300+ Hospitality & Food Service Jobs in Kansas City, MO

Observed local hourly-paid postings center on about $15 to $17 / hour, while the broader local posted salary band centers on about $62k to $74k because the sample mixes hourly frontline jobs with salaried management roles. Estimated title-specific signals are lower for frontline service: Kansas City server jobs are listed at about $12 to $18 per hour on one current guide, and a lagged fine-dining server estimate brackets pay from about $27,808 to $56,150.40 annually, with about $39,852.80 near the middle.

Full July 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 172 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $32,760 at the 25th percentile, $37,107 at the median and $40,560 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of September 7, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

Showing 30 of 250+ openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Balanced market | next 3-6 months

Kansas City is still a workable market for hospitality job seekers, but it is not an easy-money market. Local leisure and hospitality employment was up 2.4% over 12 months in the latest metro profile, and the metro unemployment rate was 3.5%, which points to a still-active local economy. The caution is that broader Missouri occupation signals are softer: hospitality, food service & travel employment was down 0.5% year over year and active postings were down 5.9% year over year, so employers may be hiring with more selectivity than the local supersector growth alone suggests.

Best positioned: Candidates with open availability, customer-facing experience, and basic service compliance credentials have the best odds, because about 85% of local postings skew entry-level and about 95% or more are on-site.

Main caution: Do not mistake the category's broader salaried postings for typical frontline pay: local hourly postings center on about $15 to $17 / hour, while the broader salary band is lifted by management-heavy roles.

From the July 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 334 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Brookdale Senior Living: 12 open roles
2. Compass Group: 9 open roles
3. Midwest Health: 9 open roles
4. Hyatt Indian Wells: 8 open roles
5. Firstwatch: 7 open roles
6. Hyatt Hotels: 7 open roles
7. Kansas Health System: 7 open roles
8. KMG Hotels: 7 open roles
9. PB&J Restaurants, Inc.: 7 open roles
10. Spectrum Retirement Communities, LLC.: 7 open roles

Where the openings are

• Kansas City: 153
• Overland Park: 51
• Leawood: 22
• Lenexa: 17
• Olathe: 14
• Liberty: 14
• Shawnee: 9
• Lee's Summit: 6

Work arrangement

on-site 312 (100%)

Where the demand is

Real opportunity is spread across many employers rather than one dominant chain. We observed more than 600 postings across more than 200 companies in Kansas City over the last 90 days, and the employer base is fragmented. Enterprise employers still matter because about 55% of sampled postings came from enterprise companies, and the most consistently active named employers included Starbucks Corp. with more than 50 postings and KMG Hotels with more than 20. This category is not just sit-down restaurants. In the local sample, about 40% of postings were in hospitality, about 20% in food & beverage, about 10% in healthcare, and about 10% in restaurants. That mix makes hotels, chain beverage concepts, institutional food service, and entertainment venues practical targets, especially with ongoing signals from Drury Hotels recruitment and a barback posting at Kansas City Live! downtown.

• Hotels and lodging (high): KMG Hotels was among the more active named employers, Drury Hotels is recruiting in the area, and Kansas City has a planned 80-room Marriott Tribute hotel called The Pennant.
• Coffee, quick-service, and front-counter service (high): Starbucks Corp. led the named employer sample with more than 50 postings, and local postings frequently ask for cash handling, customer service, beverage preparation, and time management.
• Healthcare and institutional food service (moderate): About 10% of local category postings appeared in healthcare, making cafeteria, patient-food, and institutional service settings a meaningful alternative to restaurants.
• Independent restaurants and nightlife venues (moderate): Local openings and closures moved in both directions in July and early August, with venue launches alongside permanent closures, so this segment can open quickly and disappear quickly.

Where to focus: Put most of your effort into enterprise hotels, chains, and institutional operators first, then layer in independent venues for upside or culture fit.

