Services Afri 9in Limited is a diversified company operating across different sectors, currently major in Hospitality, Consumer Goods, and Oil & Gas. In the hospitality sector, the company operates a lounge, eatery, and unisex salon, providing quality services and a welcoming experience for its customers. In the consumer goods sector, the company engages in retail and wholesale trade through its supermarket & village market operations, supplying a wide range of products to meet customers’ everyday needs. The company is also involved in the oil and gas sector. Services Afri 9in Ltd is committed to delivering quality products and services, maintaining high standards of professionalism, and ensuring customer satisfaction.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head, Food Production & Kitchen Operations

Location: Benin City, Edo
Employment Type: Full-time; structured probation and performance-based confirmation
Primary Location: KEV’S Place & More, Benin City, Edo State; responsibility across assigned kitchens
Reports to: Operations Manager / Chief Operating Officer
Business: Afri-9 Group / KEV’S Hospitality Operations
Department: Value Creation & Value Delivery Department – Food Production & Kitchen Operations Unit
Reports to: Operations Manager; functional accountability to the Chief Operating Officer
Functional Interfaces: Finance, Data Analysis, Procurement, Store/Warehouse, HR/Administration, Marketing & Sales, Customer Service, Facility Management, Security/HSE
Direct Reports: Unit Head Chefs, Kitchen/Shift Supervisors, Grill Lead, Eatery Lead, Cooks, Kitchen Assistants, Stewards and other assigned food-production personnel
Document Status: Controlled Recruitment and Role Document – Foundation Issue 1.0

Job Summary

• Afri-9 Group is seeking a disciplined, commercially minded, and hands-on Head, Food Production & Kitchen Operations to provide institutional leadership and operational control across KEV’S Eatery, Lounge Restaurant, Grill Kitchen and any future food-production units assigned by management.
• The successful candidate will build and enforce one integrated food-production system covering menu planning, approved recipes, portion and yield control, food costing, stock usage, hygiene, people, equipment, service speed and customer experience.
• The role requires a leader who can combine culinary understanding with operational discipline, commercial judgement and accurate reporting

Responsibilities

• Head daily operations, production planning, staff deployment, service readiness and close-out across all assigned kitchens.
• Standardise menus, recipes, portions, yields, presentation, production times and kitchen work methods.
• Control food cost, ingredient usage, waste, spoilage, complimentary items, staff meals and kitchen variances.
• Enforce food-safety, personal-hygiene, cleaning, storage, temperature, pest-control and contamination-prevention standards.
• Coordinate purchasing forecasts, store issues, ingredient quality, stock availability and supplier-related exceptions with Procurement, Store and Finance.
• Lead, train, coach and assess chefs, cooks, grill personnel, kitchen assistants, stewards and unit supervisors.
• Produce accurate daily, weekly and monthly reports on production, food cost, quality, hygiene, people, equipment and customer outcomes.

Candidate Profile

• Minimum five years of practical kitchen, restaurant, catering or food-production experience, including at least two years leading teams or coordinating more than one kitchen or service unit.
• Strong knowledge of menu planning, recipe standardisation, food costing, stock control, hygiene, kitchen equipment and multi-kitchen coordination.
• Demonstrable ability to improve food quality, service speed, cost control, staff discipline, kitchen readiness and customer satisfaction.
• High integrity, leadership maturity, commercial judgement, reporting discipline and the ability to build systems and train operational teams.

Job Description / Role Profile & Institutional Mandate
Role Purpose:

• To establish, lead and continuously improve a safe, disciplined, customer-focused and profitable food-production and kitchen-operations system across KEV’S Eatery, Lounge Restaurant, Grill Kitchen and future assigned units, ensuring that every dish is produced to the approved recipe, portion, quality, time, hygiene and cost standard.

Business Context:

• Afri-9 Group currently operates in Oil and Gas, Hospitality, and Consumer Goods Retail and Wholesale. Within Hospitality, the Head, Food Production & Kitchen Operations is the accountable leader for all assigned kitchens and must coordinate production, people, ingredients, equipment, service handover, customer feedback, and financial records as one integrated operating system.

Required Outcomes

Authority and Boundaries:

• May recommend menu items, recipes, portions, production methods, staffing arrangements, equipment, kitchen layouts and process improvements.
• May stop food production or service where there is immediate hygiene, contamination, fire, gas, electrical, equipment or customer-safety risk.
• May reject substandard ingredients, incorrect store issues or finished products that fail the approved standard.
• May not approve personal procurement, supplier payment, price changes, discounts, complimentary items, refunds or financial adjustments outside delegated authority.
• May not conceal waste, shortages, customer complaints, incidents, equipment failure, staff misconduct or food-safety exceptions.

