Culinary Manager, Latin America

**Duration**: The Culinary Manager is a **two (2) year term** **contract position** with the opportunity for renewal, offering a unique chance to lead and shape WCK's responses.

This position reports directly to the Response Director during activations, and the Senior Manager while off activation.

**Preferred Location(s)**: Central and South America. Must live within one (1) hour of an international airport.
- Guatemala City, Guatemala
- San Pedro Sula, Honduras
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Santiago, Chile
- São Paulo, Brazil

**Key Responsibilities**:
**Activation Management**
- Respond within four hours notice to a disaster area to act as Culinary Manager, managing relief operations on the ground, or in rare cases, remotely.
- Lead and manage field teams specializing in culinary operations. Ensure strategic and streamlined implementation of relief activities on the ground, operationalizing WCK’s North Star values.
- Design and implement response strategies in the field that are adaptable and robust enough to function in high-stress, dynamic environments affected by natural disasters or conflicts.
- Recruit, onboard, train and manage culinary teams, including local hires and Corps members in the field.
- Consult on the scope of the response, and manage or implement Culinary operations.
- Provide regular updates on operations to the Response Director to ensure ongoing, transparent information sharing across the organization.
- Collaborate with all WCK departments on the ground, or remotely to support the needs of the activation.
- Ensure smooth transitions and complete handovers with other Activation Managers, and between Response Corps team members when rotating field teams through phases of the activation.
- Complete the After-Action Report process immediately following activation wind-down, collating and drawing learnings for process improvement.

**Culinary Operations**
- Design and manage high-volume production kitchens with locally led chef teams, ensuring the preparation of culturally appropriate meals for affected populations.
- Direct and oversee multiple modalities of rapid food production, across many kitchens in low-resource, austere environments.
- Create or advise on rotating menus; prepare order lists informed by local culinary partners, soliciting regular feedback from field teams and guaranteeing that all meals are culturally aligned and served with dignity and respect.
- Manage and liaise with the procurement and logistics team to predict future production capacity and timelines; maintaining daily pull lists, tight inventory, and procurement of fresh, high quality ingredients.
- Guide and teach WCK culinary teams and vendor partners (restaurants, catering companies, food trucks etc) to adhere to high standards of food safety, temperature, quality, hygiene, and scalability. Ensure all meals are prepared in a timely manner to be ready for distribution teams.

**Budgeting and Logistics**
- Work with the finance team and Response Director to share cost projections for culinary operations, focusing on meal production and logístical needs.
- Collaborate with the procurement and logistics team to source materials and supplies efficiently and ensure timely delivery to affected areas.

**Personnel Management and Training**
- Recruit, train, and motivate diverse culinary teams on activation, ensuring a high-performance culture aligned with WCK’s North Star.
- Provide leadership, mentorship, training and support to team members, promoting a culture of urgency, accountability, adaptability and continuous learning within the team.
- Address personnel issues on activations in real time, and provide regular performance feedback on Corps members.
- Support the recruitment of Corps members, and manage personnel effectively on the ground to foster growth and ensure a diverse pipeline of activation leadership.
- Identify professional development needs and gaps in culinary capabilities to arrange for appropriate training, and provide this feedback to relevant stakeholders for implementation.

**Community and Stakeholder Engagement**
- Build strong relationships with local communities first.
- Ensure the teams conduct outreach and engagement activities that contribute to WCK’s reputation as an effective, compassionate, and reliable relief organization.
- Represent WCK in the field, acting as an ambassador to beneficiaries, partners, and the media, as required.

**Requirements**:

- Ability to spend up to 70% of the time in the field. The typical duration of an activation is four (4) weeks, though timelines could be longer.
- Must live within one (1) hour of an international airport or be willing to relocate.
- Willingness and ability to travel frequently to remote and potentially hazardous locations within four hours notice.
- Bachelor's degree and/or equivalent is preferred, or 5+ years of experience in management roles, preferably in fast-paced, ever-changing environments, including military, emergency response