Registered Dietitican, Bilingual chez Project Open Hand

TITLE: Registered Dietitian, Bilingual English/Spanish

DEPARTMENT: Nutrition Services

REPORTS TO:  Senior Manager, Nutrition Services

LOCATION: 730 Polk Street

BENEFITS: Yes

STATUS: Full-time, Non-Exempt

CLASSIFICATION: Professionals

SUPERVISES: Interns

POSITION SUMMARY: 

Be at the forefront of the Food is Medicine movement as a Registered Dietitian (RD), Bilingual, with Project Open Hand, one of the nation’s longest-standing and most respected providers of medically tailored meals and groceries. Based in both San Francisco and Oakland, you will join a dynamic, mission-driven Nutrition Services Department that is transforming healthcare through medically tailored nutrition. You’ll play a key role in delivering Medical Nutrition Therapy to some of the most vulnerable members of our communities—people living with critical and chronic illnesses who also face food insecurity, isolation, or the health impacts of aging.

The RD provides compassionate, client-centered nutritional assessment, counseling, and education via in-person, home-based, and telehealth visits. This role also supports the development of educational materials and curricula, contributes to innovative research and program evaluation, and collaborates on adapting meals and services to meet the evolving needs of our diverse client base.

This role will have an additional emphasis on supporting our Client Services team in providing outreach to key partners. You’ll work closely with various departments within POH as well as healthcare providers, community-based organizations, and local leaders to strengthen referral pathways into POH programs.

This is an exciting opportunity for a professional dietitian with a strong foundation in community nutrition and a passion for health equity. If you're committed to using your clinical expertise to make lasting change—and want to work where food is used as powerful medicine—this role is for you.

QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:

• Registered Dietitian / Registered Dietitian Nutritionist
• Knowledge of food service and quality control
• Proficient in nutrition software programs, Computrition preferred
• Experience providing staff training / education             
• Ability to work Saturdays and occasional evenings
• Bilingual English/Spanish

QUALIFICATIONS DESIRED:

• 2+ years experience as a Registered Dietitian
• Familiarity with San Francisco and East Bay community health and social service landscapes
• Experience working with people living with HIV/AIDS, other critical and chronic diseases, and the elderly
• Experience developing and executing community-based nutrition education classes
• Cooking, recipe and food preparation experience and comfort teaching basic kitchen skills
• Experience working with vulnerable populations
• Ability to apply strong clinical skills in a community-based setting

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Deliver compassionate, client-centered Medical Nutrition Therapy using the Nutrition Care Process, helping clients manage chronic and critical illnesses through personalized nutrition plans.
• Lead the development, review, and implementation of evidence-based nutrition guidelines that support agency goals and meet program contract standards.
• Design, coordinate, and facilitate interactive nutrition education workshops for older adults and adults with disabilities as part of our Community Nutrition Program, promoting health equity and food literacy.
• Conduct engaging group sessions including cooking classes and nutrition education tailored for clients living with HIV/AIDS, diabetes, heart disease, renal failure, cancer, high risk pregnancies and other serious health conditions.
• Provide ongoing staff education and training on nutrition, food safety, and sanitation to ensure best practices across the organization.
• Serve as a preceptor and mentor for dietetic interns, contributing to the development of the next generation of nutrition professionals.
• Maintain detailed and timely documentation to support grants, contracts, and research initiatives, helping to advance the field of Food is Medicine.
• Participate in and lead performance improvement projects that enhance program quality, streamline service delivery, and ensure continuous alignment with best practices in the Food is Medicine model.
• Conduct regular quality assurance audits to ensure alignment with agency standards for medically tailored meals and community nutrition programs.
• Support the mission of Project Open Hand with flexibility and collaboration, taking on additional responsibilities as needed to meet client and program needs.

JOB COMPETENCIES: 

• Team player: Demonstrates cooperative spirit, respects professional boundaries and is successful at sharing responsibilities with others
• Self-led: Knows and completes responsibilities in assigned timelines, asks for clarifications when needed
• Sensitive to the circumstances and needs of the critically ill and seniors, as well as people with mental health and substance abuse issues
• Customer oriented: Works well with all customers (internal staff and external contacts), promotes a positive image of the agency and works diligently to resolve customer issues
• Poised: able to maintain a calm, positive and constructive attitude during interactions with diverse populations, sometimes in challenging situations
• Ethical: Honest, accountable, maintains confidentiality
• Decisive: Thoughtful when considering options, seeks input from others, makes difficult decisions when necessary
• Knowledgeable: Understands facets of job, keeps job knowledge current
• Well organized: Information organized and accessible, maintains efficient work space, manages time well
• Technical savvy: Skilled with computers, proficient with function appropriate technology, learns quickly, uses technology to enhance job performance with the interest and ability to learn new technology
• Leadership I: Completes all assigned tasks in a timely manner and is able to identify projects or work needed for future completion. Anticipates needs before they are assigned. Recognizes themselves as a departmental or function representative
• Problem solver: Strong analytical skills and able to creatively address and solve problems
• Professional Communicator: Excellent public speaking, written and verbal communication skills

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT: The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions

Physical demands: While performing duties of job, incumbent is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; talk and hear. Employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds unassisted. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus

Work environment: The noise level in the work environment varies from moderate to loud. The work environment will be ever changing with new clients, volunteers and staff members all sharing space and working together in the Grocery Center