Customer Director (Reston)

About us

Gate Gourmet, a gategroup company, is the world's largest independent provider of catering and provisioning services for the airline industry. For the past 70 years, we have served over 250 carriers in more than 30 countries. Gate Gourmet combines culinary expertise with the highest standards of food safety and production to deliver delicious, healthy, and affordable meals to over 270 million travelers around the globe.

Job Summary

As a critical role in the Operational Performance structure, performs and oversees others in data gathering, analysis, reporting, communicating, and improving performance actions and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) outcomes for one of the regions in NA dedicated to a key airline customer. Drives customer specific action plans to elevate service delivery across the NA network.

Annual Hiring Range/Hourly Rate:

• $170,000- $180,000 /Per Year
• This position is eligible for incentive pay of 20% of the annual base salary, dependent upon successful attainment of company, team, and individual goals.

Benefits

• Paid time off
• 401k, with company match
• Company sponsored life insurance
• Medical, dental, vision plans
• Voluntary short-term/long-term disability insurance
• Voluntary life, accident, and hospital plans
• Employee Assistance Program
• Employee Discounts

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• As a key performance integrator between the airline and internal functions, this hybrid commercial and operations role translates data outcomes, analysis, and insights into customer specific action plans to drive operational performance recovery, service delivery, and monitoring for continuous improvement across the network.
• Integrating airline demand signals, operational execution metrics, quality, employee safety, and food safety outcomes, financial drivers, and customer feedback to reliably measure and report service delivery, continuous improvement, customer satisfaction, and margin protection.
• Monitors all performance factors to identify and monitor early indicators of deteriorating performance in very early stages, develop and drive effective recovery plans, and prevent issues from escalating to a level impacting KPI’s and other performance factors that could lead to sanctions or breach letters with financial impact to the unit.
• Collaborates with station leadership, Master Production Scheduler (MPS) and Manager on Duty (MOD), if at station, and other Customer Service staff to ensure action plans do not conflict with those of other airline customers. Resolves conflicts as they are identified.
• Collaborates and coordinates with Supply Chain teams to ensure demand data aligns with labor, materials, and production planning to reduce waste, surprises, and service failures.
• Leads difficult performance discussions internally with station and operations leadership and senior airline executives, as indicated by the situation, challenging internal operations and representing gategroup effectively.
• Works closely with hub/regional leadership, station GMs, account managers, and Commercial teams to align customer and internal leadership expectations to drive execution.
• Collects, analyzes, writes and presents reporting on end‑to‑end operational, quality, safety, and service performance of gate gourmet service delivery to assigned airline customer(s) across all stations, as well as during QBR’s and internal and external calls as needed.
• Coordinate with Operations, QHSSE, Procurement, Finance, Global Account Commercial teams, and Operational Excellence to embed airline requirements into processes.
• Establishes and maintains communication channels with station leadership, MPS, MOD’s and others to understand all performance issues and emergencies in real time, such as safety, OTP, IRROP and business continuity.
• Collaborates with station management in support of recruiting and training unit level account managers.
• Provides a unified airline performance view to Operations leadership with insights, trends, and required actions.
• Leads structured intake, analysis, and consolidation of flight attendant and cabin crew feedback from all stations.
• Monitors complaints, passenger feedback, escalations, and credits to identify systemic issues and drive end-to-end service quality improvements.
• Partners with Operational Excellence teams to structure, execute, track, and report on continuous improvement initiatives across all customer stations and optimize best practices.
• Owns accuracy and governance of airline demand data, including flight schedules, aircraft types, service levels, and seasonal or ad‑hoc changes.
• Translate qualitative feedback into actionable themes; tracks recurrence and ensures close‑the‑loop communication with the airline customer(s).
• Prepares and supports weekly, monthly, and annual airline performance reviews with consolidated performance data and initiative updates to include operational performance, risks, improvement initiatives, and recovery plans.
• Leads incident and issue management for airline, including root‑cause analysis, corrective, and preventive actions. Governs all deviations from standard processes to ensure alignment across all stations providing service to the airline customer, revising or terminating plans as necessary to recover from performance failures.
• Manages escalation and recovery communication following service failures to restore customer confidence and prevent recurrence.
• Monitors and reports on cost drivers, penalties, credits, waste, and scope changes affecting the airline’s financial performance.
• Supports contract changes, renewals, and repricing discussions using operational and performance data.
• Maintains proactive communication with airline counterparts to ensure consistent, coordinated network‑level service delivery.

Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree is strongly preferred.
• At least six (6) years of progressively responsible, professional business experience in operations, manufacturing performance management and improvement, and/or data analytics may be considered in lieu of degree, and in addition to the Work Experience statements below.

Work Experience:

• At least seven (7) years of progressively responsible professional work experience in data analytics and process improvement, preferably at in-flight catering or food manufacturing companies, assessing operational performance against KPI’s and regulatory requirements.
• Experience with development and production of reports on KPI’s and other regulatory and performance metrics for executive management, regional management, and/or customer audiences.
• Customer‑facing experience is required.
• Experience working with airline customers, or in aviation catering operations is strongly preferred.
• Experience in development, implementation and coordination of cross‑functional initiatives or multi‑location operations and applying and implementing continuous improvement/Lean/RCA Methodologies is required.

Technical Skills:

• Data analytics and reporting capability
• Performance management tools
• Continuous improvement / Lean / RCA methodologies
• Knowledge of airline operations and catering processes
• Forecasting and demand governance
• Strong presentation and communication skills
• Travel is required, approximately 50% of the time

Core Competencies Required

• Strong analytical skills and ability to interpret performance data to drive action planning.
• Clear and effective communication with internal teams and airline stakeholders.
• High customer service orientation with the ability to represent customer needs.
• Ability to work across multiple locations and coordinate cross‑functional efforts.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Skilled in root‑cause analysis and corrective action processes.
• High accountability for performance outcomes and follow‑up.
• Adaptability to changing operational conditions and customer requirements.

Language / Communication Skills:

• Ability to communicate effectively with internal and external customers verbally and in writing

Gategroup Competencies Required to be Successful in the Job:

• Thinking – Information Search and analysis & problem resolution skills
• Engaging – Understanding others, Team Leadership and Developing People
• Inspiring – Influencing and building relationships, Motivating and Inspiring, Communicating effectively
• Achieving – Delivering business results under pressure, Championing Performance Improvement and Customer Focus

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the individual(s) assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required. Management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties and to assign other duties as necessary. In addition, reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with d]]> <