300+ Hospitality & Food Service Jobs in San Diego, CA

Observed local pay is modest for most frontline roles. BLS put the broad food-preparation-and-serving group at $21.26 per hour in San Diego in May 2025, with a broader hospitality family mean of $44,220/year, a median of $38,840/year, and a 90th-percentile wage of $55,310/year. Role-specific BLS means were $64,780 for chefs and head cooks, $45,770 for restaurant cooks, and $47,700 for waiters and waitresses. Posted pay in the current job sample looks higher because it mixes in manager and salaried hotel roles: annual postings center on about $74k to $85k, while hourly postings center on about $19 to $22 / hour.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 263 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $38,220 at the 25th percentile, $41,600 at the median and $49,338 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of October 17, 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

San Diego is a usable but selective market for hospitality job seekers. Local leisure and hospitality employment reached 213.9 thousand in August 2026 and was up 2.6392% year over year, while metro unemployment was 4.9%. That is stronger than the broader metro's total nonfarm job growth of 0.7005% year over year, but California-wide occupation signals are softer: hospitality, food service & travel employment was down 1.1% and active postings were down 2.6% year over year in September. More than 650 recent postings across more than 200 companies suggest real hiring volume, especially for on-site frontline work.

Best positioned: Candidates with recent restaurant or hotel experience, open availability, and proof of cash handling, food preparation, food safety, inventory work, or an RBS certification have the best odds right now.

Main caution: Do not anchor on manager-heavy posted salary bands; many frontline postings center on about $19 to $22 / hour, while the broad local occupation median was $38,840/year.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 316 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.: 30 open roles
2. WinStar World Casino Resort: 15 open roles
3. Marriott International, Inc.: 11 open roles
4. Evans Hotels: 9 open roles
5. Fairmont: 9 open roles
6. Sycuan: 9 open roles
7. Hilton: 8 open roles
8. Aztec Shops, Ltd.: 7 open roles
9. Belmont Village Lp: 7 open roles
10. TownCountry: 6 open roles

Where the openings are

• San Diego: 179
• Coronado: 30
• Chula Vista: 29
• Encinitas: 17
• El Cajon: 16
• La Mesa: 10
• National City: 7
• Del Mar: 7

Work arrangement

on-site 301 (100%)

Where the demand is

Current opportunity is concentrated in on-site hotel, restaurant, and café operations rather than remote travel work. In the recent posting sample, hospitality accounts for about 45% of demand and restaurants about 15%, with smaller shares from retail, hospitals and health care, and food & beverage. Hiring is fragmented across employers rather than dominated by one chain, although Starbucks Corp. was the single most consistently active named employer with more than 75 postings in the last 90 days. The near-term pockets to watch are venue openings, hotel-adjacent food and beverage, and institutional service teams. Heritage Steakhouse is targeting a mid-November launch with 120 seats, CH Projects' La Pensione reopening includes three food-and-beverage venues, and Zuma opened a 270-diner restaurant at the Guild Hotel in August. That mix favors candidates who can work opening teams, high-volume service, or cross-trained front/back-of-house schedules.

• Hotels and lodging operations (moderate): Hotel properties and hotel-linked restaurants are a large share of current demand, and new room inventory includes The Margot Hotel with 135 suites plus a planned Hyatt Regency Mission Valley with 260 keys.
• Restaurants, cafés, and beverage service (high): Restaurant and café hiring is steady, with current openings spread across chains and independents; Starbucks alone posted more than 75 jobs, and new venues such as Heritage Steakhouse and Zuma add local staffing needs.
• Institutional and healthcare foodservice (moderate): A smaller slice of postings comes from hospitals and health care, which can appeal to seekers who want steadier schedules than nightlife-heavy restaurants.

Where to focus: If you need a job in the next 30 days, focus first on on-site restaurant, café, and hotel-operating roles, then use that foothold to move toward higher-paying lead or chef-track positions.

Roles worth searching next

• Retail shift supervisor: The crossover is strong if your background is in cash handling, beverage prep, customer service, and inventory control.
• Customer support representative: Guest-service, complaint recovery, and schedule coordination translate well into support environments outside hospitality.
• Patient access representative: Front-desk hospitality skills transfer well to check-in, intake, and service navigation in healthcare settings.
• Facilities or cleaning supervisor: Housekeeping, inspection, and standards-driven service work can transfer into broader facilities operations.

