Director of Dining Operations - 140719

Join the Residential, Retail and Supply Chain Services (RRSS) team at UC San Diego, a dynamic and innovative campus department dedicated to delivering exceptional service to the university community. As a valued RRSS team member, you will be contributing to a broad and complex organization consisting of five key units: Housing, Dining and Hospitality (HDH), Integrated Procure-to-Pay Solutions (IPPS), the UC San Diego Bookstore, Triton Print & Digital Media, and the Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC). With a focus on innovation and customer satisfaction, RRSS aims to inclusively meet the diverse needs of the UC San Diego community while fostering a sense of belonging for our students and staff.

As a member of the HDH team, you will be part of a self-funded unit with over 1,200 staff employees, over 2,000 student employees, and an annual operating budget of $371 million, providing housing and dining services to over 20,000 students, faculty, staff, and their families. At UC San Diego, we believe a job is more than just employment - it's a chance to be part of something meaningful. Along with competitive pay, we offer outstanding benefits, retirement plans, and a supportive environment that encourages both professional development and personal growth. Benefits begin on your first day! For Dining positions, we also provide a daily meal allowance.

The Director of Dining operations provides leadership and comprehensive operational oversight for UC San Diego's Residential, Retail, and Hospitality Dining programs within Retail Residential Supply Chain Services (RRSS). Reporting to the Executive Director of Dining and Retail, incumbent is responsible for a complex, high-volume portfolio that includes residential dining, retail markets, catering and conference services (Saltaire), specialty restaurants, commissary production supporting markets and UC Health, campus-wide vending, and athletics concessions in 21 locations across campus. The Director leads an organization generating approximately $93 million in annual revenue and expenses, serving more than 20,000 residential students on meal plans and delivering approximately 8 million meals annually to students, faculty, staff, and guests.

The Director of Dining operations drives the development and execution of forward-thinking dining strategies that enhance the student experience while ensuring financial sustainability, operational excellence, and alignment with university priorities. Incumbent is accountable for optimizing day-to-day operations across multiple locations, ensuring consistent delivery of high-quality food, service, and hospitality, and maintaining strict adherence to health, safety, and regulatory standards. A critical area of focus for this role is the effective use and implementation of systems, including process optimization methodologies (such as LEAN or Six Sigma), artificial intelligence AI-enabled tools, and automation platforms, to promote operational efficiencies, consistency, and scalability across all units. With responsibility for financial performance, the role oversees budgeting, forecasting, P&L analysis, and the implementation of robust business intelligence and data-driven strategies to improve margins, manage labor and food costs, and support long-term capital and business planning. Incumbent is expected to build operational discipline through strong administrative frameworks, advanced data analytics, and the practical application of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to improve reporting accuracy, streamline workflows, and enhance decision-making. This includes identifying opportunities to eliminate waste, reduce manual processes, standardize reporting, and create more efficient, technology-enabled, data-oriented business operations.

As a senior leader, incumbent oversees a large and diverse workforce, including approximately 450 employees, 900 to 1,000 student staff, and additional limited-service personnel. Incumbent fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement, while developing leadership pipelines and aligning staffing models with operational needs. Incumbent places a strong emphasis on process improvement and workflow optimization, with clear expectations to leverage AI and automation to redesign administrative and operational processes, eliminate redundancy, and improve speed, accuracy, and overall efficiency across the organization. Incumbent also plays a critical role in advancing student-centered dining by leveraging feedback, engagement tools, and campus partnerships to create welcoming, inclusive environments that support residential life and campus programming. In addition, the role collaborates closely with administrative and support functions to ensure that back-of-house processes, reporting structures, and AI-enabled systems effectively support front-line service delivery and operational execution.

The Director of Dining operations supports key vendor and distributor relationships and contributes to sourcing strategies and contract negotiations to ensure quality, cost efficiency, and alignment with sustainability goals. Champions innovation through the implementation and scaling of AI, automation, and emerging technologies to enhance service delivery, improve operational performance, and support continuous improvement efforts across dining operations. This role requires strong strategic vision, financial acumen, and operational expertise, along with demonstrated ability to lead implementation efforts, drive adoption of AI and technology solutions, and build lasting efficiencies into workflows and business processes. Success in this role depends on the ability to translate strategy into execution, modernize administrative operations through intelligent use of technology, and continuously improve systems that directly impact the daily experience of the campus community.

Develops partnerships with campus departments and off-campus service providers for the effective and efficient delivery of services. Develop an organizational culture that ensures staff are accessible to customers and responds to customer suggestions and complaints in a helpful, courteous manner. Establish a program to evaluate the quality of the customer service of the units under supervision. Establishes operational objectives and initiatives and seeks/provides resources to meet schedules and goals. Establishes and assures adherence to budgets, schedules, work plans, and performance requirements. Identifies risks and responds accordingly. Participates in developing, modifying, and executing policies that affect immediate operation(s) and may have a campus-wide impact. Works on issues where analysis of situations or information requires an in-depth knowledge of organizational objectives. May serve as subject matter expert.

Responsible for managing the administrative operations of a school, OR a medium to large academic department, OR several small departments within a college, OR a medium to large non-academic department. Typically includes all or most of the following functions: IT, facilities, student services, contracts and grants, budgetary financial management and / or human resources. Manages a professional staff, typically large, and /or comprised of professionals in various fields. Assumes accountability for decisions made by subordinates. Performs long and short-term planning for function. Erroneous decisions or failure to achieve goals results in additional costs and personnel, and serious delays in overall schedules.

• Thorough knowledge in food service operations and sanitation regulations.

• Broad knowledge of the organization's processes, protocols and procedures with a focus on budget, account and fund management and / or personnel management under labor contract(s) and personnel policy.

• Broad knowledge of financial analysis and reporting techniques; human resources and risk management planning; and / or accounting and payroll.

• Advanced knowledge and skill of financial principles related to cost accounting, multi-million dollar budget preparation and implementation, and the ability to conduct financial analyses.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills; ability to influence / persuade all levels of staff.

• Skills in organization and customer service to effectively manage multiple important priorities. Proven ability to organize department work functions in an efficient and effective manner.

• Broad knowledge of common organization-specific and other computer application programs.

• Skills to work collaboratively with other locations.

• Proven skills to quickly evaluate complex issues and identify multiple options for resolution.

• Demonstrated management and conflict resolution skills to effectively lead and motivate others.

• Strong and effective interpersonal and work leadership skills to provide guidance to all levels of personnel.

• Skill to develop strategic plans, long and short range plans and the ability to direct the work of other professionals in meeting those plans.

• Excellent decision making and reasoning skills, and excellent ability to develop original ideas to solve problems and perform operations analysis and quality control analysis.

• Ability to develop sound and effective programming and polices based on knowledge and understanding of dining trends and needs.

• Strong computer application skills.

• Job offer is contingent upon satisfactory clearance based on Background Check results.

Mandated Reporter: This position has been identified as a Mandated Reporter pursuant to the California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and requires immediate reporting of physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, or neglect of anyone under the age of 18. It is the responsibility of the Mandated Reporter to ensure that they obtain proper training in order to fulfill their reporting responsibilities as required by the California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and University policy, and to complete and submit the required reports to the UC San Diego Police Department without delay.