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

Competitive Salary + excellent benefits

We make health happen. At Cromwell Hospital, our purpose is simple: delivering world‑class care expertly tailored to every patient. Food and hospitality play a pivotal role in that experience, from patient dining and retail services to consultant hospitality and VIP experiences.

General Catering Manager

As our General Catering Manager, you will provide strategic leadership across all catering and hospitality services within the hospital. You will be responsible for delivering exceptional patient dining experiences, driving operational excellence, leading high‑performing teams, and ensuring the highest standards of compliance, governance, and financial performance. This is an exciting opportunity to shape and enhance a premium hospitality service within one of the UK's leading private hospitals.

• 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.
• Work closely with clinical, operational, and senior leadership teams to ensure food services 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.

• 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.

• 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…