Head Chef
Who are we?
We are Manchester Students’ Union, the biggest SU in the country, supporting over 48,000 students throughout their time at university. We help to make student life the best it can be by supporting students to campaign for change, creating opportunities to meet new people, providing employment opportunities, providing advice and support and being a safe place on campus.
We are a values-centred organisation that employs around 90 permanent, full-time members of staff. We recruit a wide range of roles throughout the year within all our departments from our Commercial team operating Manchester Academy Venues, 13 Media, Bar 532 & Kitchen and Corridor Coffee to our Student Activities, Student Engagement, Marketing and Communications, Finance, HR and Facilities teams. Our team of around 400 part-time, studying staff are instrumental in providing to support to all departments as well as leading major projects like Student Angels. When you join UMSU, you’ll be immersed in an environment that empowers staff to make great things happen and we're always on the lookout for innovative, passionate, and proactive people to join us.
Our values are really important to us and shape the work that we do every day. As part of our recruitment process, we want you to demonstrate how your experiences, behaviours and skills align with our values. You can find more detailed explanations of our values on our website.
About the role
Create the food identity for a new Oxford Road venue, with the opportunity to build the kitchen, shape the offer and lead from day one.
Manchester Students’ Union is looking for a hands on, commercially minded Head Chef to open and lead the kitchen for our new licensed restaurant and bar at University Green. This is our most significant commercial launch in a decade and a rare opportunity to build a kitchen operation from the ground up. We support more than 48,000 students at the University of Manchester and run an established hospitality portfolio including Manchester Academy Venues, Bar 532 & Kitchen and Corridor Coffee. Our new venue is the next step, an all day food, drink and social space trading from morning coffee through to late night drinks, serving students, University staff, gig goers and the wider Oxford Road community.
This is not a fine dining kitchen, but it is a serious commercial food operation. As Head Chef, you will help create a food offer that is fast, consistent, high quality, good value, margin aware and genuinely relevant to the people using the venue. The food needs to work across lunch, early evening trade, events, group bookings, society activity and pre gig visits. It should support the bar, suit the pace of the venue and give customers a reason to come back. Working closely with the General Manager, you will open the kitchen, set the standards, build the routines and develop the team. You will lead on food quality, kitchen organisation, food safety, allergens, ordering, stock control, waste, supplier standards and food gross profit. You will also help create the kitchen culture from day one: organised, calm, safe, supportive and proud of the food being served.
As Head Chef, you will lead and develop the Sous Chef, kitchen colleagues and student staff working in the kitchen. You will need to be confident leading service, training others, managing prep, maintaining consistency and working closely with bar and floor colleagues so the whole venue runs well during busy periods.
We are looking for a Head Chef with strong experience in a busy commercial kitchen, ideally at Head Chef, Kitchen Manager or senior Sous Chef level. You will need strong food safety knowledge, allergen awareness, experience managing food cost, stock, waste and portion control, and the ability to deliver quality and speed in a high volume environment. Experience in a bar, casual dining, student, event, music venue or city centre setting would be a real advantage.
The package is one of the things that makes this role different. Alongside a competitive salary and 40 hour contract, we offer 30 days’ annual leave, bank holidays and an additional paid Christmas closure period of around two weeks. For hospitality leaders used to intense festive trading, that is a real point of difference. Our student and event led rhythm also gives the year a different shape to many city centre kitchens, with peak energy around term, Welcome, gigs and major student moments, and a less Christmas led trading pattern than many restaurants, pubs and bars.
You will also benefit from pension contributions, learning and development, staff discounts and wider Students’ Union venue benefits.
Every pound this venue generates goes back into supporting students. So if you are a creative, commercially sharp Head Chef who wants to build a kitchen, shape a food offer people come back for, and be part of something with real purpose behind it, we would love to hear from you.
Please read the full role profile before applying, as well as our guide to recruitment.
Details
Salary: £37,000 - £41,000 per year
Contract: Permanent
Hours: 40 hours per week
Eligibility: Open to applicants with relevant skills and experience who are eligible to work in the UK. A Personal Licence is essential.
Our Reward Package
You'll get access to our reward package which you can see here.
Recruitment Guide
We have a guide that explains our full recruitment process. We recommend reading through this before beginning an application.
If you are invited to interview with us, we will share our interview questions in advance so you can prepare your responses. We’re more interested in hearing about your experiences and ideas than in testing your memory, and so we want you to feel as prepared as possible.
AI Use
GenAI tools, like ChatGPT, are revolutionising how we approach a whole host of tasks at work. As a future-focused employer, we believe in embracing, not banning, these tools. However, as with all tech, some ways of using it are better than others. You can use GenAI to refine and articulate your ideas. It’s a tool to help structure your thoughts and improve clarity, not to replace your unique voice and experiences. Please don’t just copy and paste what AI tells you to write.
We recommend you read our guide on how to approach the use of AI within our recruitment process:
Inclusivity and Accessibility
We are committed to equality of opportunity, and we work hard to ensure we appoint based on skill and values.
We particularly encourage applications from Disabled or Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African candidates as these groups are currently underrepresented in our staff team.
If you have any accessibility requirements or require adjustments to support you to apply to work with us, please get in touch. We can offer reasonable adjustments at all stages of our recruitment process.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. Under this scheme, we aim to offer an interview to candidates who declare a disability and meet the minimum essential criteria for the role. Minimum criteria are marked with an asterisk on the person specification. However, during periods of exceptionally high application volumes or peak recruitment times (i.e. July, August and September), it may not always be possible to guarantee an interview for every eligible candidate. In such cases, we will take steps to ensure that the process remains fair, consistent, and inclusive.
Recruitment Timeline
Applications opened: 16/07/2026
Applications close: 26/07/2026 23:59 pm
Interviews: 03/08/2026
Role Commencing: 01/09/2026
We may close applications early if we receive a high volume of applications. We recommend that you apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Once the vacancy has closed, we’re unable to accept late applications to ensure a fair process for all candidates.
Once you have submitted your application, you will not be able to make any further changes. Please ensure you are happy with your responses before submitting.
Contact
People Team:
You can contact the People Team with any questions regarding this vacancy or our recruitment process.
Email: jobs.su@manchester.ac.uk
Phone: 0161 306 3279
Hiring Manager: jonny.allen@manchester.ac.uk
You can contact the hiring manager with any questions regarding this vacancy or our recruitment process.