OPT Food Service Director Jobs
Food Service Director jobs are available to F-1 OPT students with degrees in hospitality management, food science, nutrition, or dietetics. Most roles qualify as specialty occupations, supporting H-1B visa sponsorship after OPT. Your 12-month OPT window (or 24-month STEM extension with an eligible degree) gives you time to prove your value and secure long-term sponsorship.
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Get Access To All JobsCOMPENSATION
- The pay range is $73,000.00 - $132,000.00
Pay is based on several factors which vary based on position. These include labor markets and in some instances may include education, work experience and certifications. In addition to your pay, Target cares about and invests in you as a team member, so that you can take care of yourself and your family. Target offers eligible team members and their dependents comprehensive health benefits and programs, which may include medical, vision, dental, life insurance and more, to help you and your family take care of your whole selves. Other benefits for eligible team members include 401(k), employee discount, short term disability, long term disability, paid sick leave, paid national holidays, and paid vacation. Find competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at https://corporate.target.com/careers/benefits.
ALL ABOUT TARGET
Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.
ALL ABOUT FOOD AND BEVERAGE
You support all aspects of a profitable food and beverage business that has one purpose: to help all families discover the joy of everyday life.
You utilize your industry knowledge to influence store leaders to execute food and beverage strategies and processes in store.
You coach and train store leaders to become experts of their areas to consistently deliver sales growth through a clean, fresh and rewarding experience for their teams and guests.
You elevate the Target brand across food by providing market level expertise to execute and amplify key seasons, holidays, and events.
At Target we believe in our team members having meaningful experiences that help them build and develop skills for a career. The role of a Food & Beverage Coordinator can provide you with the skills and experiences of:
- Guest service fundamentals and experience building a freshness and reliability culture in food and beverage areas across a multi-unit market of stores
- Food and beverage business fundamentals, including department sales trends, freshness, food safety and quality, inventory management, product and service reliability, guest shopping patterns, pricing and promotions strategies
- Awareness of competitors; leveraging guest insights to influence store leadership and food teams to drive business initiatives
- Influencing in-store food and beverage processes and leverage food expertise to support business priorities and deliver on sales goals
- Assessing daily business performance and provide store leaders guidance to drive efficiencies in food and beverage departments through in-store walks
- Learning how to prepare for and help stores execute holiday and event plans in a competitive retail environment to build on year over year growth
As a Food & Beverage Coordinator, you are responsible for the business performance of your respective districts in your market. These responsibilities include:
- Support operations, strategies, and food processes in assigned stores by coaching, teaching, and training.
- Partner with field and store leadership, Store Operations, Merchandising, and other stakeholder groups to support and advocate for projects to champion food and grow profitable sales.
- Evaluate, educate, and improve store conditions, guest experience, operational efficiency, waste reduction, and profitable sales through expertise.
- Leverage reporting to evaluate performance in sales, markdowns, inventory productivity, food safety, and other measures.
- Maintain industry knowledge and market trends by benchmarking competitor pricing, promotions, merchandising practices, and processes.
- Utilize innovation, critical thinking, communication, and store partnership to understand and influence future seasons and events with your insight and expertise.
- Represent stores and food operations in advocating for locally requested food items the guest is looking for, including new items, holiday merchandising, and competitor merchandising benchmarking.
- Influence and provide thoughtful feedback to key store and field partners (Team Leaders, ETLs, SDs, and district leadership).
- Utilize your industry knowledge to influence store leaders to execute food and beverage strategies and processes in store.
- Lead and create a service culture utilizing tools and routines that model, train, and coach behavioral expectations to deliver the service standard.
- Ensure execution through detailed training and education of store leadership teams and food and beverage experts, including ordering and managing inventory and supplies, merchandising, freshness, food safety, sampling, and other store-controlled processes.
- Support guest service and profitable sales by assisting stores with guest-centric scheduling and training.
- Encourage and deliver a fresh and safe experience through reinforcing food safety processes, training teams to integrate food safety, product rotation, cleaning and sanitation, and freshness into everyday processes.
- Partner with Stores and Direct Store Delivery (DSD) Vendors to drive DSD sales through on-shelf availability and operational efficiency.
- Partner with Starbucks and Pizza Hut field leaders to drive sales through guiding brand standard execution and operational efficiencies.
- Maintain compliance with policies and procedures defined by all regulatory agencies.
- Challenge teams to develop staffing and contingency plans that ensure coverage and maintain production and service capabilities.
- Demonstrate a culture of ethical conduct, safety, and compliance; lead team to work in the same way and hold others accountable to this commitment.
- Support Target’s safety culture through modeling and recognizing safe behaviors, empowering store leaders to correct and/or escalate hazards, and holding team accountable to safety policies, best practices, and training.
- Demonstrate inclusivity by valuing diverse voices and approaches, being authentic and respectful, and creating equitable experiences.
- All other duties based on business needs.
