Culinary Consultant

Position Summary:     

Direct Supply is building the future of healthcare technology with industry-leading products, solutions and platforms to help improve the lives of millions of seniors and those who care for them.

In the Culinary Consultant position, you'll partner with senior living customers to support the optimization of their culinary programs through data-driven analysis, menu and purchasing best practices, and technology-enabled solutions. Working collaboratively with Senior Culinary Consultants, customers, GPOs, and food suppliers, you'll build, manage, and optimize food order guides within DSSI, identify opportunities to improve purchasing performance, and help deliver recommendations that enhance operational efficiency, resident satisfaction, and adoption of Direct Supply solutions.

Skills Needed:

• Systems Thinking & Problem Solving - Identify the right problems to solve by understanding the broader system – customers, stakeholders, processes, data, technology, and AI. Connect root causes, dependencies, tradeoffs, and upstream and downstream effects to develop practical, scalable solutions that improve the whole.

• Influence & Collaborate - Build trust, communicate clearly, and work across boundaries to drive action and shared outcomes. Seek and integrate different perspectives, contribute ideas, work through dependencies, and help teams make progress together through change and ambiguity.

• Culinary and Foodservice Expertise - Applies knowledge of senior living culinary operations, menu planning, food purchasing practices and dining program best practices to provide relevant recommendations that improve customer outcomes.

• Business Development and Growth - Identifies customer needs and recommends relevant Procurement Services solutions that expand customer value and support growth opportunities.

• Culinary Spend Management - Develops and optimizes customer order guides by aligning dietary program needs, menus, customer preferences, budgets, product availability and product lifecycle changes, using technology where applicable.

• Purchasing Data Analysis and Optimization - Analyzes customer purchasing data, market insights and key performance indicators to identify SKU optimization and savings opportunities, develop recurring spend optimization recommendations and clearly present insights to customers.

What You’ll Do and Impact:

• Serve as the culinary subject matter expert for assigned customers, providing strategic consultation on culinary operations, menu best practices, purchasing strategies, technology and program optimization.

• Lead recurring customer consultations, business reviews and performance discussions, using data and industry expertise to recommend actions that support culinary, operational and financial goals.

• Own relationships for culinary-focused customer accounts and partner with Spend Management Consultants on broader Procurement Services relationships.

• Guide customers in the effective use of Direct Supply and Procurement Services culinary solutions, including Dynamic Food AI tools, DSSI and other applicable technologies, while partnering with implementation resources rather than directly implementing the technology.

• Analyze customer purchasing data, menu utilization, market information and operational insights to identify opportunities for SKU optimization, savings and improved purchasing outcomes.

• Develop and present spend optimization recommendations, operational insights and culinary best practices to customer stakeholders through virtual and onsite engagements.

• Partner with customers to optimize order guides based on dietary program needs, customer preferences, menus, budgets, product availability and product lifecycle changes, using technology where available.

• Identify opportunities to expand customer value through Premium Supplier Programs, Direct Supply solutions and other Procurement Services offerings.

• Partner with internal teams to support execution of recommendations and successful customer outcomes.

• Follow established Standard Operating Procedures supporting Procurement Services technology and Direct Supply culinary programs.

• Collaborate with Product Management, Engineering, Data Science and other cross-functional teams to inform and improve culinary solutions and technology based on customer needs and insights.

Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Dietetics, Culinary Arts, Hospitality Management, Foodservice Management or a related field.

• 5+ years of relevant experience in culinary consulting, foodservice operations, dietary services, senior living or a related area.

• Experience leading customer-facing presentations, business reviews and consultative discussions.

• Experience analyzing purchasing, menu, operational or spend management data and developing actionable recommendations.

• Experience working with foodservice technology platforms, procurement systems or culinary management solutions.

• Ability to travel up to 5%, including travel to Milwaukee, WI for in-person remote weeks.

Additional Items of Interest:

• Experience with culinary technology solutions, e-procurement platforms or menu management strategies.

• Experience in the senior housing industry, particularly with dietary or culinary strategy.

• Experience supporting procurement, spend management or supplier optimization initiatives.