Executive Caterer

Reports To: Support and Admin Team Lead Location: Plainsview Hospital Ruiru Job Purpose: To provide strategic and operational leadership of all hospital catering and nutrition services by ensuring safe, hygienic, and high-quality meal production and delivery that meets patient dietary requirements, supports clinical care outcomes, maintains strict compliance with food safety and infection prevention standards, and ensures efficient resource utilization in alignment with hospital objectives of patient satisfaction, operational excellence, and cost efficiency. I. Key Responsibilities  Catering Operations & Service Delivery: The role ensures the seamless coordination and execution of all hospital catering services by overseeing daily meal preparation, production, and distribution, ensuring timely delivery of meals to patients, staff, and approved hospital functions, while maintaining consistency, quality, and service efficiency across all units.  Clinical Nutrition & Dietary Compliance: The role ensures strict adherence to prescribed therapeutic and special diets by working closely with Nutritionist to translate dietary prescriptions into appropriate meal plans, ensuring nutritional adequacy, patient safety, and alignment with clinical treatment plans.  Food Safety, Hygiene & Infection Prevention Control (IPC): The role ensures full compliance with food safety standards, HACCP principles, and infection prevention and control guidelines by enforcing hygiene protocols in food handling, storage, preparation, and distribution, ensuring a safe food environment across all catering operations.  Menu Planning & Nutritional Standards: The role is responsible for developing standardized menus that balance nutrition, cost efficiency, and patient acceptability while ensuring variation, dietary compliance, and alignment with hospital-approved nutritional guidelines.  Inventory, Procurement & Stock Control: The role oversees food procurement, stock management, and inventory control systems by ensuring proper forecasting, minimal wastage, cost optimization, and availability of all required food supplies and catering materials.  Staff Supervision & Performance Management: The role provides leadership to all catering staff by managing duty rosters, enforcing accountability, conducting performance appraisals, and ensuring continuous training in food safety, hygiene, and service excellence.  Quality Assurance & Audit Compliance: The role ensures continuous monitoring of catering service quality through routine audits, feedback mechanisms, and compliance checks to maintain high standards of patient satisfaction and regulatory compliance.  Resource Efficiency & Waste Management: The role ensures optimal use of food resources by implementing strict portion control, waste reduction strategies, and cost-effective procurement practices without compromising nutritional quality or service standards.  Interdepartmental Coordination: The role ensures effective collaboration with nursing, dietary, and clinical teams to align meal services with patient care plans and ensure smooth coordination of dietary requirements and service delivery schedules.  Emergency & Service Continuity: The role ensures continuity of catering services during emergencies, disruptions, or high-demand periods by implementing contingency plans and ensuring readiness of catering operations at all times. Strategic Program Responsibilities The Executive Caterer will support implementation of hospital strategic priorities by ensuring clinical nutrition safety, infection prevention compliance, quality governance, operational efficiency, and patient experience excellence in alignment with ISO standards, regulatory compliance, and the hospital’s quality and safety framework.  Clinical Nutrition & Patient Recovery Outcomes: Ensures alignment of nutritional services with clinical care plans by delivering appropriate therapeutic diets that support recovery, reduce complications, and contribute to improved patient outcomes including reduced length of stay.  Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) Compliance: Ensures strict adherence to IPC protocols in all food handling, preparation, storage, and distribution processes to prevent hospital-acquired infections and safeguard patient safety.  Food Safety, Quality & Patient Safety Governance: Ensures full compliance with food safety standards, HACCP systems, and hospital quality frameworks to guarantee safe, consistent, and clinically appropriate nutrition services.  Patient Experience & Service Quality: Enhances patient satisfaction through timely, accurate, and high-quality meal delivery that supports comfort, dignity, and overall care experience.  Operational Efficiency & Service Flow Optimization: Ensures efficient catering systems and workflows that minimize delays, reduce bottlenecks, and support uninterrupted clinical service delivery.  Cost Efficiency & Resource Optimization: Ensures financial sustainability through controlled procurement, portion management, waste reduction, and efficient utilization of food resources.  Compliance & Regulatory Alignment: Ensures adherence to ISO standards, public health regulations, hospital policies, and internal audit requirements governing food safety and clinical support services.  Length of Stay (LOS) & Clinical Efficiency Support: Supports reduction of patient length of stay by ensuring timely nutritional interventions, appropriate diet compliance, and coordination with clinical teams to enhance recovery rates.  Sustainability & Waste Management: Promotes environmentally responsible food production practices through waste reduction, sustainable sourcing, and efficient resource utilization.  Service Continuity & Emergency Readiness: Ensures uninterrupted catering services during emergencies or operational disruptions through structured contingency planning and resilience systems. Requirements Qualifications & Requirements  Diploma or Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management, Culinary Arts, Food & Beverage Management, Nutrition, or related field  Minimum 3–5 years’ experience in institutional catering, preferably in a hospital or large healthcare facility  Proven experience in managing large-scale food production operations  Certification in food safety and hygiene HACCP or equivalent. Core technical skills  Strong knowledge of food safety standards, HACCP, and infection prevention protocols  Experience in menu planning and nutritional meal preparation  Proficiency in inventory management and stock control systems  Strong understanding of cost control and budgeting in catering operations  Ability to manage large-scale food production systems  Familiarity with hospital dietary requirements and clinical nutrition standards  Basic proficiency in Microsoft Excel and reporting tools Soft skills requirements:  Strong leadership and team supervision skills  Excellent organizational and planning abilities  Strong attention to detail and quality control mindset  Ability to work under pressure in a high-demand healthcare environment  Strong communication and coordination skills across departments  High level of integrity and accountability  Problem-solving and decision-making skills  Patient-centered and service-oriented mindset  Emotional resilience and adaptability