The good news is that we have some amazing training that will help teach you everything you need to know to be a Food & Beverage Coordinator. But there are a few skills you should have from the get-go:
- 4-year degree or equivalent experience
- 3+ years of food and beverage experience
- Proven execution skills and ability to drive change
- Operate in an ambiguous and rapidly changing work environment
- Quickly adapt to changing priorities and tasks
- Project and process management/ownership experience
- Work in high intensity situations with composure and ease
- Solution-based mindset with desire to uncover business gaps and solve problems
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
- Build strong partnerships with key partners
We are an awesome place to work and care about our teams, so we want to make sure we are clear on a few more basics that we expect:
- Experience leading stores or supporting field organization
- Training experience
- Supervisory experience
- Strong leadership and influencing skills
- Should live in or within driving distance of assigned district market area
- Must be able to travel in assigned district market area
Target will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the San Francisco and City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinances.
Benefits Eligibility
Please paste this url into your preferred browser to learn about benefits eligibility for this role: https://tgt.biz/BenefitsForYou_D
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
In compliance with state and federal laws, Target will make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please reach out to candidate.accommodations@HRHelp.Target.com. Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed through this channel.
COMPENSATION
- The pay range is $73,000.00 - $132,000.00
Pay is based on several factors which vary based on position. These include labor markets and in some instances may include education, work experience and certifications. In addition to your pay, Target cares about and invests in you as a team member, so that you can take care of yourself and your family. Target offers eligible team members and their dependents comprehensive health benefits and programs, which may include medical, vision, dental, life insurance and more, to help you and your family take care of your whole selves. Other benefits for eligible team members include 401(k), employee discount, short term disability, long term disability, paid sick leave, paid national holidays, and paid vacation. Find competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at https://corporate.target.com/careers/benefits.
ALL ABOUT TARGET
Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.
ALL ABOUT FOOD AND BEVERAGE
You support all aspects of a profitable food and beverage business that has one purpose: to help all families discover the joy of everyday life.
You utilize your industry knowledge to influence store leaders to execute food and beverage strategies and processes in store.
You coach and train store leaders to become experts of their areas to consistently deliver sales growth through a clean, fresh and rewarding experience for their teams and guests.
You elevate the Target brand across food by providing market level expertise to execute and amplify key seasons, holidays, and events.
At Target we believe in our team members having meaningful experiences that help them build and develop skills for a career. The role of a Food & Beverage Coordinator can provide you with the skills and experiences of:
- Guest service fundamentals and experience building a freshness and reliability culture in food and beverage areas across a multi-unit market of stores
- Food and beverage business fundamentals, including department sales trends, freshness, food safety and quality, inventory management, product and service reliability, guest shopping patterns, pricing and promotions strategies
- Awareness of competitors; leveraging guest insights to influence store leadership and food teams to drive business initiatives
- Influencing in-store food and beverage processes and leverage food expertise to support business priorities and deliver on sales goals
- Assessing daily business performance and provide store leaders guidance to drive efficiencies in food and beverage departments through in-store walks
- Learning how to prepare for and help stores execute holiday and event plans in a competitive retail environment to build on year over year growth
As a Food & Beverage Coordinator, you are responsible for the business performance of your respective districts in your market. These responsibilities include:
- Support operations, strategies, and food processes in assigned stores by coaching, teaching, and training.
- Partner with field and store leadership, Store Operations, Merchandising, and other stakeholder groups to support and advocate for projects to champion food and grow profitable sales.
- Evaluate, educate, and improve store conditions, guest experience, operational efficiency, waste reduction, and profitable sales through expertise.
- Leverage reporting to evaluate performance in sales, markdowns, inventory productivity, food safety, and other measures.
- Maintain industry knowledge and market trends by benchmarking competitor pricing, promotions, merchandising practices, and processes.
- Utilize innovation, critical thinking, communication, and store partnership to understand and influence future seasons and events with your insight and expertise.
- Represent stores and food operations in advocating for locally requested food items the guest is looking for, including new items, holiday merchandising, and competitor merchandising benchmarking.
- Influence and provide thoughtful feedback to key store and field partners (Team Leaders, ETLs, SDs, and district leadership).
- Utilize your industry knowledge to influence store leaders to execute food and beverage strategies and processes in store.
- Lead and create a service culture utilizing tools and routines that model, train, and coach behavioral expectations to deliver the service standard.
- Ensure execution through detailed training and education of store leadership teams and food and beverage experts, including ordering and managing inventory and supplies, merchandising, freshness, food safety, sampling, and other store-controlled processes.
- Support guest service and profitable sales by assisting stores with guest-centric scheduling and training.
- Encourage and deliver a fresh and safe experience through reinforcing food safety processes, training teams to integrate food safety, product rotation, cleaning and sanitation, and freshness into everyday processes.
- Partner with Stores and Direct Store Delivery (DSD) Vendors to drive DSD sales through on-shelf availability and operational efficiency.
- Partner with Starbucks and Pizza Hut field leaders to drive sales through guiding brand standard execution and operational efficiencies.
- Maintain compliance with policies and procedures defined by all regulatory agencies.
- Challenge teams to develop staffing and contingency plans that ensure coverage and maintain production and service capabilities.
