• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $170,000 - $175,000

Position Summary

The Campus Services department is a customer focused department that provides essential services to the students, faculty, and staff that live, learn, or work on campus, as well as visitors to the University. Campus Services is committed to the customer experience, continuous improvement, and our campus partnerships in order to promote a safe and hospitable environment for all members of the Columbia community.

Reporting to the Assistant Vice President of Columbia Dining, the Executive Director of Operations provides operational and organizational leadership for all elements of the locations assigned to them in the Dining and Culinary departments across both the Morningside and Manhattanville campuses, including sales, human resources, project management, and finance. The Executive Director is responsible for identifying, creating, and implementing solutions to improve interdepartmental communications, customer service delivery, information processing, and analysis. The Executive Director of Operations will be responsible for leading the development, implementation, and management of the department???s key goals, including leading teams of senior staff who have been charged with developing the long and/or short-range strategic plan to obtain departmental key goals.

Responsibilities

• In collaboration with the Assistant Vice President and Senior Staff, the Executive Director oversees the development of strategic plans for all services offered within the Dining and Culinary Centers assigned to them on both the Morningside and Manhattanville campuses and Baker Field to increase sales and customer satisfaction and ensures the successful execution of such plans. 

• Creates and implements service policies, programs, and systems to support the strategic direction and financial goals of the Department of Dining and Culinary Centers.

• Independently creates, oversees, and implements the long- and short-range planning for all services in Dining and Culinary Centers assigned to them, including capital projects, performance management, and business strategy. 

• Collects and analyzes key result areas such as sales data, customer demographics, historical trends, and promotion effectiveness. 

• Oversees and provides direction for the collection of competitive product and pricing information.  Recommends sales and pricing strategies based on the competitor???s analysis. Researches industry benchmarks and best practices for comparative analysis against Dining results.

• The Executive Director creates the Marketing and Communications strategy for the academic year, including developing the strategy for small and large events based on food trends, showcasing staff, and analyzing annual events year over year for continuous improvement.

• Work with Marketing to assess the effectiveness of social media and marketing programs.

• Responsible for providing leadership in managing and developing a self-supporting campus food service operation on both the Morningside and Manhattanville campuses.

• Supervise and support the AVP???s plan to attain the department???s operational goals while also reinforcing Columbia University???s Campus Services??? Vision and Values.

• Oversee all aspects of new unit openings, including developing the strategic plan and timeline for a successful opening. The plan must include scheduling, merchandising, station layouts for both aesthetic and sales purposes, and staff training, amongst other key items. Develop, implement, and ensure adherence to Dining Services??? policies and procedures. 

• Lead and enforce the General Manager's plan to attain their unit???s operational goals. 

  • Provide direction and support in regard to product merchandising to improve presentation and increase sales. 

• Provide high-level analytic oversight for Dining???s ongoing projects and deliverables.  Ensures a departmental calendar of projects and deliverables is maintained.  The Executive Director will track progress, report on such progress to ensure implementation of the project on time and within budget.

• Strategically create execution plans for all unit marketing and special events with input from trending information, Customer, and Manager feedback.  In addition, reports and presents all analytic information for all events.

• Ensure adherence to Federal, State, Local, and Columbia University sanitation and OSHA rules, regulations, standards, and codes.  Monitor and hold all units accountable for monthly sanitation audits and NYC DOH inspections.

• Provide direction and leadership for all operational aspects of the locations assigned to them including the continuous improvement of food quality, sanitation and customer service. 

• Utilize a variety of tools to assess customer???s opinions.  Continually improve products and services of assigned units to meet the needs of the campus community.

• Oversee all food, supplies, and equipment purchases in collaboration with the Executive Chef.  Monitor food production systems, service, and sanitation to ensure outstanding daily food quality.  On a high level oversee and ensure acceptable inventory levels. 

• Supervise all staff to ensure customer and associate satisfaction in a healthy and safe work environment. Lead the team, providing guidance and support to ensure all weekly deliverables are completed accurately and on time. Analyzes business processes for deliverables and identifies areas for improvements

• Collaborate with CUFO Finance to facilitate the alignment of financial budgeting and execution to ensure achievement of budget targets and efficient management of resources.

• Direct budget planning and financial management, including annual sales and revenue targets for all Dining Services businesses assigned to them.  Assumes responsibility for financial results.

• Implement the Assistant Vice President???s plans to attain the financial and operational goals while also reinforcing Columbia University???s Campus Services??? Vision and Values. 

• Review financial results with Senior team and unit staff to ensure understanding financial profits/losses. Work with the Senior Operational Team to identify programmatic opportunities to improve financial results while maintaining the highest quality products and services.

• The Executive Director will partner with CUFO Human Resources to develop an annual schedule for all employee training.   In collaboration with the Executive Chef, ensure the annual plan, including Culinary Training that, meets the ever-changing food trends and students' needs and requests.

• Lead the Senior Management team with performance management in conjunction with CUFO Human Resources. Assess and develop the annual training program for Managers. Plan and monitor the staffing needs in each assigned unit. 

• Provide guidance to unit managers on resolving all employee-related issues and grievances. Act as a liaison in partnership with CUFO Human Resources staff to the bargaining unit leadership.

• Proactively identifies opportunities to foster and promote positive employee relations, which contribute to the division???s strategic goals and direction.

• Liaison with CUFO-HR and University HR for all Labor Management activity, including training and development of all Union labor, and acting as the departmental representative at grievances, and Contract negotiations. 

• Oversee the performance management process, including annual appraisals, creating professional career development opportunities, results/behaviors grids, and identifies high potential staff for succession planning for all key roles.

• In collaboration with CUFO IT, identify opportunities for system upgrades or changes. Provide department-wide direction for improvement in all areas where technology can improve team efficiency.  Identify opportunities to upgrade systems and innovate for customer satisfaction.  

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor???s Degree is required. 

• Minimum of 8 years of related work experience is required. 

• Operations experience in a university or not-for-profit setting is a plus. 

• Demonstrated skills in problem assessment and resolution, as well as collaborative problem-solving in a complex, interdisciplinary setting, are required. 

• Management experience in a higher education setting along with the ability to encourage innovative change highly desired.  Must possess excellent communication skills with evidence of successful leadership skills and administrative/supervisory experience.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

About Columbia University

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

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