Associate Vice President - Dining Solutions - Education

ARAMARK Education provides a complete range of food, facility, uniform and other support services to more than 650 K-12 school districts in the U.S. It offers public and private education institutions a family of dining and facility services including: on-site and off-site breakfast and lunch meal programs, after-school snacks, catering, nutrition education, retail design and operations, maintenance, custodial, grounds, energy management, construction management, and building commissioning.



The AVP Dining Solutions develops, implements, evaluates, and continually improves a full range of K-12 foodservice retail brand, merchandising, promotional, and nutritional programs that foster business growth, client retention, brand awareness and improved profits. The programs include our prize winning age-based dining solutions: One World Café (grades K-5), 12 spot (grades 6-8) and U.B.U. Lounge (grades 9-12), meal occasion programs like SnackFactor and Amp Up for Breakfast, promotional programs such as Fuel and Impact Jr., and our flagship nutrition program.



SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES



The AVP, Dining Solutions will be responsible for the comprehensive range of marketing activities which support the achievement of base business growth and retention objectives for the ARAMARK Education Education Division. This will include, but not be limited to:




Insights: Responsible for assembling, analyzing, and maintaining data on customer, competitor, and marketing brand/programs trends and related new products and services. Lead client, customer, and other market research projects (qualitative and quantitative) in partnership with Innovation Design Solutions' (IDS) Strategic Marketing Group


Concept Development: Develop recommendations for new brand, product, merchandising, and promotional programs and enhancements to existing products or services. Work closely with the Culinary arm of IDS as well as other external agencies to guide strategy and integrated program development. Develop measurement criteria and capability for all programs.


Program Implementation: Oversee the development of an integrated program implementation plan to insure appropriate field execution of priority marketing initiatives (on an annual and quarterly basics). Act as marketing program consultant to the field (Region Vice Presidents, District Managers, and Front Line Managers) to insure brand and program integrity during implementation.


Program and Budget Management: Insure that all activities are on strategy and within budget. Overall responsibility for clarity, consistency, and strategic integrity for all materials/programs.


Program Tracking: Work with Finance and IT departments to track, analyze and report out on performance and impact of branded marketing programs, utilizing component and location level driven data.


Public Relations/Internal Communications: Collaborate with matrixed resources in Public Relations and Internal Communications to develop and implement feature article placements, press releases, white papers, speaking engagements, client/prospect newsletters, research sponsorship, and other efforts which generate awareness and understanding about ARAMARK Education branded programs and initiatives. Provide ongoing funnel of information about successes and innovative client programs to internal publications.


Supervisory: Reporting to this position will be two Directors. In addition the Director of Menu Development will have dotted line reporting to the Dining Solutions AVP.



This position will report directly to the Vice President of Marketing, ARAMARK Education.





Primary Focus: To oversee the development and execution of base business growth initiatives for K-12 school districts including retail brands, meal part programs, promotional programs, and nutrition awareness programs.



Job Requirements


The ideal candidate will have the following professional experience and skills:




A minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible marketing experience, with a demonstrated record of success and effective performance.


Experience or demonstrated ability to work effectively in a team based environment within a heavily matrixed organization.


Strong organizational and project management skills.


Higher education, facilities, and/or services marketing experience desirable.


Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously


Working knowledge of Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) necessary.


Food service or service industry experience is a plus.


Supervisory experience





It is expected that the successful candidate will have the following personal attributes:




Strong communication skills: oral, written, presentation, and influencing, plus the ability to communicate with a wide range of people.


Solid strategic, analytical, and decision making skills


A self-starter, confident in his/her abilities, self-motivated and able to work effectively with little supervision.


A results-oriented individual who can make a difference; who takes initiative, makes things happen, accepts accountability and has a sense of urgency.


Creative and flexible in attitude and style to adapt to new situations in a rapidly changing, dynamic environment.


A strong value system, unquestioned integrity and good listening skills.



EDUCATION



The successful candidate will possess a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. A master's degree/MBA is strongly preferred.