Roles worth searching next

• Retail shift lead or store associate: It uses the same cash handling, customer service, teamwork, and beverage-prep foundations that appear in local hospitality postings.
• Administrative coordinator or reservations support: Front-desk and guest-service experience can transfer into scheduling, reservations, and back-office support, and some back-office hospitality functions can be remote or hybrid.
• Inventory or purchasing coordinator: Inventory management is common in local hospitality postings, so stock-control experience can transfer into operations roles outside restaurants or hotels.
• Customer support representative for travel or hospitality software: Guest-facing service plus tech comfort becomes more valuable as hospitality operators adopt more digital tools.

What postings ask for

• Customer service (table_stakes | immediate): It is one of the most commonly requested local skills and travels across restaurants, coffee, hotels, and guest services. Who: Everyone, especially entry-level applicants and career switchers.
• Food safety (table_stakes | immediate): Food safety shows up frequently in local postings, so it helps both kitchen and service candidates clear basic screening. Who: Line cooks, prep cooks, servers, baristas, and healthcare food-service applicants.
• Cash handling (table_stakes | immediate): Cash handling is the single most common named local skill signal in the sample, which makes it a strong screening keyword for front-of-house work. Who: Servers, baristas, hosts, front-desk staff, and switchers from retail or service jobs.
• Inventory management (differentiator | near-term): Inventory management appears often enough in local postings to separate candidates who can help control waste, stock, and ordering from those who only know service basics. Who: Mid-career applicants, kitchen leads, and anyone targeting supervisor tracks.
• Alcohol awareness certification (differentiator | immediate): It is the most commonly named certification requirement in the local sample, so having it removes a frequent compliance objection for bar and service roles. Who: Servers, bartenders, barbacks, and restaurant candidates who want faster interview traction.
• Beverage preparation (differentiator | near-term): Beverage preparation shows up in local postings and pairs well with the area's active coffee and front-counter hiring. Who: Baristas, cafe workers, bartenders, and front-of-house applicants.

Questions about this market

What do Hospitality, Food Service & Travel roles pay in Kansas City, MO-KS?

Observed local hourly-paid postings center on about $15 to $17 / hour, while the broader local posted salary band centers on about $62k to $74k because the sample mixes hourly frontline jobs with salaried management roles. Estimated title-specific signals are lower for frontline service: Kansas City server jobs are listed at about $12 to $18 per hour on one current guide, and a lagged fine-dining server estimate brackets pay from about $27,808 to $56,150.40 annually, with about $39,852.80 near the middle. For most job seekers, this is a moderate-pay market rather than a high-pay one. Missouri's cost-of-living index was 88.6, which softens the pressure somewhat, but frontline earnings still depend heavily on tips, hours, and shift quality.

Where is demand for Hospitality, Food Service & Travel roles in Kansas City, MO-KS concentrated?

Real opportunity is spread across many employers rather than one dominant chain. We observed more than 600 postings across more than 200 companies in Kansas City over the last 90 days, and the employer base is fragmented. Enterprise employers still matter because about 55% of sampled postings came from enterprise companies, and the most consistently active named employers included Starbucks Corp. with more than 50 postings and KMG Hotels with more than 20. This category is not just sit-down restaurants. In the local sample, about 40% of postings were in hospitality, about 20% in food & beverage, about 10% in healthcare, and about 10% in restaurants. That mix makes hotels, chain beverage concepts, institutional food service, and entertainment venues practical targets, especially with ongoing signals from Drury Hotels recruitment and a barback posting at Kansas City Live! downtown.

Which employers are hiring the most Hospitality, Food Service & Travel talent in Kansas City, MO-KS?

Recent postings show the most activity from Starbucks Corp. (50 postings), KMG Hotels (20 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Hospitality, Food Service & Travel roles in Kansas City, MO-KS be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 0% are remote and 5% hybrid, with 95% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

Explore related openings

Hospitality, Food Service & Travel jobs in other metros

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• Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
• Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
• San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
• Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN
• Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

Other roles in Kansas City, MO-KS

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• Transportation & Delivery
• Education & Training

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