Sous Chef

Background

UN City Copenhagen Campus 1 opened in 2013 and houses 1,600 employees from over 100 countries working in 10 different agencies. The UN City Common Services (CS) delivers operational support services within UN City including canteen, cafe and catering services, building maintenance, cleaning, communications, driving, fitness center management, IT helpdesk, mail services, medical support, meetings and events services, and reception.

The kitchen is dedicated to delivering a premier culinary experience, with a primary focus on plant-based offers, throughout the in-house canteen, café, and catering service. The aim is to spearhead a culinary journey which necessitates effective communication, close teamwork and robust engagement with both internal staff and visitors. The canteen offers a daily menu of two main dishes and one side dish (for an average of 430 people per day) - personally plated/served by our chefs.

The Café serves a freshly baked selection of breakfast and lunch items with special consideration for organic, seasonal, and regional produce.

For the event and catering section, seasonal Menus are offered during the year, structurally different and custom-made to satisfy customers' needs and requests.

UN City canteen, café and catering services are operated as one unit under the Un City Common Services. The Kitchen Operations and Sustainability Manager leads the kitchen team, with the support of two Sous Chefs. The kitchen team comprises 5 chefs, 2 kitchen assistants, and 3 dishwashers.

Scope of Work

UN City kitchen is today in search of an experienced Sous Chef to co-lead the team under the supervision of the Kitchen Operation and Sustainability Manager. A creative trained individual who is passionate about the job, a true team player with high quality Someone with a genuine interest in sustainability and responsible cooking, who could introduce innovative flavors, exhibit high motivation, and passion to the team.

In a dynamic and international work environment, the position offers:

• A five-day working week (Monday to Friday) of 40 hours per week (½ hour lunch break excluded), mainly between 7:00-15:30, with occasional evening shifts required to meet business needs.
• Full-time contract with a competitive tax-free salary,
• 6 weeks earned vacations per year + 10 days UN holidays,
• Health insurance

Among other responsibilities this will be the focus for the Sous Chef:

• Co-lead and support kitchen team during the daily operation with the support of the Kitchen Operation and Sustainability Manager.
• Daily engage in planning and preparing the food with the team.
• Implement new recipes through a sustainable approach where up cycling and circular food systems play a significant role, while assisting the kitchen team in menu creation.
• Coordinate and support kitchen team with purchase optimization and ordering, by keeping detailed records and minimizing waste, while working with existing systems to improve food waste/loss reduction.
• Manage budgetary concerns concerning food-cost and equipment purchase optimization.
• Supervises all food preparation and presentation to ensure quality and high gastronomic standards.
• Lead kitchen team on overseeing and organizing kitchen stock and ingredients and set-up daily operation procedures.
• Ensures a first-in, first-out food rotation system and verifies all food products are properly dated and organized for quality assurance; assists the team in maintaining a clean and efficient kitchen.
• Train new kitchen employees to kitchen standards, SOP, and introducing kitchen framework.
• Follow the internal sustainability principles and implement the same with the kitchen team.
• Work on planning and implementing social dinner events with guests from different UN agencies.
• Be a team player that takes pride in making sure the team delivers the best possible outcome with high wellbeing standards.
• Be open to communicating and focusing on customers’ needs, while managing direct contacts between kitchen team and customers.

Working at the UN City requires an ability to display cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability, as well as working with ethics and integrity.

Competencies

Business management - Communication: Ability to communicate in a clear, concise, and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.

UN Policy Ethics - UN policy knowledge - ethics: Knowledge and understanding of the UN staff regulations and rules and other policies relating to ethics and integrity

Core Competencies

Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible

Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Minimum Qualifications of the Successful candidate

Min. Education requirements

• Secondary education/High school degree.

Min. years of relevant work experience

• Minimum 7 years’ relevant experience from restaurant and/or commercial kitchens.
• Minimum 3 years’ experience as similar or higher position.

Required skills

• Culinary skills from restaurants, canteens, or hotels.
• Be interested in sustainability and responsible cooking.
• Teamwork and excellent communication skills.
• Excellent knowledge of daily kitchen operations tasks (Mep, menu creation, cleaning procedures, ordering, stock control, etc.).
• Proven management skills

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section

• Previous experience in an international environment
• Baking and patisserie skills and/or previous experience.
• Proven track record of high service standards, hospitality experience.

Required Language(s)

• Fluency in English, written and spoken
• knowledge of Danish is an asset

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

CV and Cover letter must need to be in English and submitted on Jobindex.

Practical info

Starting Date: 01 March 2026

Apply Before: 27/01/26

Job Schedule: Full time

Apply with QuickApply on Jobindex.