The ​Executive Chef​ is responsible for overseeing culinary operations, food safety, nutrition planning, and service excellence, ensuring the highest quality of meals in alignment with Sidra Medicine’s healthcare and hospitality standards. The role is responsible for managing food services, patient meals, and culinary operations at Sidra Medicine. It ensures that high-quality, nutritious, and patient-centric meals are provided while adhering to dietary guidelines, food safety regulations, and international culinary standards. The role involves menu planning, vendor management, budget control, process improvement, and leadership of kitchen and food service teams.

The ​Executive Chef​ works closely with nutritionists, dietitians, and healthcare teams to ensure that all meals meet the unique needs of patients and staff. The role supervises and supports the reporting subordinates and outsourced service provider staff, ensuring efficient daily operations and service excellence.

KEY ROLE ACCOUNTABILITIES

Culinary Operations & Quality Control

• Oversees menu development, food preparation, and meal service for patients, visitors, and staff.

• Ensures culinary excellence, food presentation, and portion control meet Sidra’s luxury hospitality standards.

• Implements nutritionally balanced menus that comply with dietary requirements and patient health needs.

• Enforces strict quality control measures, ensuring consistency in taste, freshness, and meal delivery.

Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance

• Ensures compliance with HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points), food safety regulations, and international health standards.

• Implements and monitors kitchen sanitation, hygiene practices, and proper food handling procedures.

• Conducts regular audits and inspections to ensure adherence to safety and cleanliness protocols.

• Collaborates with nutritionists and dietitians to align meals with patient and clinical dietary needs.

Vendor & Supply Chain Management

• Oversees food procurement, inventory management, and vendor performance to ensure high-quality ingredients and cost efficiency.

• Works closely with Supply Chain & Procurement to negotiate vendor contracts, food supply agreements, and cost-saving strategies.

• Ensures food sourcing aligns with ethical, sustainability, and quality standards.

Process Improvement & Efficiency Optimization

• Implements workflow improvements in food production and service delivery to minimize waste and enhance efficiency.

• Introduces new culinary techniques and innovations to improve patient dining experiences.

• Develops and maintains standard operating procedures (SOPs) for food preparation, storage, and distribution.

Financial & Budgetary Management

• Develops and manages the food service budget, ensuring cost control while maintaining food quality.

• Identifies opportunities for cost reductions, efficiency improvements, and menu enhancements.

• Tracks expenditures, resource utilization, and kitchen equipment maintenance to optimize financial resources.

Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration

• Works closely with clinical teams to customize patient meal plans based on medical conditions and dietary restrictions.

• Collaborates with the Patient Experience team to enhance meal personalization and dining satisfaction.

• Coordinates with hospital leadership and department heads to address food service improvements and operational challenges.

Innovation & Technology Integration

• Introduces smart kitchen technologies and automation tools to improve food preparation and inventory management.

• Implements digital menu systems for customized patient meal selection and tracking.

• Evaluates new culinary trends and technologies to enhance food services and patient satisfaction.

Staff Leadership & Development

• Leads and mentors the kitchen, food services, and nutrition teams, ensuring high-performance service delivery.

• Implements training programs for kitchen staff on food safety, culinary techniques, and service excellence.

• Conducts performance evaluations and ensures continuous professional development for all food service employees.

• Adheres to Sidra’s standards as they appear in the Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest policies

• Adheres to and promotes Sidra’s Values

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS – SELECTION CRITERIA

ESSENTIAL

PREFERRED

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Culinary Arts, Food Services Technology, Hotel Management; Culinary Management; or Hospitality Management

OR

Diploma in related field with a minimum of 5+ years of experience above the requirement

Experience

• 8+ years in Kitchen operations and management

• Experience in fine and high quality dining

• Experience in a general and/or private healthcare facility within Kitchen operations.

• Work Experience in the GCC

Certification and Licensure

HACCP, Food Safety(advanced level)

Professional Membership

Member of group: Certified Executive Chef/ Craft Guild of Chefs

Job Specific Skills and Abilities

• Excellent knowledge and technical skills experiences of managing a multi-cultural kitchen team

• Strong and Complete knowledge of Kitchen equipment

• Demonstrated capability to assess and analyze budgetary requirements and control.

• Extensive knowledge of menu development, insight into marketing, cost and wage control

• Thorough and extensive knowledge of food products, standard recipes and proper preparation

• Demonstrated ability to supervise large staff and accomplish goals on a timely basis

• Demonstrated ability to conduct meetings, menu briefings and maintain communication lines between management staff

• Demonstrated ability to create recipes and support material, i.e., recipe cards, descriptions, and pictures, and to read and visualize same.

• Demonstrated ability to train peers through on the job and classroom style training activities

• Interacts with Patients/Guests/staff to obtain feedback on product quality and service levels

• Innovative and artistic ability to create theme menus, ideas for ice carvings, decorations, etc.

• Demonstrated menu planning skills for patients/hospital diets.

• Fine dining skills

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office

• Fluency in written and spoken English

• Strong knowledge of food service information management software’s(e.g. CBORD), purchasing systems, point of sales systems…

• Knowledge of patient/hospital diets

• Exposure to Arabic and international culinary cultures

• Knowledge of spoken Arabic