Hospitality Culinary Experience Manager

Description

At Oliver Winery, we've been making wine people love since 1972. As Indiana's oldest winery and the largest in the Midwest, we've grown into one of the top 30 wineries in the U.S., and Newsweek named ours the #2 tasting room in the country.

We are seeking an innovative, hospitality-driven leader to elevate our food and wine experiences. The Hospitality Culinary Experience Manager is responsible for developing and executing food programs that enhance the winery guest experience, creating memorable tasting and pairing experiences, and supporting the overall hospitality strategy of the winery.

The ideal candidate brings a strong understanding of food, wine, and hospitality, along with the creativity to design menus and experiences within a limited-production kitchen environment. While formal chef experience is not required, a demonstrated background in food service, catering, hospitality operations, culinary programming, or event execution is essential.

As a member of the Hospitality Leadership Team, this position reports directly to the Vice President of Hospitality and serves as both a hospitality leader and experience curator. The Hospitality Culinary Experience Manager is responsible for creating food and wine experiences that elevate the guest journey, support Direct-to-Consumer sales growth, and strengthen customer loyalty. This individual will help lead, develop, and support a hospitality team of approximately 50 part-time team members while contributing to the strategic direction of the tasting room, events, and overall guest experience.

Success in this role requires balancing creativity, operational execution, team leadership, and business performance to deliver experiences that are memorable for guests and impactful for the business.

Essential Responsibilities

Culinary Program Development & Execution

• •Develop and execute a strategic food program that complements Oliver Winery wines and enhances the overall guest experience.
• •Create seasonal menus, pairing boards, shareable offerings, and specialty food experiences that can be consistently executed within a limited-production kitchen environment.
• •Design food offerings that are operationally efficient, scalable, and aligned with the Oliver Winery brand.
• •Source ingredients and products, establish vendor relationships, and manage food-related purchasing.
• •Monitor food quality, consistency, inventory levels, and food costs.
• •Ensure compliance with all food safety, sanitation, and health department requirements.
• •Continuously evaluate and refine offerings based on guest feedback, sales performance, and operational effectiveness.

Wine Pairing & Experience Development

• •Curate food and wine pairing experiences that showcase Oliver Winery wines and encourage guest exploration.
• •Develop seasonal tasting experiences, educational programs, Wine Club events, and specialty hospitality offerings.
• •Collaborate with the Winemaking, Marketing, Events, and Hospitality teams to create memorable guest experiences that reinforce the Oliver Winery brand.
• •Create educational content and staff resources related to food and wine pairing.
• •Identify emerging hospitality and culinary trends that can be adapted to the winery environment.
• •Serve as an internal resource for food and wine pairing recommendations and hospitality experience development.

Hospitality Leadership & Team Development

• •Serve as a member of the Hospitality Leadership Team.
• •Help lead, coach, and develop a hospitality team of approximately 50 part-time team members.
• •Support recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, training, coaching, and performance management initiatives.
• •Act as Manager-on-Duty during designated business hours, events, and peak visitation periods.
• •Model and reinforce exceptional hospitality standards and guest service expectations.
• •Partner with hospitality leadership to drive team engagement, accountability, and operational excellence.
• •Foster a culture focused on hospitality, teamwork, continuous improvement, and guest satisfaction.

Event & Hospitality Operations

• •Partner with the Events and Hospitality teams to develop and execute food components for winery events, festivals, Wine Club programs, and seasonal activations.
• •Ensure food and culinary experiences are executed consistently and efficiently during high-volume events.
• •Support overall tasting room operations during peak business periods.
• •Evaluate event performance and recommend enhancements to improve both guest satisfaction and business results.
• •Assist in the development of new hospitality offerings designed to drive visitation, loyalty, and guest engagement.

Financial & Business Performance

• •Manage food-related budgets, purchasing, inventory, and vendor relationships.
• •Monitor food costs and margins while maintaining exceptional quality standards.
• •Develop and execute food and pairing programs that increase guest engagement, encourage food and wine attachment opportunities, and contribute to overall Direct-to-Consumer sales growth.
• •Analyze sales trends, guest feedback, and operational performance metrics to identify opportunities for improvement.
• •Recommend new revenue-generating hospitality experiences and offerings.
• •Support departmental goals related to sales growth, guest experience, operational efficiency, and profitability.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• •Minimum of three years of experience in hospitality, food service, catering, winery operations, culinary programming, event management, or a related field.
• •Demonstrated experience developing and executing food programs, menus, culinary experiences, or hospitality offerings.
• •Strong understanding of food and beverage pairing principles.
• •Proven ability to lead, coach, and develop team members.
• •Strong organizational, planning, and project management skills.
• •Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• •Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• •Ability to work evenings, weekends, and special events as business needs require.

Preferred Qualifications

• •Experience working in a winery, brewery, tasting room, destination hospitality venue, hotel, catering operation, country club, or specialty food business.
• •Wine knowledge and/or wine certification.
• •Experience managing food costs, inventory, purchasing, and vendor relationships.
• •Experience designing guest experiences that drive engagement and business performance.
• •Experience training and developing front-line hospitality teams.

Success Measures

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to create and execute hospitality experiences that enhance guest satisfaction, increase engagement, support revenue growth, and strengthen customer loyalty, including:

• •Consistent delivery of exceptional guest experiences and hospitality standards.
• •Growth and performance of food, pairing, and culinary experience offerings.
• •Increased guest participation in food and wine experiences.
• •Improvement in food and wine attachment rates.
• •Positive contribution to overall guest spend and Direct-to-Consumer sales performance.
• •Creation of innovative experiences that drive visitation, customer loyalty, and Wine Club engagement.
• •Effective leadership, development, and engagement of hospitality team members.
• •Strong operational execution, financial stewardship, and cross-functional collaboration.
• •Contribution to overall winery hospitality and Direct-to-Consumer business objectives.

In addition, all successful winery employees will be able to:

• •Use your attitude and effort to contribute to a positive work environment.
• •Demonstrate ethics and integrity.
• •Develop self-awareness of ones’ impact on team and modify in constructive manner when needed.
• •Be thoughtfully engaged and do your best work. Every day.
• •Model the winery values: Get Stuff Done, Respect People, Expect Quality, and Think Differently.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS/WORK ENVIRONMENT: The position requ