Operating Doctrine:

• Right menu. Right recipe. Right portion. Right quality. Right time. Right cost. Right record.
• The role operates under Publication ENIL-000. No kitchen process is complete until the food, stock, waste, customer outcome, equipment condition, incident record, and financial interface have been reconciled.

Principal Duties & Daily Operating Responsibilities
Principal Responsibilities
Multi-Kitchen Leadership and Coordination

• Provide institutional leadership and operational ownership of the Eatery, Lounge Restaurant and Grill Kitchen as one coordinated food-production network.
• Set daily production plans, preparation lists, shift deployment, service priorities, handover requirements, and closing responsibilities for every assigned kitchen.
• Conduct or verify kitchen opening, peak-service, shift-handover and closing checks.
• Coordinate events, weekends, promotions, group bookings and high-volume periods with Operations, Marketing & Sales, Customer Service and Finance.
• Ensure that no kitchen operates as an isolated unit or transfers shortages, delays or unresolved problems to another team without documented handover.

Menu, Recipe and Product Standardisation:

• Build and maintain controlled recipes, ingredient specifications, portions, yields, cooking methods, service times and presentation guides for all approved menu items.
• Use only approved product names, ingredients, brands, substitutes, pack sizes, selling descriptions and service standards.
• Conduct controlled menu trials and recommend whether products should be launched, improved, repriced, paused or withdrawn.
• Maintain clear allergen, special-order and customer-preference information where applicable to the menu and operating context.

Production Planning and Service Readiness:

• Forecast demand using sales history, reservations, events, season, daypart, stock position, marketing activity and current customer demand.
• Confirm ingredients, utilities, equipment, staff, cleaning materials, packaging, service ware, and workstations before production begins.
• Coordinate mise en place, batch sizes, hot and cold holding, replenishment and service handover to prevent delay and overproduction.
• Maintain an approved backup plan for critical ingredient, equipment, power, water or staffing disruption.

Food Quality and Order Accuracy:

• Inspect incoming ingredients, in-process production and finished food for quality, freshness, temperature, portion, appearance and safety.
• Ensure every order is matched to the correct customer, table, service point or delivery instruction before release.
• Record and investigate returns, remakes, quality failures, complaints, delayed orders and repeated service errors.

Food Cost, Portion, Waste and Yield Control:

• Maintain approved portion tools, batch yields, recipe costs and kitchen usage standards.
• Record production, issues, usage, leftovers, returns, staff meals, complimentary items, spoilage, damage and waste at source.
• Investigate food-cost, yield and stock variances and implement corrective action with Finance, Store and Data Analysis.
• Recommend menu engineering, portion, process or purchasing changes where evidence shows margin weakness or avoidable loss.

Job Description | Control, People, Safety & Performance
Inventory, Store and Procurement Interface:

• Prepare demand forecasts and approved requisitions based on menu, production plan, opening stock, expected sales and supplier lead time.
• Verify ingredient quantity, specification, quality, expiry, temperature and condition before acceptance into kitchen custody.
• Enforce FIFO/FEFO, proper labelling, date control, storage separation, secure custody and authorised issuing.
• Participate in daily counts, cycle counts and month-end stock reconciliation; explain kitchen-related variances.
• Do not make uncontrolled supplier commitments or use unapproved ingredients because of poor planning.

Food Safety, Hygiene and Regulatory Compliance:

• Implement cleaning and sanitation schedules, personal-hygiene rules, handwashing, protective clothing and safe food-handling practices.
• Control raw/cooked food separation, temperature, cross-contamination, water, waste, grease, pest and chemical-storage risks.
• Keep required cleaning, temperature, incident, pest-control and corrective-action records complete and available for inspection.
• Immediately isolate unsafe food, stop affected production and escalate suspected contamination, illness, gas leak, fire or serious safety risk.

People Leadership, Deployment and Training:

• Prepare duty rosters, assign stations, monitor attendance, conduct briefings and confirm shift handovers.
• Train and assess chefs, cooks, grill staff, assistants, stewards and unit supervisors on recipes, equipment, hygiene, customer standards and source records.
• Coach underperformance, recognise strong work, document misconduct or competence gaps and recommend appropriate action through HR and Operations.
• Build cross-training and succession so critical kitchen knowledge does not remain with one person.

