Director - Food Enthusiast Programs
The Culinary Institute of America · Dutchess County, NY, US
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About the Role
The Director of Food Enthusiast Programs is responsible for the overall management and performance of consumer-facing educational programs across all Culinary Institute of America (“CIA”) campuses. This includes classes, multi-day consumer conferences, travel programs, and other consumer educational experiences. The position has direct accountability for meeting revenue and P&L targets and actively drives growth in the Food Enthusiast experience and revenue stream, including solidifying CIA's online presence as a core channel for the business.
Responsibilities
- Oversees the creation, facilitation, and ongoing management of the consumer programming calendar across all CIA campuses.
- Develops new course titles and programming concepts, targeting up to 12 new courses per year.
- Adapts and evolves program delivery formats to meet the needs of working professionals and diverse consumer audiences.
- Monitors class registration levels and adopts enrollment strategies to optimize revenue and participation.
- Identifies and manages opportunities for guest chefs, authors, and beverage professionals for public events.
- Works in conjunction with the events team and the conference team to develop and capture private and custom revenue opportunities.
- Oversees and continuously improves the quality of all consumer educational programs, ensuring a consistently high level of hospitality and guest experience.
- Drives revenue growth strategy for the Food Enthusiast business, focusing on expanding the consumer base, increasing program frequency, and deepening market penetration.
- Solidifies and grows CIA's online presence as a core channel for Food Enthusiast programming.
- Identifies and develops consumer experience opportunities with travel, airport, and venue partners.
- Develops annual operating budgets and manages ongoing analysis of budget data.
- Performs monthly reviews of financial statements to identify and correct problems.
- Reads and interprets P&L statements and takes direct ownership of revenue targets and margin performance.
- Holds equal strategic influence and accountability over Shared Services alongside the Director of Consulting and Workforce Development.
- Works collaboratively with the Director of Consulting and Workforce Development and both VP-level leaders to ensure Shared Services resources are allocated equitably and efficiently.
- Provides equal input on Shared Services priorities, staffing decisions, and performance standards.
- Works closely with campus operations teams across all locations to ensure programming needs are met.
- Facilitates a productive and collaborative work environment across all campuses.
- Coordinates tasks between departments to ensure efficiency; assigns and delegates team responsibilities.
- Works with internal constituents to track, project, and analyze business performance.
- Collaborates with the retail, digital, and group experience functions within Consumer Businesses.
- Leads AI tool adoption within the Food Enthusiast team, including staff training, prompt development, and SOP implementation.
- Incorporates technology and AI tools into workflow to support proposal development, strategic planning, administrative processes, and operational efficiency.
- Manages direct and indirect reports across all campuses, including payroll management, recruitment, staffing, scheduling, and performance appraisals.
- Proactively monitors and manages staff classification, scheduling equity, and benefit consistency across all campus teams.
- Provides direction and guidance to all stakeholders associated with consumer programs.
- Sets and maintains a high standard of hospitality and customer focus across all touchpoints in the consumer programming experience.
- Performs any and all other duties as assigned.
Requirements
- Bachelor's Degree in Culinary Arts, Hospitality, Hotel Administration, or a related field, or significant work experience in lieu thereof.
- Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive experience in food and beverage, customer service, or consumer programming environments.
- Minimum of three (3) years of supervisory experience.
- Demonstrated experience in consumer engagement, including social media, influencer programming, and the design, development, and execution of consumer experiences.
- Demonstrated experience in digital marketing or online presence management for a consumer-facing business.
- Demonstrated expertise in driving revenues in excess of $1MM and managing to surplus targets.
- Must be able to work a flexible schedule including evenings, weekends, and holidays as required by business needs.
- Regular domestic overnight travel required.
- Regular work requires the use of a computer, many times in excess of eight (8) hours per day.
Skills
- Strong teamwork and interpersonal skills; ability to be adaptable, dependable, and manage multiple priorities simultaneously across a geographically distributed team.
- Demonstrated ability to deliver a high level of service responsiveness to internal and external customers.
- Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communication skills.
- Demonstrated ability in organizational, time management, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills.
- High level of energy and self-motivation; comfortable operating with significant autonomy across multiple campuses.
- Strong proficiency with MS Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
- Ability to work effectively with scheduling, registration, reporting, and AI-assisted productivity systems.
- Detail-oriented and thorough, with exceptional organizational skills.
- Demonstrated history of improved guest experience with measurable results.
- Ability to read and analyze P&L statements and manage operating budget development with direct revenue accountability.
- Strong knowledge of the food service, wine, and hospitality industry, including both professional and consumer segments.
- Ability to follow and interpret market trends in the food and beverage community.
Location
- Hyde Park
- Napa (Copia)
- St. Helena (Greystone)
- San Antonio
Work Type
- Full-time
Experience Level
- 10+ years of experience
- 3+ years of supervisory experience
Education Level
- Bachelor's Degree in Culinary Arts, Hospitality, Hotel Administration, or a related field
Salary/Compensations
- $100,000 to $120,000
Benefits
- Medical coverage available at no cost to qualifying employees
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Life insurance
- Short and long term disability insurance
- Retirement savings plan with high employer contributions
- Generous paid time off program
About the Company
- The CIA offers a substantial benefits package that includes medical coverage available at no cost to qualifying employees, dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, short and long term disability insurance, retirement savings plan with high employer contributions, a generous paid time off program, and more!
- As the benefits package at the CIA results in a significant value above the base hiring salary for this position, we encourage you to apply so that our recruiters can share more information with you about the benefits of working for the CIA.