Chef Manager – The Readout Café, Wintec Rotokauri

Full Time | Monday to Friday | 6:00am – 2:30pm (40 hours per week)

Are you a passionate chef who loves creating great food, leading a team, and building strong customer relationships?

We're looking for an experienced Chef Manager to lead operations at The Readout Café, located within the vibrant Wintec Rotokauri Campus. This is an exciting opportunity to combine your culinary expertise with your leadership and business management skills in a busy educational café environment. The role involves managing daily café operations, leading a small team, driving customer satisfaction, and delivering fresh, high-quality food and coffee to students, staff, and visitors.

This is an educational contract and will be minimum 42 weeks with some weeks closed during term break.

About the Role

As Chef Manager, you'll be responsible for the overall success of the café, including:

• Leading and developing a high-performing kitchen and café team
• Barista experience/skills is required.
• Preparing, cooking, and presenting fresh, appealing food offerings
• Creating menus and adapting offerings to meet customer demand and dietary requirements
• Managing food, labour, and operating costs to achieve budget targets
• Building strong working relationships with Wintec stakeholders
• Ensuring compliance with Food Safety, Health & Safety, and company standards
• Maintaining exceptional food quality, service standards, and customer satisfaction
• Identifying opportunities to grow café sales and enhance the customer experience
• Managing stock control, ordering, rostering, and reporting requirements

About You

To be successful in this role, you'll bring:

• Proven experience managing a commercial kitchen, café, or hospitality operation
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to motivate and develop a team
• Experience with menu planning, budgeting, purchasing, and stock control
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• A passion for food, customer service, and continuous improvement
• Sound knowledge of New Zealand Food Safety and Health & Safety requirements
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills
• Confidence using computer systems, POS systems, and Microsoft Office applications

Cater Plus is one of New Zealand’s leading catering companies with over 750 team members nationwide. We’re known for great food, great service, and creating workplaces where people feel supported, valued, and proud of what they do.

You must be legally entitled to work in New Zealand (NZ citizen, resident, or valid work visa). Please include your current visa status and expiry date (if applicable) with your application.

Applications are reviewed as they come in, so don’t miss out. Apply now with your CV and a brief cover letter telling us why you’d be great for the role.