Director Catering Strategy

Company Profile:

At CAVA we make it deliciously simple to eat well and feel good every day. We are guided by a Mediterranean heritage thats been perfecting how to eat and live for four thousand years. We prioritize authenticity curiosity and the pursuit of excellence in everything we do. We are working towards something big together.

We foster a culture built on five core values:

• Generosity First Always: We lead with kindness. Our best work happens when we act in service of others.
• Constant Curiosity: We are eager to learn grow and explore beyond the obvious.
• Act with Agility: We welcome change; its the only constant. We embrace adjust adapt.
• Passion for Positivity: We greet each day with warmth and possibility.
• Collective Ambition: We have high aspirations that are achieved when we work together with a shared purpose.

Director of Catering Strategy:

The Director of Catering Strategy is a critical leader responsible for building and scaling CAVAs national catering business. This role operates as the primary owner of the catering operating model translating strategic priorities into executable systems processes and results across the business.

Partnering closely with the VP of Off-Premise & Catering this leader will define and operationalize the end-to-end catering modelfrom demand generation and ordering through production fulfillment and guest experienceensuring the business is both highly compelling for guests and executable within restaurant constraints.

This is a builder role not a maintenance role. Success requires balancing growth with operational realities making clear tradeoffs and creating a model that can scale nationally with consistency and strong unit economics.

What Youll Do:

Build & Scale the Catering Operating Model

• Define and operationalize the end-to-end catering model including demand generation ordering capacity management production and fulfillment.
• Establish and manage a catering scorecard (revenue margin reliability capacity utilization labor efficiency).
• Own day-to-day decision-making across the catering business driving clear priorities and tradeoffs.
• Identify and execute the highest-impact opportunities to grow and improve the business.

Own Economics Pricing & Profitability

• Own the unit economics and financial model for catering including pricing frameworks cost structure and margin optimization.
• Partner with Finance to ensure clear ROI disciplined investment decisions and sustainable profitability.
• Balance growth ambitions with operational and financial constraints.

Design Product Packaging & Experience (Built for Scale)

• Own catering menus packaging and formats across occasions and use cases.
• Ensure all offerings are operationally efficient scalable and optimized for speed accuracy and throughput.
• Translate brand standards into clear executable workflows within restaurant environments.
• Deliver a consistent high-quality guest experience that reflects the CAVA brand.

Align Demand with Capacity (Sales Ops Integration)

• Partner with Sales and Marketing to build a repeatable demand generation engine aligned to restaurant capacity.
• Ensure demand is intentionally shaped and managed not just driven to protect the core business.
• Define and evolve catering use cases formats and occasions to unlock growth.

Lead Cross-Functional Execution & Systems Development

• Serve as the business owner across Operations Technology Delivery Sales and Marketingdriving alignment on priorities sequencing and tradeoffs.
• Partner with Technology to define and prioritize the catering product and capacity management roadmap.
• Work closely with Operations to ensure solutions are deployable at scale without degrading the in-restaurant experience.
• Build scalable systems tools and processes that enable national expansion.

What Success Looks Like (Year 1):

• Establish a clear scalable catering operating model validated in test markets
• Deliver measurable improvement in:
• Reliability and execution consistency
• Capacity utilization and throughput
• Labor efficiency
• Margin and profitability
• Stand up a repeatable demand generation and sales motion aligned to capacity
• Define a national catering playbook enabling confident 2027 expansion

Qualifications:

• 8 years of experience in catering restaurant operations or multi-unit food service strategy
• Experience building or scaling a business program or operating model from early stages
• Strong business and financial acumen with experience owning pricing unit economics and P&L drivers
• Deep understanding of restaurant operations labor models and throughput constraints
• Proven ability to translate strategy into execution across complex cross-functional environments
• Demonstrated success influencing and leading without direct authority
• Strong systems thinker with the ability to design end-to-end workflows not just individual components
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and building from incomplete information
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Bachelors degree or equivalent experience

Physical Requirements:

• Ability to maintain stationary position to be able to operate a computer and other office equipment
• Must be able to identify analyze and assess details
• For certain positions must be able to occasionally move or transport items up to 50 pounds
• Ability to communicate with others and exchange information accurately and effectively
• Constantly positions self and move about to support ordinary restaurant or food production support or office operations as applicable
• Ability to work in a constant state of alertness and in a safe manner

What we offer:

• Competitive salary plus bonus and long-term incentives*
• Early Wage Access!
• Unlimited PTO paid parental leave plus paid opportunities to give back to the community
• Health Dental Vision Telemedicine Pet Insurance plus more!
• 401k enrollment with CAVA contribution
• Company-paid STD LTD Life and AD&D coverage for salaried positions*
• Free CAVA food
• Casual work environment
• The opportunity to be on the ground floor of a rapidly growing brand
• All exempt and non-exempt employees are eligible for benefits. Benefits are effective the 1st of the month following 30 days of service and you have until the day before the effective date to enroll. A new hire can enroll in our benefit program by selecting a link that is emailed directly to the new hire at their personal email address once hired.
• Please note that visa sponsorship is not available.
• The posting range is an all-cash range.

*Indicates qualifying eligible positions only

CAVA Joining A culture not a concept

As an equal opportunity employer CAVA considers applicants for all positions without regard to race color sex religion national origin disability age height weight marital status sexual orientation familial status genetic information or any other characteristic or protected classes as defined by federal state or local law.

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