Swarthmore College is a highly selective liberal arts college located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, whose mission combines academic rigor with social responsibility. Swarthmore has a strong institutional commitment to inclusive excellence and nondiscrimination in its educational program and employment practices and encourages candidates who will further advance the goal of fostering a diverse and inclusive community. As one of the nation’s finest institutions of higher learning, Swarthmore College is global in outlook and draws students from around the nation and world. The 425‐acre campus is a designated arboretum, complete with gardens, rolling lawns, a creek, wooded hills, and hiking trails in the Crum Woods.

Who We Are:

Swarthmore Dining is dedicated to serving our community with nutritious and satisfying food in a welcoming environment every day. Our mission is to offer a diverse menu that features high-quality ingredients, emphasizing locally grown and sustainably produced products whenever possible. We are committed to inclusive dining by ensuring vegetarian, vegan, and accommodations for dietary restrictions are always available. As a self-operated dining program encompassing Residential Dining, we pride ourselves on providing a work-life balance that is often difficult to find in the restaurant industry. Join us at Swarthmore Dining to be a part of a vibrant community committed to quality, sustainability, and exceptional service in a state-of-the-art kitchen setting.

The opportunity:

Provides timely and reliable cleaning and maintenance support for Swarthmore’s dining services. Scrubs, sanitizes and rinses pots, pan and utensils throughout the day to ensure cooks have constant availability of cooking vessels, Ensures the availability of a clean and sanitary supply of dishes, glassware, and trays, throughout each meal period. Maintains and sanitizes the dish machine & pot area. Ensures a clean dining service facility.  Must interact well with customers, co-workers and supervisors. Must work effectively, both independently and as a team member.

Essential Responsibilities

• Scrapes foods from pots and pans
• Scrubs, rinses and sanitizes according to Serv-Safe procedures
• Air dries all and returns to proper storage locations
• Continually monitors pot wash sinks for proper water temperatures, detergent and sanitizer levels
• Continually check in with cooks to see they have needed vessels.
• Cleans and sanitizes utensils and return to proper locations
• Scrapes food scraps from dishes and places them in designated racks for ware washing
• Empties liquids from cups/mugs and places in racks for ware washing
• Transports silverware bins from front of house and transfers to wash racks
• Places clean small wares in proper transport racks after they go through dish machine
• Place clean silverware on the sorting table .
• Transport clean small wares to serving lines in a timely manner to ensure plates, bowls, glasses, mugs, silverware are available throughout the meal periods.
• Sorts silverware
• Keeps the work area wiped clean of garbage and excess water.

Essential Responsibilities

• Sweeps & mops kitchen, walk in boxes, serving area,& dining rooms according to daily cleaning lists
• Takes trash, recycling and compost to designated dumpsters/containers in loading dock area
• Keeps loading dock broom swept and organized
• Assists receivers in down times
• Cleans and sanitizes dish machine, transport dish dolly to serving lines and clean silverware to sorting table
• Clean and sanitize silverware retrieval area in servery
• Performs other assignments as directed by the utility supervisor and other managers.

What you bring:

Required Qualifications

• Ability to read, write, comprehend, and follow verbal and written instructions to interact with students, faculty, and staff.
• Ability to communicate with co-workers and management with professionalism and respect.
• Customer service experience
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment
• Willingness to be open to learning and growing
• Ability to prioritize and complete multiple concurrent tasks.
• Ability to operate or learn to operate kitchen equipment

Preferred Qualifications

• 6 months to 1 year of prior experience in a dish room
• Serv-safe certification

Working Conditions:

• Fast paced high volume environment.
• Must be able to work with a diverse group of individuals from different cultures and different levels of ability.
• Exposed to equipment with moving parts and a moderate level of noise. Floors are often wet and it can be warm and humid.
• Must be able to report to work during inclement weather as we are essential and Swarthmore College is a residential College.
• We are a seven day a week operation so schedules will include nights and weekends.

Physical Demands:

• Prolonged periods of time standing on hard surface floor
• Good hand eye coordination
• Able to lift up to 30 pounds
• Frequent bending, pushing, pulling, reaching and lifting

What You Will Get:

You’ll work at one of the world's most renowned liberal arts Colleges, with incredible benefits, a stunning 420-acre campus, and a collaborative work environment. Join a team of passionate, creative people who work hard and have fun supporting the College students, faculty, and staff.

The pay for this position is $20.00 per hour, which represents the College’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the range at the time of posting.

PA Criminal Clearance Required

Swarthmore College requires a PA Criminal background check for all staff positions prior to the start of employment.

Preview our Benefits Flyer. We offer benefit plans starting at zero cost! Upon benefit eligibility, the College contributes 10% of an employee’s salary to their retirement account. Employees are 100% vested in their accounts on the date participation begins.

2025 Swarthmore Benefits Guidebook

Retirement Plans

Tuition Grant Program

Tuition Reimbursement Program

Paid Time Off (Staff)

Holiday Schedule

Swarthmore College is committed to creating a culture of respect and inclusion so that every member of our community feels a sense of belonging. We actively seek and welcome candidates with diverse perspectives and experiences, exceptional qualifications, and a demonstrable commitment to a more inclusive society and world. Swarthmore College is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate based on any identity or characteristic protected by law or College Policy.