Director of Chef Operations, Children's Cooking School

Job Description

Job Description

SFC Northern Colorado LLC dba Sticky Fingers Cooking® of Northern Colorado is looking to hire a part-time Director of Chef Operations to help us Cultivate COOLinary Curiosity in Kids®!

• Are you ready to TURNIP the BEET on what KIDS EAT®?
• Are you looking for a fun, part-time job?
• Do you love the magical combination of children and cooking?

Applications will be open until October 1st, 2026.

ABOUT STICKY FINGERS COOKING

Sticky Fingers Cooking® (SFC) is a cooking school for children that teaches after-school enrichment classes and summer camps in hundreds of locations across the country. We love sharing our passion for cooking through our fun, hands-on, and deliciously healthy cooking classes and camps. We strive to inspire and celebrate comprehensive education directly related to the essential role of real healthy food, cooking , and nutrition in our everyday lives.

The Director of Chef Operations (DoCO) is a key player in the oversight of day-to-day program operations at Sticky Fingers Cooking®. SFC is a hospitality company within a children's cooking school, which means that positive communication on every level is a necessity. This role is responsible for ensuring that chef instructors are trained, equipped, and assigned to classes and camps via The Dash™ (our proprietary technology platform).

The DoCO role is integral to the core of Sticky Fingers Cooking® as this position maintains all communication with our Chef Instructor team in a timely, positive manner. This position actively communicates with and co-manages a SFC territory with the Area Director. The primary goal of this position is to provide instructors with a positive and organized work experience, ensuring that they feel supported and encouraged in their roles through upbeat communications. Staff engagement and retention is a priority for the DoCO, keeping in mind that all instructors teach part-time for SFC and many may have other jobs as well. The DoCO must be a leader, who is organized, remains calm under pressure, and also is extremely organized and detail-oriented.

This position is part time, 10-15 hours per week. This person must be available between 2 and 5 pm on weekdays .

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Co-manage a SFC territory with the Area Director
• Assist in oversight of day-to-day program operations of SFC programing within a territory
• Support our staff of chef instructors in implementation of SFC curriculum, recipes and classroom management
• Conduct hiring, interviewing, onboarding, and training of new staff members, both virtually and in-person
• Coordinate with the Area Director and chef instructors to ensure all locations are fully-staffed
• Utilize The Dash™ to update and edit class info and schedule instructors
• Communicate with instructors and school-based personnel regarding questions or concerns about classes, missing/absent students, student behavioral issues, classroom/space, child pick-up and drop off, etc.
• Conduct and maintain up-to-date training for after school, summer camp, birthday party, online class, and/or private events offerings for chef instructors
• Cultivate and maintain positive relationships with SFC instructors and staff
• Manage the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and HR platform
• Daily updating of spreadsheets and other documents in google drive
• Building and sending routine newsletters to the chef instructor team
• Work closely with Area Director in developing long-term operational strategies that help meet company objectives
• Conduct in-person observations
• Plan and conduct regular team meetings, trainings, and gatherings with chef instructors along with the Area Director
• Ensure work and teaching environments are adequate and safe; reporting any issues to Area Director
• Serve as boots-on-the-ground support to chef instructors within the classroom settings
• Substitute in a classroom as a Chef Instructor when needed

QUALIFICATIONS

• Highly effective, positive, and enthusiastic verbal and written communication skills
• Team player with a flexible, positive, and creative approach to problem-solving
• Extremely detail-oriented and organized knowledge of Google and Excel spreadsheets is a must!
• Self-directed, independent work ethic
• Experience managing a team and strength in coaching and empowering team members
• Proficiency with Google Workplace and comfortable learning new technology and software systems
• Passion for children and cooking; teaching experience strongly preferred
• A knowledge of the SFC territory and area schools is preferred
• Experience working with a group of kids required
• Social Media experience would earn additional hours

• Benefits Included:
  • Accrued Leave: Up to 48 hours of paid leave per year, for use of a variety of health- and safety-purposes, which employees "earn" at a rare of 1 hour of leave for 30 hours worked.
  • Public Health Emergency (PHE) Leave: Up to 80 hours of PHE-related leave when a PHE is declared.

ARE YOU READY TO JOIN US?

If you feel that you would be a GRATE fit, please fill out our application. We look forward to meeting you!