Area Operations Officer

About the Role

• What if you could lead the performance of six F4E kitchens, developing teams, solving operational challenges and ensuring every kitchen is ready to deliver safe, reliable meals to thousands of learners every day?
• As an AOO, you will oversee a portfolio of six kitchens within an area, working through Kitchen Officers to drive strong production, stock availability, yield and dispatch readiness.
• This is a hands-on operational role where you'll connect people, processes and performance to keep kitchens running efficiently and consistently.

Scope

• Lead a portfolio of six kitchens within an assigned area.
• Drive performance across production, yield, stock availability and dispatch readiness.
• Coach and support Kitchen Officers to deliver consistent kitchen performance.
• Identify and resolve operational challenges before they impact service.
• Excludes a centralised kitchen assigned to a Kitchen Manager.

Key Responsibilities

• Site Operations & Standards
• Conduct structured audits of your sites, ensuring compliance with F4E's SOPs, food safety policies, and operational standards.
• Train kitchen staff on SOPs and communicate policy updates — you're the bridge between the service centre and the sites.
• Ensure every site has what it needs to operate: stock, PPE, equipment, and supplies are
• Validate stock takes twice a month at every site you oversee.
• Financial Oversight
• Own your understanding of cost-per-meal (CPM) variance across all your sites. You are the person who knows why costs moved, and you surface both concerns and opportunities to your manager.
• Support billing processes in partnership with your Regional Coordinator and the finance team.
• Drive timely procurement: 90% of orders submitted on time, every cycle.
• Data, Reporting & Analysis
• Track, synthesize, and report on performance trends at the school and kitchen level.
• Respond to data requests from the service centre with accuracy and speed.
• Own yield variance analysis — understand the drivers, flag anomalies, and recommend corrective action.
• Capacity & Growth
• Understand your site's capacity: you know when sites are over- or under-utilized and proactively bring that intelligence to your manager.
• Stakeholder Management
• Build and maintain relationships with other field teams and school leadership in your area. This includes occasional check-ins with the schools you serve to learn about how you and your team can improve the experience.
• Coordinate and host site visits for F4E staff and donors.
• Facility Maintenance
• Own 100% reporting and escalation of facility maintenance issues; nothing is left unreported, nothing is someone else's problem.

Minimum Requirements

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Business or a related field

Experience

• Experience supervising multiple food-production or comparable high-volume operating sites; controlling stock, waste and staffing; and coaching site leaders. Ability to work with production data and approved food safety procedures.