Recent Listing

Posted: December 31, 2025 (14 days ago)

This job has been posted for 1-2 weeks. Still a good time to apply.

Food Services Specialist (Assistant Food Service Administrator)

Justice, Bureau of Prisons/Federal Prison System

Department of Justice

Recent

Salary

$76,017 - $98,817

per year

Closes

January 23, 2026

Job Description

Summary

This job involves helping run the food service operations in a federal prison, including planning meals, managing budgets, ensuring food safety, and handling special diets for inmates.

You'll step in to lead the team when the main administrator is away and must always prioritize prison security.

It's a good fit for someone with experience in large-scale food preparation and a strong sense of organization and safety in a high-stakes environment.

Key Requirements

  • One year of specialized experience in preparing and serving food in large quantities, such as supervising mass meal production
  • Ph.D., equivalent doctoral degree, or 3 years of graduate education in a related field demonstrating relevant knowledge and skills
  • Experience supervising food preparation, ensuring compliance with cooking principles, and maintaining food quality, consistency, and temperature
  • Knowledge of planning menus and specialized diets for regular, medical, and religious needs
  • Ability to manage budgets, establish sanitation, safety, and security standards in a correctional setting
  • Supervisory experience in dining room operations and monitoring efficient food service workflows
  • Commitment to institutional security responsibilities, which take precedence over other duties

Full Job Description

Corrections professionals who foster a humane and secure environment and ensure public safety by preparing individuals for successful reentry into our communities.

To be considered for the position, you must meet the following qualification requirements: Education: Ph.D.

or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related.

Graduate education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position.

OR Experience: You must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the next lower grade level.

To be creditable, this experience must have equipped the applicant with the particular qualifications to successfully perform the duties of the position, and must typically be in or related to the position to be filled.

Qualifying specialized experience must have involved preparing and serving food in mass quantities for large groups of people.

Some examples of this qualifying experience are: Experience in supervising food preparation, securing compliance with the best cooking and baking principles, ensuring that food is palatable, presentable, of proper consistency and temperature, and that quantities are sufficient to feed all inmates within budgetary guidelines.

Experience in supervising dining room operations and monitoring proper timing and preparation of foods so that the counters are set up and the work proceeds in an orderly manner.

Experience in planning and developing specialized activities of the food service program for regular, medical and religious diets.

Experience in establishing the highest possible safety and sanitary procedures in food preparation. OR Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience.

This experience must have equipped you with the qualifications to perform the major duties of this position as described above. If applicable, credit will be given for paid and unpaid experience.

To receive proper credit, you must show the actual time (such as the number of hours worked per week) spent in activities.

**Your eligibility for consideration will be based on your responses to the questions in the application.** Major Duties:

Serves as a full assistant to the Food Service Administrator and is in complete charge of the institution's food service operations during the administrator's absence.

Assists in planning, controlling, and evaluating the department operations such as managing budget resources for anticipated and atypical expenses for the Food Service Department, establishing standards of sanitation, safety and security, developing menus and evaluating inmate acceptance of food quantity and quality.

Plans and develops the specialized activities of the food program for inmates on regular, medical, and religious diets.

Along with all other correctional institution employees, incumbent is charged with responsibility for maintaining security of the institution.

The staffs correctional responsibilities precede all others required by this position and are performed on a regular and recurring basis.

Check your resume before applying to catch common mistakes

Browse Similar Jobs

Posted on USAJOBS: 12/31/2025 | Added to FreshGovJobs: 1/1/2026

Source: USAJOBS | ID: SCR-2026-0078