Senior Kitchen Porter

• Senior Kitchen Porter
• Household / Department
• Master of the Household’s Office
• Section / Branch
• Catering
• Location
• Buckingham Palace
• Contract/recruitment type
• Permanent
• Starting salary
• Competitive plus accommodation

Hours of work

Full time, up to 45 hours per week – Monday to Sunday, 5 out of 7 days

About the role

It's taking pride in supporting world-class hospitality and leading your team to perform at their very best. This is what makes working for the Royal Household so different.

The Master of the Household's Department handles all aspects of hospitality across the Royal residences.

You’ll join a committed Kitchen team who work together to prepare and serve food to the very highest standards.

You'll lead kitchen portering operations. By maintaining the kitchen and clear-up areas you'll ensure our chefs and assistants have all they need to deliver meals throughout the day.

Key responsibilities :

• Lead and support the Kitchen Porter team, providing day-to-day guidance and supervision, and motivating the team to deliver high standards of performance alongside safe working practices.
• Plan and coordinate team rotas, to help ensure effective staff levels and smooth daily operations. You’ll also support the Head Chef with team performance, training and development.
• Oversee the maintenance of all kitchens and back-of-house areas incompliance with food safety and health regulations.
• Oversee the safe use of equipment and machinery and ensure reporting processes are in place in line with COSHH regulations.
• Manage cleaning schedules and deep cleaning programmes, as well as oversee cleaning methods and products, and making sure all required documentation is completed accurately.
• As the first point of contact for Kitchen Porters, work closely with chefs and wider catering teams to support efficient kitchen operations.
• Promote sustainable working practices by supporting recycling initiatives and effective waste management processes throughout the kitchens.

Although based at Buckingham Palace, you’ll also work at different Royal residences approximately 8-10 weeks of the year.

Typical Working Pattern

We offer a flexible and supportive working environment . Our standard working week is around 45 hours (which will include some evening work), with two days off in every seven and regular weekends off. When travel to other Royal Residences is required, split shifts may be part of the schedule.

We value work-life balance and aim to accommodate individual needs. Typically, rotas are planned four weeks in advance to provide plenty of notice and stability.

Accommodation

In addition to a competitive salary, you’ll have the option to live on-site in single‑person accommodation (for which there will be a salary proportional deduction to cover bills). With breakfast, lunch and dinner provided each day, you’ll be well fuelled and ready to support the team throughout the day.

About you

Essential Criteria

• Proven experience in a kitchen portering, back-of-house, or similar catering environment.
• A good working knowledge of food hygiene and safety, together with a Basic Food Hygiene Certificate.
• A confident communicator with strong interpersonal skills, capable of working effectively with colleagues at all levels and supporting team members in a supervisory capacity.
• Strong organisational and time management skills, able to prioritise and allocate daily team activities in busy working environment.
• The ability to follow direction, apply initiative to tasks and work collaboratively to achieve excellent results.
• Comfortable using IT and computer systems.

This role will involve regular movement of heavy loads and long periods spent on your feet.

Benefits

• We know that to deliver our best work; we need to feel at our best. That’s why at the Royal Household we offer a generous benefits package designed to support your wellbeing and life priorities.
• Enjoy 25 days annual leave, rising to 30 days (plus bank holidays) dependent on the length of time you have worked for us.
• Our excellent non-contributory pension plan (we’ll contribute 15% and you can contribute more if you wish) is highly valued by our employees, as is complimentary lunch on-site to keep you fuelled throughout the day.
• We also offer a range of leave options to support your life priorities, such as parental pay and leave and volunteering days, as well as benefits to support your physical and mental wellbeing.
• Other perks include 20% off at our Royal Collection Trust Shops and complimentary admission tickets across all our locations, along with many more exclusive employee discounts.

Find out more about the full range of benefits available to our employee here.

Vacancy Closing Date: 31/08/2026, 23:55