Dining Systems Specialist

Amherst has taken a leadership role among highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities in successfully diversifying the racial, socio-economic, and geographic profile of its student body. The College is similarly committed to enriching its educational experience and its culture through the diversity of its faculty, administration and staff.

Job Description:

Amherst College invites applications for the Dining Systems Specialist position. The Dining Systems Specialist is a full-time, year-round position, starting at $65,000-commensurate with experience. Given Amherst's distinction as one of the most diverse liberal arts colleges in the country, the successful candidate will demonstrate the ways in which they bring value to and will work towards supporting a broadly diverse community.

The Dining Systems Specialist oversees all the software systems that create, enhance, maintain, grow, and sustain the Dining Program. These systems include software that manages food production, guest forecasting, ordering, recipe, waste tracking, menu signage and logic, AI Systems, and feedback collection. This position acts as the superuser for these systems and administers all functions related to the systems as well as trains other users in the department on their use and function.

This position has a critical responsibility for operations of each software system to support dining operations to deliver the ultimate guest experience. Additionally, this position is responsible for the tracking and improvement of food waste, over production correction techniques, and financial resource acumen. The position works directly with the campus Executive Chef and assists in weekly food production meetings, procurement and receiving enhancements, and establishing controls to reduce food waste.

This position actively supports and advances the mission and priorities of the College as well as the mission, vision, and values of delivering the Amherst College Dining experience. This position works a varied schedule to include nights, weekends, and holidays as needed during certain times of the year.

This position is considered essential and critical for college operations and reports to work at times when the college is closed or impacted by weather or other emergency situations.

Summary of Duties and Responsibilities

System Administration:

• Independently manages the food production, ordering, guest forecasting, menu management, recipe development and entry, menu display, and related software systems (current and future). Perform systems updates, backups, and establish a disaster procedure in the event of software or web failure. Serves as the primary contact for performance of systems and troubleshoots issues with each software companies technical support. Recommends enhancements and changes to department activities to fully utilize software packages to enhance department performance and efficiencies.

Data Analysis and Reporting:

• Extract, transform, and load data into the various systems according to department needs and standards. Establish and maintain objectives, key indicators, and metrics in a dashboard format to monitor department performance and recommend improved business decisions. Review data for trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. Utilize AI systems to support and enhance the use of data and reporting. This position has a direct responsibility to reduce resource waste and tracking of the savings as a result of using dining systems and improved data based operational changes in consultation with the Campus Executive Chef and Director of Dining. Produce reports as needed and provide support to culinarians who seek additional information contained in these systems.

User support:

• Create user accounts for each system, train, and support each department end user on system functionality and usage. Creates and distributes user documentation and job aids for systems usage. Act as liaison to each software and systems company on behalf of the department.

Integration and maintenance:

• Act as the primary liaison to campus IT Offices to support enterprise integrations, SSO access for end users, PCI and other Enterprise Safety Compliance, and ensure that APIs for data exchanges are accurate and timely. Represent the Department on campus related committees related to data, IT, and AI systems. Coordinate and lead department wide committees or working groups related to key assigned functional areas.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's Degree
• 1-3 years in food production
• Menu and recipe creation and development
• Strong analytical and data management experience
• Strong leadership and organizational skills.
• Exc