Food & Beverage Manager

Lead a thriving F&B operation at one of the South’s most loved family attractions!

We’re looking for a commercially minded and hands‑on Food & Beverage Manager to drive sales, profitability and sustainability across our busy café and catering offer at Winchester Science Centre.

You’ll lead and inspire a dedicated team, shape an engaging, high‑quality food experience for over 170,000 visitors a year, and ensure F&B plays a central role in delivering an outstanding visitor experience. If you’re passionate about great food, strong team leadership and making a tangible impact within a purpose‑driven charity, this is an exciting opportunity to bring creativity, commercial insight and operational excellence together.

Hours
: 37.5 hours per week / 5 days. Part‑time hours considered, working a minimum of 4 days per week.

Work Pattern
:
Thursday‑Monday inclusive (Tuesday and Wednesday non‑working days) with some flexibility required. Due to the nature of the role and our visitor operating hours, most annual leave will need to be taken during term‑time.

Example hours
:
Monday 9am‑3pm, Thursday 9am‑4.30pm, Friday 8.30am‑4.30pm, Saturday and Sunday 8.30am‑5.30pm.

Location
:
Winchester, SO21 1HZ
with occasional working from Wonderseekers HQ, Eastleigh, SO50 9DE
. Onsite presence is essential for this role.

Contract
:
Permanent

Line manager
:
Head of Visitor Operations

Holiday
: 33 days per annum, including bank holidays. Option to buy/sell some leave and gain additional days for continuous service after four years. The post-holder will be expected to work most bank holidays.

Benefits
:
Cash health scheme, life assurance, buy/sell annual leave, long service holiday bonus, café and shop discount, free tickets to WSC and partner attractions, family friendly leave, wellbeing policy, mental health first aiders, cycle to work scheme, financial loans, flexible IT, casual dress, staff events, enhanced pension contribution, inflationary pay rise subject to charity performance and more.

• Lead the F&B operation to achieve sales and profitability targets, meeting or exceeding agreed income, spend per head and GPM goals.
• Manage day‑to‑day café operations, ensuring the offer is consistently high quality, safe, accessible and welcoming.
• Develop and evolve the catering offer to match visitor expectations, exhibitions, events and audience profiles.
• Ensure F&B integrates seamlessly into all Winchester Science Centre activity, including school visits, evening programmes, private hires and special events.
• Monitor performance against KPIs (sales, GPM, spend per head, wastage, customer feedback) and report insight to the Head of Visitor Operations and COO.
• Work with the Head of Visitor Operations to drive the Retail Strategy to continue driving greater profitability to support the Charity in its mission.
• Lead the F&B team (supervisors and assistants), including recruitment, induction, training, rotas, payroll accuracy and performance reviews.
• Ensure the café is consistently well‑presented and compliant with health and safety, food hygiene, and trading standards.
• Manage supplier relationships, ordering and stock control to ensure value, quality and minimal waste.
• Drive sustainability across F&B operations, aligning with the organisation’s environmental commitments (e.g. reducing packaging, food waste, and carbon footprint).
• Be a key part of the Duty Manager team, taking responsibility for the safe and smooth operation of Winchester Science Centre during assigned shifts. This includes opening and closing the site, coordinating teams across Visitor Operations, Retail and Food & Beverage, ensuring guest safety and satisfaction, and responding to incidents, complaints and emergencies with professionalism and authority.
• Respond to customer feedback and complaints with professionalism, ensuring service improvements are implemented.
• Work closely with the Retail Manager to deliver joined‑up commercial offers and cross‑promotions.
• Collaborate with the Visitor Operations Manager to ensure F&B teams are briefed and aligned with daily operational priorities and wider visitor experience standards.
• Work alongside Marketing & Audiences to…