- Demonstrate a culture of ethical conduct, safety, and compliance; lead team to work in the same way and hold others accountable to this commitment.
- Support Target’s safety culture through modeling and recognizing safe behaviors, empowering store leaders to correct and/or escalate hazards, and holding team accountable to safety policies, best practices, and training.
- Demonstrate inclusivity by valuing diverse voices and approaches, being authentic and respectful, and creating equitable experiences.
- All other duties based on business needs.
The good news is that we have some amazing training that will help teach you everything you need to know to be a Food & Beverage Coordinator. But there are a few skills you should have from the get-go:
- 4-year degree or equivalent experience
- 3+ years of food and beverage experience
- Proven execution skills and ability to drive change
- Operate in an ambiguous and rapidly changing work environment
- Quickly adapt to changing priorities and tasks
- Project and process management/ownership experience
- Work in high intensity situations with composure and ease
- Solution-based mindset with desire to uncover business gaps and solve problems
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
- Build strong partnerships with key partners
We are an awesome place to work and care about our teams, so we want to make sure we are clear on a few more basics that we expect:
- Experience leading stores or supporting field organization
- Training experience
- Supervisory experience
- Strong leadership and influencing skills
- Should live in or within driving distance of assigned district market area
- Must be able to travel in assigned district market area
Target will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the San Francisco and City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinances.
Benefits Eligibility
Please paste this url into your preferred browser to learn about benefits eligibility for this role: https://tgt.biz/BenefitsForYou_D
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
In compliance with state and federal laws, Target will make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please reach out to candidate.accommodations@HRHelp.Target.com. Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed through this channel.
See all 372+ OPT Food Service Director Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new OPT Food Service Director Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding OPT Sponsorship in Food Service Director
Target employers with existing H-1B sponsorship history
Hospital systems, university dining programs, and large contract food service companies like Aramark and Compass Group have established immigration processes. These employers are far more likely to sponsor an H-1B visa after your OPT period ends than independent restaurants or small operators.
Confirm your degree supports a specialty occupation claim
Food Service Director roles typically require a bachelor's degree in hospitality management, nutrition, dietetics, or food science. A general business degree may weaken your H-1B petition. Match your degree field to the employer's job description before applying to strengthen your sponsorship case.
Apply early to protect your OPT timeline
Food service hiring cycles often align with fiscal quarters or contract renewals. Applying three to four months before your OPT start date gives employers time to evaluate you and begin LCA filing before your authorization window becomes a concern for their HR team.
Get your STEM OPT extension if your degree qualifies
Degrees in food science, nutrition science, or dietetics may qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension, giving you 36 months total. This nearly doubles your runway before an H-1B is needed and significantly reduces employer urgency around the sponsorship timeline.
Address OPT directly in interviews with institutional employers
Healthcare networks, university dining, and corporate cafeteria operators often have HR teams familiar with sponsorship. Frame your OPT status as a defined timeline rather than an obstacle. Clarifying your work authorization upfront avoids late-stage surprises and builds trust with compliance-oriented hiring managers.
Highlight operational scope and compliance experience in your application
Employers evaluating sponsorship cost weigh whether a candidate is hard to replace. Emphasize budget oversight, food safety certifications like ServSafe, team management scale, and regulatory compliance experience. These credentials reinforce the specialty occupation argument that supports a successful H-1B petition later.
Food Service Director OPT: Frequently Asked Questions
Do Food Service Director roles qualify as H-1B specialty occupations?
Most Food Service Director positions qualify when the role requires a specific bachelor's degree in hospitality management, nutrition, dietetics, or food science. The key is the job description: if it requires theoretical and practical application of a specialized field rather than general management skills, USCIS is likely to approve it as a specialty occupation. Generic management titles without a degree requirement can create problems.
Can I work as a Food Service Director on OPT right after graduation?
Yes, if the role is directly related to your degree field. A hospitality management graduate working as a Food Service Director in a hospital, university, or contract dining setting has a clear connection. A food science graduate managing a production facility is similarly well-positioned. The connection between your degree and the job duties needs to be demonstrable, not assumed.
Where can I find Food Service Director jobs that are open to OPT students?
Migrate Mate is built specifically for F-1 OPT students and filters jobs by sponsorship willingness, saving you from applying to employers who won't work with your visa status. Institutional employers in healthcare, higher education, and corporate dining are the most reliable segment to focus on, as they typically have HR infrastructure for sponsorship.
Does a food science or nutrition degree qualify for the STEM OPT extension in this field?
It depends on the specific CIP code your program falls under. Food science (CIP 01.1001) and nutrition science programs with a STEM designation do qualify. Hospitality management degrees typically do not. Check your university's designation before factoring a 24-month extension into your job search timeline, since the difference materially affects how urgently employers need to begin H-1B sponsorship.
What types of employers are most likely to sponsor a Food Service Director for an H-1B?
Hospital systems, university dining departments, and large contract food service companies with established legal and HR teams are the strongest candidates. These organizations sponsor H-1B workers regularly and understand the process. Independent restaurant groups and small catering operations rarely sponsor because the cost and administrative complexity outweigh the benefit for a single hire.