Sous Chef Job Description — Duties, Responsibilities & Free Template

A sous chef job description defines the second-in-command position in a professional kitchen: who the role reports to, which staff it directs, what it owns during service, and what it owns off the line. This page gives you a copy-paste template you can post today, the full responsibilities list, duties broken out by shift, required skills, and what to expect at each experience level. For the role itself — what the title means, career path, and pay context — see what a sous chef is.

Copy-Paste Sous Chef Job Description Template

Drop this into your job board, careers page, or applicant tracking system. Replace the bracketed fields with your specifics.

Two fields decide whether this posting works: the direct-reports count and the pay range. Sous chef candidates screen on both before reading anything else.

Sous Chef Responsibilities

A sous chef's responsibilities split into three groups. Weight them explicitly in your posting — a kitchen where the sous chef spends most of their week on administration is a materially different job from one where they are on the line every service, and candidates who discover the difference after starting are the ones who leave first.

Service leadership

• Run the pass and control ticket flow during assigned services
• Hold plating and portion standards on every dish that leaves the kitchen
• Reassign cooks mid-service when a station falls behind
• Make the call to re-fire, hold, or 86 an item

People management

• Direct the brigade and set the tone for how the kitchen runs
• Train new hires and sign off stations before a cook works them alone
• Write BOH schedules and manage call-outs and coverage
• Deliver performance feedback and escalate to the executive chef

Cost and compliance

• Order, receive, and reconcile against invoices
• Track inventory, waste, and variance against food cost targets
• Keep HACCP, temperature, and sanitation records audit-ready
• Enforce allergen protocol and cross-contamination controls

Sous Chef Duties by Station and Shift

Specifying which of these blocks the role covers is the single biggest improvement most sous chef postings can make. A candidate reading "AM prep and ordering, no PM service" is applying for a different job than one reading "PM service lead, five nights."

Opening / AM block

• Walk the coolers, check temperatures, log readings
• Review the book and adjust prep quantities to forecast covers
• Issue prep lists by station and assign prep cooks
• Receive deliveries, check quality and counts, reconcile invoices
• Place orders against par levels for the next delivery window

Pre-service block

• Line check every station against par and quality standard
• Run family meal and the pre-service brief: 86s, specials, VIPs, large parties
• Confirm staffing for the service and cover any gaps

Service block

• Expedite or work a station, depending on volume and staffing
• Quality-check plates at the pass and correct before they leave
• Manage ticket times and communicate delays to front of house
• Handle allergen and modification tickets personally

Closing / PM block

• Direct breakdown, deep clean, and station reset
• Log waste, record end-of-night counts, note variance
• Write the handover for the next day's opening chef
• Secure the kitchen and complete closing compliance checks

Required Skills and Qualifications

Technical

• Competence on every station your menu runs, not just their strongest
• Recipe and spec discipline — the sous chef is the consistency control
• Butchery, sauce work, or pastry depth as your menu demands
• Food cost literacy: yields, portioning, waste, and variance

Leadership

• Direct communication under pressure without losing the room
• Ability to correct a cook mid-service and keep them working
• Scheduling and labour-budget judgement
• Willingness to hold standards when it is easier not to

Credentials

• Food handler certification as a baseline; ServSafe Manager or equivalent for kitchens where the sous chef is the certified person in charge
• Allergen training where your jurisdiction requires it
• Culinary school is common but not a requirement — station experience predicts performance better

Experience Levels and What to Expect

Match the level to your kitchen. Requiring more than the operation needs slows the search without improving the hire.

If your posting describes chef de cuisine scope under a sous chef title and pay band, expect a long search. That mismatch is one of the most common reasons a sous chef role sits open.

What to Include in a Sous Chef Job Posting

• Reporting line and brigade size — who they report to, how many staff they direct
• Cover count and service style — the clearest signal of whether the kitchen matches their capacity
• Shift pattern — AM, PM, or mixed, and how many weekend services
• Service-to-admin split — roughly how much of the week is on the line
• Pay range — a real range, not "competitive"
• Certification requirements and whether you will fund them
• Physical requirements — shift length, lifting, heat exposure
• Progression — whether the role leads to chef de cuisine or executive chef
• Application instructions and a realistic response timeline

The Hiring Reality — and the Faster Path

A sous chef search takes four to eight weeks in most markets, and the kitchen still has to run through all of it. What usually breaks first is not the sous chef work itself — it is the line cook and prep coverage the vacant sous chef was quietly absorbing, and the executive chef burning their week covering both.

The practical move is to protect the brigade underneath while you run the search properly. DishwasherHero places vetted W-2 line cooks, prep cooks, and dish staff with same-day confirmation across 30+ cities, which keeps the stations covered so the permanent sous chef hire can be made on fit rather than on urgency.