Contract Catering Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

About the Role

Pepita Workplace Catering & Services runs chef-driven corporate lunch and workplace catering programs for offices across the San Francisco Bay Area. We're hiring a Workplace Culinary Accounts Director to own our corporate lunch business end to end — managing client relationships and account growth, designing menus clients love, and running the day-to-day logistics that get fresh, accurate, on-time meals into offices every day.

This is a multi-faceted operations-and-client-success role. One minute you're building a relationship with an office manager or HR lead; the next you're on the phone solving a delivery problem at 11:15 a.m. before a noon drop. You'll be the person clients trust to make their recurring lunch program reliable and full of warm hospitality — and the person internally who keeps kitchen, drivers, and account service aligned.

Success looks like growing repeat revenue, high client retention, smooth daily execution, and a team that knows exactly what's expected each shift.

You Might Be a Great Fit If…

You may currently work at a workplace-catering or corporate-dining company — running a managed office-lunch program, an on-site office café, or a recurring corporate meal service — or you've managed catering operations and B2B accounts for a restaurant, caterer, or hospitality group. If being the reliable, hospitality-driven owner of a daily food program sounds like your kind of work, we'd love to hear from you.

The Face of Our Brand

You'll be the face of our brand inside our clients' offices, so how you show up matters. We ask everyone in a client-facing role to arrive well-groomed and in clean, professional attire appropriate for a corporate workplace, and to carry themselves with the same polish and attention to detail we bring to the food. Clients read the presentation of the person in their lobby as a signal for how the whole program is being handled.

Key Responsibilities

Menu & Account Management

• Culinary passion, knowledge, and experience are required.
• Customize client menus, balancing changing and exact dietary and allergen needs with variety.
• Manage client expectations on lead times and pricing, acting as the primary point of contact for feedback and resolution.
• Handle early start times for breakfast clients.
• Sync ingredients and dishes across clients to maximize kitchen efficiency and control food cost.

Client Account Management & Growth

• Proactively manage and nurture client relationships to grow long-term business across sectors.
• Collaborate on proposals and pricing for one-off events and recurring contracts.
• Expand existing accounts and help maintain a healthy sales pipeline.

Catering & Delivery Logistics

• Oversee daily operations from order intake to setup, ensuring on-time delivery across multiple accounts.
• Maintain quality-control systems, manage inventory, and handle real-time exceptions proactively.
• Plan delivery routing across the Bay Area between client sites and our Berkeley kitchen.
• Ensure full compliance with health, safety, and sanitation standards.

Team Leadership & Financials

• Hire, train, and supervise delivery and support staff.
• Own operational KPIs, including delivery accuracy, food and labor cost, and client retention.
• Collaborate with the culinary team on capacity planning and costing toward our target margins.

What You Bring — Required

• 3+ years in food service, hospitality, corporate/workplace dining, or corporate catering, including at least 2 years in a management or account-owning role.
• A proven track record of managing and retaining B2B accounts — you can lead client meetings, build solutions-oriented proposals, and grow long-term partnerships.
• Proven experience managing catering logistics at scale: multiple simultaneous orders, delivery routing, and time-critical execution.
• Strong understanding of menu planning, dietary/allergen requirements, and food-cost management.
• Excellent client-facing communication; calm, solutions-oriented, and credible under pressure.
• Food safety certification (e.g., ServSafe Manager) or the ability to obtain one within 60 days.
• Comfort with ordering/POS, scheduling, and spreadsheet tools; able to track and report on KPIs.
• Valid driver's license and willingness to be on-site early and travel between client locations across the Bay Area and our Berkeley kitchen.

Preferred

• Culinary or hospitality experience in a high-pressure restaurant or catering environment.
• Experience in the SF Bay Area corporate catering market and familiarity with workplace catering platforms and recurring/subscription-style corporate meal programs.
• A chef-driven sensibility with an eye for seasonal, locally sourced ingredients and sustainability.
• Bilingual (English/Spanish) or conversational Spanish, useful for day-to-day communication with kitchen and delivery teams.

How to Apply

Send your resume and a short note about a corporate or workplace account you grew and a logistics problem you solved under a tight deadline. [Insert application link or email here.]

Equal Opportunity

We are an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. We provide reasonable accommodation for applicants and employees with disabilities and for religious practices. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered in accordance with applicable fair chance laws.