General Catering Manager

Job Overview

General Catering Manager - Cromwell Hospital, London SW5 0TU. Full Time - Permanent (40 hours per week). Monday to Friday with flexibility to support evenings and weekends as required.

Responsibilities

• Lead all catering and hospitality operations across patient dining, retail outlets, restaurant services, hospitality, and VIP catering.
• Drive the delivery of a five star patient dining experience, ensuring exceptional quality, service, and presentation standards.
• Develop and embed service standards, performance measures, and operational KPIs across all catering functions.
• Collaborate with clinical, operational, and senior leadership teams to support patient outcomes and experience.
• Lead service improvement initiatives using patient, visitor, and colleague feedback to drive continuous enhancement.
• Oversee compliance with food safety legislation, HACCP procedures, allergen management, infection prevention standards, and health & safety requirements.
• Provide leadership and governance across staffing, workforce planning, recruitment, training, engagement, and performance management.
• Manage budgets, labour costs, supplier performance, stock control, and revenue opportunities to deliver strong commercial outcomes.
• Support menu innovation and service development alongside catering, clinical, and dietetic stakeholders.
• Lead audit readiness activities, ensuring robust processes, accurate record keeping, and compliance with all regulatory requirements.
• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders, consultants, clinical teams, suppliers, and hospital leadership.
• Champion a culture of accountability, service excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement across all catering services.

Qualifications & Skills

• Proven leadership experience managing multi outlet catering and hospitality services within private healthcare or a similarly premium, highly regulated environment.
• Strong understanding of patient dining services, hospitality operations, retail catering, and VIP food service delivery.
• Demonstrable experience managing budgets, labour costs, financial performance, and operational KPIs.
• Level 3 Food Safety qualification (or equivalent) with strong knowledge of HACCP, allergen management, and food safety legislation.
• Experience leading audits, compliance programmes, and implementing corrective actions.
• Strong people leadership skills with experience developing, coaching, and managing large operational teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across clinical and non clinical functions.
• Strong commercial awareness combined with a commitment to delivering exceptional customer and patient experiences.
• Excellent communication, organisational, and problem solving skills.
• Flexible approach to working hours to support operational requirements within a seven day hospital environment.

Desirable

• Previous experience working within a private hospital or acute healthcare environment.
• Formal qualification in Hospitality, Catering Management, Business Management, or a related discipline.
• Experience managing large scale or multi site catering operations.
• Knowledge of CQC expectations and healthcare specific food service governance requirements.
• Experience leading service redesign, patient experience initiatives, or commercial growth projects.
• Experience delivering consultant, VIP, or corporate hospitality within a premium environment.

Benefits

• Equivalent to 25 days holiday per year, increasing through length of service, with option to buy or sell.
• Bupa health insurance as a benefit in kind.
• An enhanced pension plan and life insurance.
• Support with travel costs via a season ticket loan or Cycle to Work scheme.
• Discounted access to online gym sessions through Gympass.
• Various family friendly benefits.
• Free onsite massages as recognition for your hard work.
• Opportunity to participate in our annual awards ceremony.

EEO & Diversity Statement

We especially encourage applications from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Bupa is a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer and aims to offer interview/assessment to every disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria for the role, providing reasonable adjustments as part of the recruitment process.