Senior Director-Enterprise Food Operations

The Senior Director, Enterprise Food Operations serves as Mayo Clinic’s enterprise leader and owner’s representative for nonpatient food service operations, enterprise food service governance, operational performance, retail and unattended services, financial and contract compliance, innovation enablement, sustainability, and cross domain execution across all Mayo Clinic sites. This role is accountable for defining and maintaining enterprise standards, operating frameworks, performance expectations, governance structures, and implementation discipline within a contracted service delivery model. Accountability is held at the system level, supporting consistency in outcomes, experience, performance, and execution across all sites.

The Senior Director provides enterprise level leadership by translating strategic priorities into measurable standards, playbooks, operating cadence, and clear expectations. The role partners closely with site leadership, patient dining and nutrition leadership, vendor partners, finance, supply chain, and enterprise support functions to support consistent, reliable delivery aligned with Mayo Clinic’s Category of One framework.

This role does not own patient dining, clinical nutrition, or nutrition and wellness domains, which are led through the parallel Senior Director, Patient Dining, Nutrition, and Wellness structure. Where domains intersect, the Senior Director, Enterprise Food Operations supports operational alignment, execution discipline, and coordinated enterprise performance without assuming patient dining or clinical nutrition accountability.

Scope of Responsibility

• Enterprise level accountability across nonpatient food service domains, including retail and unattended services, financial and contract compliance, nonpatient quality and service, innovation enablement, sustainability, people alignment, and enterprise operating cadence.
• Does not own patient dining, clinical nutrition, or nutrition and wellness domains, which are led through a parallel Senior Director enterprise structure.
• Works in close partnership with the Senior Director, Patient Dining, Nutrition, and Wellness to support alignment across the full food service system.
• Responsibilities may flex across enterprise food service domains as required to support enterprise priorities, performance requirements, and coordinated execution.

Non-negotiable Expectations

• This role requires demonstrated hands-on expertise in contract foodservice operations at multi-site scale. Qualified candidates will have served in roles such as District Manager, Regional Director of Operations, Vice President of Operations, or equivalent contract foodservice operations consultant focused on operating models and governance.
• General healthcare administration or rotational leadership experience without direct accountability for foodservice operations is not sufficient for success in this role.
• Leadership is exercised through standards, governance, and accountability. The Senior Director does not manage site or vendor staff directly but evaluates performance and drives alignment through enterprise mechanisms.
• Matrix discipline is required. The role partners across enterprise, site, retail, patient dining, nutrition, wellness, and operations domains without assuming day to day operational ownership.

Work Location

This is an enterprise level leadership role. Travel is required across Mayo Clinic sites and enterprise engagements to support system alignment, assessments, governance activities, vendor performance discussions, and strategic initiatives. This role will require extensive travel up to 75% of the time at times, but will be variable based on need and activities.

Scope and Level of Accountability

This is a Senior Director level enterprise role with systemwide accountability across nonpatient food service domains, distinct from site operational leadership positions. The Senior Director leads through standards, governance, operating cadence, and influence, ensuring enterprise consistency while respecting site and domain execution responsibilities.

The role balances operational performance, contract compliance, guest experience, retail and unattended services, innovation enablement, sustainability, and vendor execution within a complex, matrixed health system.

Core Competencies

• Enterprise governance and operating model design.
• Contract foodservice operations leadership at multi-site scale.
• Financial performance, contract compliance, and operational metric discipline.
• Vendor governance and performance accountability.
• Executive communication and cross domain partnership.
• Systems thinking, standardization, and change leadership.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in business, healthcare administration, hospitality, food service management, or related field.
• Seven or more years of progressive leadership experience leading multi-unit operations across multiple sites or locations.
• Demonstrated experience in contract managed environments in a senior operational leadership or contract management role.
• Experience working within vendor partner delivery models with shared accountability for performance.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in a matrixed, enterprise environment.

Preferred

• Master’s degree in healthcare administration, business, hospitality, or related field.
• Experience in healthcare hospitality, food service, hospitality, facilities, or comparable service-based operations.

• Demonstrated experience leading or contributing to enterprise governance structures, systemwide standardization initiatives, and cross site performance improvement strategies.

  This is a hybrid role and candidates must must be located within 100 miles of a Mayo Clinic campus in Rochester, MN. 

This vacancy is not eligible for sponsorship/ we will not sponsor or transfer visas for this position. Also, Mayo Clinic DOES NOT participate in the F-1 STEM OPT extension program.