Head of Food Experience and Operations

Responsibilities

• Overseeing the entire food experience for the school, a lunch offer for nearly 1,500 pupils aged four to eighteen, staff dining, pre- and post-school catering, and an extensive events programme from food platters and large receptions to VIP dining.
• Leading operations across dispersed, temporary catering sites during Project Crucible, including our grab-and-go offer and interim kitchen provision.
• Playing a key role in the design and fit-out of the new dining hall, shaping kitchen layouts, finishes, technology, and the food court concept.
• Supporting and guiding the Chef Team on menus that work across all ages, locations, and dietary needs, with a focus on gut health, nutrition, allergen management, and sustainability.
• Building and leading a high-performing team: rotas, training, and all the operational and administrative frameworks that keep a complex operation running.

Requirements

• Proven experience leading a large-scale catering or hospitality operation, you understand how to feed a lot of people, brilliantly, day after day.
• You don't need to be a chef, but you do need to understand kitchens, menus, and what makes a food offer truly great.
• Strong people leadership and operational confidence. HR processes, compliance, budgets, and contracts are second nature to you.
• Curiosity and ambition around food: trends, technology, health, and sustainability genuinely excite you.
• The resilience and adaptability to thrive in a fast-moving, high-expectation environment, especially during a period of significant change.
• Why join us?
• A career-defining opportunity to help design and launch a brand new, premier dining hall and events space.
• Access to outstanding facilities including a swimming pool, gym and library.
• Generous benefits including lunches, employee assistance. programme, and private healthcare options.
• Cycle-to-work scheme, tech scheme, and local business discounts.
• The deadline for applications is midnight on Thursday 16 July 2026
• If you have any questions or would like to discuss the role before applying, please get in touch with the HR team. We'd be happy to help (.uk, ).
• Alleyn's is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All staff and volunteers are expected to share this commitment. The successful applicant will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.

Additional Information

Full-time, Permanent - Dulwich, London - As soon as possible Alleyn's School is seeking an exceptional Head of Food Experience and Operations because this isn't a typical school catering role. Then again, we're not a typical school. Alleyn's is Co-Educational Independent School of the Year, and we think about food the way a leading university does. Gut health, sustainability, food trends, allergen management, technology, nutrition. These aren't buzzwords here, they're things we genuinely care about. And right now, we're in the middle of something extraordinary. Project Crucible is our once-in-a-generation transformation of the Alleyn's dining experience. We're demolishing our existing dining hall and building a sector-leading, food court-inspired space in a fully technology-enabled environment. The new hall opens in September 2028, and this role will help shape it from the ground up. Before that, you'll lead the challenge of feeding nearly 2,000 people a day across multiple temporary outlets during construction. It's complex, it's high-profile, and it's a genuinely rare opportunity.

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