Director of Auxiliary Food Services and Hospitality Operations

Primary Location: Queensborough Community College (QCC); Bargaining Unit: No

About the Role

Queensborough Community College (QCC), a student-centered college in the City University of New York (CUNY), seeks an experienced leader to serve as Director of Auxiliary Food Services and Hospitality Operations. This is a college-employed management position—not a vendor-relationship or third-party contract-administration post. The Director provides hands-on leadership of the College’s in-house dining, catering, and hospitality operations, leading College staff, College-controlled budgets, and College service standards to deliver high-quality food and hospitality for students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors.

Distinguishing Features

• Direct operational leadership of campus dining and hospitality as a College enterprise, not a contracted vendor service.
• Clear annual goals, measurable performance targets, and regular reporting to campus leadership.
• Strong financial stewardship: budgeting, cost control, sales analysis, cash controls, and auxiliary revenue.
• Ability to communicate across language and cultural differences on a highly diverse Queens campus, with calm problem-solving and a visible service presence.

Responsibilities

Leadership and People Management

• Provide strategic direction and day-to-day leadership for all in-house dining, retail food, catering, and hospitality operations.
• Recruit, train, supervise, and evaluate staff; set individual and unit goals; coach performance; and build a culture of accountability, teamwork, and service excellence.
• Model professional communication with a multilingual, multicultural workforce and student body, and serve as the visible, approachable College leader for dining and hospitality.

Goal Setting, Performance, and Continuous Improvement

• Establish annual operating goals and KPIs (customer satisfaction, health inspection results, food and labor cost ratios, catering volume and quality, revenue vs. budget, event turnaround).
• Track results against goals; prepare concise management reports and recommend corrective action when targets are missed.
• Improve service quality, speed, menu relevance, and the campus dining experience; lead after-action reviews of major catering and campus events.

Financial Management and Reporting

• Develop, manage, and monitor operating budgets for dining, catering, and related auxiliary activity.
• Oversee cash handling, point-of-sale activity, sales reconciliation, inventory valuation, and internal controls.
• Analyze food cost, labor cost, waste, and sales mix; present findings and recommendations to Finance and Administration.
• Prepare accurate monthly and ad hoc operational and financial reports, including performance metrics and variance explanations; support year-end close, audits, and auxiliary enterprise reporting.
• Strengthen auxiliary revenue while remaining aligned with the College’s student-centered mission; manage procurement, vendor relationships, receiving, and inventory.

Operations, Quality, Compliance, and Campus Partnerships

• Oversee menu planning, food preparation, presentation, and service so quality and consistency meet College standards; direct all campus catering from planning and staffing through billing and client follow-up.
• Ensure full compliance with New York City Health Department, State and Federal food-safety rules, OSHA, ADA, and College policy; maintain a clean, safe, inspection-ready operation.
• Coordinate with Facilities, Campus Safety, Events, and Student Affairs so service supports the academic calendar and campus life.
• Build productive relationships with academic departments, Student Affairs, student government, Athletics, and administrative units; handle complaints promptly, professionally, and fairly; represent dining and hospitality in campus planning and special projects.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, food service management, business administration, or a related field, and at least eight (8) years of progressive experience in food service or hospitality operations, including at least five (5) years in a supervisory or management role — or a satisfactory equivalent (a minimum of ten (10) years of progressive food service / hospitality management experience will be considered in lieu of the degree).
• Demonstrated experience directly managing dining and catering operations (in-house or comparable institutional setting), including staff supervision.
• Proven experience with budgeting, financial oversight, inventory, procurement, and operational reporting; working knowledge of local, State, and Federal food-safety and workplace regulations.
• Strong organizational, written, and oral communication skills, and demonstrated interpersonal skill leading diverse teams and working across departments.
• Ability to communicate effectively with a multilingual campus community; proficiency in a language in addition to English is strongly preferred (languages commonly used at QCC and in Queens include Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Bengali, and Urdu).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading college, university, or public-institution dining operations as an institutional employee (not solely as a vendor-account manager).
• Experience setting and reporting operational KPIs and financial targets; familiarity with POS and inventory systems and standard food-cost / labor-cost reporting.
• SERV Safe Manager certification (or equivalent) and current knowledge of NYC food-service requirements.
• Fluency in more than one language and experience supervising a multilingual workforce.

Why Join QCC

Queensborough is a mission-driven community college where dining and hospitality are part of student success and campus life. This Director will shape an in-house operation—setting standards, managing people and money, and measuring results—rather than administering an outside vendor contract. The College offers a collaborative environment, professional development, and the chance to build a service culture that reflects the diversity of Queens.

Pay

Pay Range Minimum – Maximum: $135,000.00