Equipment, Maintenance and Utilities:

• Maintain a kitchen-equipment register, cleaning plan, operator checklist and preventive-maintenance schedule.
• Report faults early, isolate unsafe equipment and coordinate approved repairs with Maintenance and technical service providers.
• Monitor gas, electricity, water, refrigeration, extraction, drainage and fire-safety readiness; prevent waste and unsafe improvisation.

Service Delivery, Customer Experience and Reporting:

• Coordinate with front-line service teams so orders, timing, table references, special requests and customer feedback are clearly handed over and resolved.
• Own the kitchen response to food-quality complaints and provide factual correction, replacement or escalation within approved authority.
• Submit daily, weekly and monthly reports covering production, food cost, stock, waste, staff, complaints, incidents, equipment, menu performance and recommendations.

Performance Scorecard

Initial standards are subject to confirmation after the baseline kitchen audit and management approval
Job Description | Reporting, Person Specification & Appointment Controls
Reporting Cadence:

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree, HND, diploma or recognised professional qualification in Hospitality Management, Culinary Arts, Catering, Food Science, Hotel Management, Business/Operations or a related discipline.
• Minimum five years of relevant kitchen, restaurant, catering or food-production experience, including at least two years in a supervisory, head-chef, production-lead or multi-unit role.
• Practical experience in menu planning, recipe standardisation, food costing, stock control, staff deployment, hygiene and customer-service coordination.
• Competence with Microsoft Excel, POS/ERP or inventory systems, production records and management reporting.
• Food-safety, HACCP, culinary, hospitality or operations-management certification is an advantage but does not replace proven practical competence.

Required Technical Competence:

Behavioural Competencies:

• Integrity and transparency: does not conceal shortages, waste, incidents, failures or staff-performance issues.
• Commercial judgement: balances quality, service, food cost, capacity and customer value.
• Leadership discipline: plans ahead, supervises firmly, trains patiently and applies standards consistently.
• Calm execution: maintains control during peak periods, complaints, shortages and operational disruption.
• Communication: gives clear instructions and explains kitchen performance simply to operational and executive stakeholders.
• Customer orientation: protects food quality, dignity, responsiveness and service recovery.
• Resilience and ownership: works effectively in a fast-moving, multi-kitchen hospitality environment.

First 90-Day Deliverables:

• Complete a baseline audit of all assigned kitchens, menus, staff, equipment, hygiene, stock, customer complaints and source records.
• Standardise priority recipes, portions, yields, presentation, production instructions and kitchen handovers.
• Establish daily production, waste, stock, hygiene, maintenance, service-handover and close-out controls.
• Set approved food-cost, waste-reduction, kitchen-readiness, order-accuracy and service-performance baselines with Finance and Data Analysis.
• Train and assess kitchen personnel; submit a capability, staffing, cross-training and succession plan.
• Present a 90-day Food Production & Kitchen Operations improvement report with results, risks, cost impact and next-stage recommendations.

Job Description | Recruitment, Governance & Approval
Appointment and Performance Conditions

• Appointment is subject to satisfactory verification of identity, qualifications, employment history, references and integrity checks.
• The initial period will include a structured baseline kitchen audit, documented improvement programme and performance review.
• Confirmation is performance-based and subject to approved probation terms, measurable KPIs, conduct and reporting quality.
• The role may require early resumption, late closing, weekend, public-holiday and event coverage according to approved rosters.
• The role may work across all assigned KEV’S kitchens, food-production areas and future hospitality locations.
• Employment terms remain subject to the written offer, contract, approved company policy and applicable law.

Non-Negotiable Conduct:

• No falsification, food substitution, unauthorised recipe change, backdating, stock adjustment or concealment of waste, shortages or contamination.
• No personal supplier arrangement, kickback, undisclosed commission, conflict of interest or private purchase commitment.
• No unauthorised free food, staff meal, discount, refund, portion change, takeaway, stock issue or disposal.
• No use of expired, unsafe, rejected, contaminated or unapproved ingredients.
• No harassment, violence, intoxication, retaliation, humiliation or unsafe conduct in the kitchen or service environment.
• No sharing of confidential recipes, supplier information, costing, customer or operating information without authority.
• No retaliation against employees who report genuine hygiene, safety, fraud, stock, customer or regulatory concerns.

Salary
N280,000 – N350,000 per month.

Application Closing Date
5th November, 2026.