What postings ask for

• RBS certification (table_stakes | immediate): It is the most commonly cited certification in the local posting sample, so it can remove friction for bar, server, and alcohol-service roles. Who: Entry-level restaurant, bar, and hotel food-and-beverage candidates.
• Food safety and sanitation (table_stakes | immediate): Food safety, sanitation, and safety compliance show up repeatedly in local skill demand, which makes them baseline screening criteria for kitchen and service employers. Who: Line cooks, prep cooks, dish, banquet, and café candidates.
• Cash handling and POS accuracy (table_stakes | immediate): Cash handling is the single most-requested hard skill in the local sample, especially for café, counter-service, and front-of-house openings. Who: Baristas, servers, hosts, front-desk agents, and retail-to-hospitality switchers.
• Inventory management (differentiator | near-term): Inventory management appears in about 20% of local postings, making it a useful separator for lead, supervisor, and kitchen-management paths. Who: Mid-career workers aiming for lead, keyholder, or manager-track roles.
• Beverage preparation (differentiator | immediate): Beverage preparation is requested across café and food-service openings, and it pairs well with the strong local café and chain-service mix led by Starbucks. Who: Baristas, quick-service candidates, and restaurant workers who want faster interview traction.
• Guest recovery, empathy, and problem-solving (differentiator | near-term): Industry sources say hospitality work is shifting toward relationship and recovery tasks as routine transactions are automated, which makes empathy and problem-solving more valuable than before. Who: Hotel front desk, concierge, dining-room lead, and manager-track candidates.

Questions about this market

What do Hospitality, Food Service & Travel roles pay in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA?

Observed local pay is modest for most frontline roles. BLS put the broad food-preparation-and-serving group at $21.26 per hour in San Diego in May 2025, with a broader hospitality family mean of $44,220/year, a median of $38,840/year, and a 90th-percentile wage of $55,310/year. Role-specific BLS means were $64,780 for chefs and head cooks, $45,770 for restaurant cooks, and $47,700 for waiters and waitresses. Posted pay in the current job sample looks higher because it mixes in manager and salaried hotel roles: annual postings center on about $74k to $85k, while hourly postings center on about $19 to $22 / hour. San Diego pays above the national broad food-service average of $17.86 per hour, but that advantage is partly offset by local cost pressure and the fact that many openings are still entry-level and on-site.

Where is demand for Hospitality, Food Service & Travel roles in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA concentrated?

Current opportunity is concentrated in on-site hotel, restaurant, and café operations rather than remote travel work. In the recent posting sample, hospitality accounts for about 45% of demand and restaurants about 15%, with smaller shares from retail, hospitals and health care, and food & beverage. Hiring is fragmented across employers rather than dominated by one chain, although Starbucks Corp. was the single most consistently active named employer with more than 75 postings in the last 90 days. The near-term pockets to watch are venue openings, hotel-adjacent food and beverage, and institutional service teams. Heritage Steakhouse is targeting a mid-November launch with 120 seats, CH Projects' La Pensione reopening includes three food-and-beverage venues, and Zuma opened a 270-diner restaurant at the Guild Hotel in August. That mix favors candidates who can work opening teams, high-volume service, or cross-trained front/back-of-house schedules.

Which employers are hiring the most Hospitality, Food Service & Travel talent in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA?

Recent postings show the most activity from Starbucks Corp. (75 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Hospitality, Food Service & Travel roles in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 5% 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.

Browse California openings by job title

• Software Engineer: 1,155 open roles statewide
• Product Manager: 412 open roles statewide
• Project Manager: 407 open roles statewide
• General Manager: 403 open roles statewide
• Program Manager: 340 open roles statewide
• Technical Program Manager: 327 open roles statewide
• Senior Software Engineer: 266 open roles statewide
• Staff Software Engineer: 225 open roles statewide
• Engineering Manager: 170 open roles statewide
• Senior Manager: 144 open roles statewide
• Senior Product Manager: 119 open roles statewide
• Associate Director: 105 open roles statewide

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