Warehouse Head Chef

About the role:

As the culinary lead for our Hornby Warehouse Cafeteria, you'll lead a busy kitchen operation, delivering fresh, high-quality food while creating a great experience for our team.

Reporting to the Catering & Cafeteria Manager, you'll be at the heart of a fast-paced kitchen, leading your team through the morning rush and making sure great food is ready when our warehouse team members walk through the door.

With ownership of everything from menus and ordering through to stock control and kitchen performance, you'll have real influence over how the cafeteria operates and plenty of scope to put your own stamp on the food offering, keeping things fresh, varied, and running smoothly.

Key accountabilities:

• Lead daily food production and service, ensuring every meal is fresh, high-quality, and delivered on time.
• Coach and develop your team of two, creating a positive culture where people feel supported, motivated, and set up for success.
• Own rostering, ordering, stock control, and supplier relationships to keep the kitchen running smoothly.
• Drive commercial outcomes through effective cost management, waste reduction, and smart decision-making.
• Champion food safety, quality, and wellbeing standards, ensuring a safe and enjoyable environment for both customers and team members.

About you:

You might be an experienced head chef looking for a change or a sous chef looking for a step up. Either way, you're an experienced kitchen professional who takes pride in creating exceptional food experiences at scale. Ideally, you’ll also bring:

• Strong background in budgeting, inventory management, and resource planning.
• Sound understanding of allergens, nutrition, legislative requirements, and audit standards.
• Ability to interpret financial measures including food costs, labour spend, and waste reporting.
• Excellent communication skills with a collaborative approach.
• Genuine enthusiasm for great food and service.
• Commercially minded and highly organised, you're confident making decisions, building capability, and driving results.

Don't Meet Every Requirement?

We encourage you to apply anyway. We are looking for individuals with diverse experiences and are keen to hear from those who believe they have the drive and potential to succeed in this role.

Why join us?

• We’re committed to equitable outcomes, and we offer additional paid parental leave, free period products and financial health checks to name a few. 
• We support your wellbeing with Southern Cross health insurance for you and your family after a qualifying period, discounts at local gyms, access to online wellbeing tools, and a prayer and privacy room onsite.
• We offer continuous learning and professional growth, as well as access to our extensive online training library and endless opportunities.
• We’re proud of our supportive team environment, and our positive and friendly culture that’s made fun by regular social events!
• We’re a Pride Pledge organisation, and we are committed to an inclusive workplace where everyone thrives, every day and we celebrate our diversity as strength.
• Our Hornby site has free carparking and in-house café. 

How to apply:

Ready to take on the challenge? Click “apply” to apply for the role! Applications will close 11:59pm Wednesday 2 September 2026 and will only be accepted via our careers site.

If you have any questions about the role, or experience any issues submitting your application, please email careers@foodstuffs-si.co.nz 

About us:

We’re a team of 14,000 who make sure South Islanders have access to the groceries and essentials they need. Proudly 100% Kiwi-owned and operated, our co-operative has more than 200 PAK’nSAVE, New World, Four Square and On the Spot stores feeding the South Island.  

We value being at the heart of our communities, like we’ve always been, to make the South Island a better place – for today and for many generations to come. From sunny Golden Bay all the way to Stewart Island, there’s a Foodstuffs store serving you and your whānau.  

Our success is down to our people who bring their skills, experience, passion, and expertise to make Foodies an amazing and rewarding place to work. Our co-op has a wide variety of roles to offer, and endless opportunities for development. 

Our values:

At Foodies, together we drive success to be our best and care for our whānau. We recognise that it takes a collective effort to achieve success, and we thrive on fostering a culture of collaboration to drive innovation and embracing challenges as a united team. We are committed to supporting our people, and to positively impact the lives of South Islanders every day.