements.

Patient Population Served: Non-Patient Care

Additional Information:

Location:

Position Type:

Scheduled Hours:

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