Culinary Director - Multi-Unit Prepared Foods

Happier Grocery; New York (NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Happier Grocery in New York is seeking an experienced Culinary Director to lead all Prepared Foods operations across multiple locations. You will own the financial performance, drive sales growth, optimize labor, reduce waste, and ensure food safety and quality across departments.

You will build scalable systems, develop a high-performing culinary team, and partner with store leadership to maintain freshness, availability, and profitability across all locations.

Qualifications

• Progressive culinary leadership experience in grocery retail, food service, or multi-unit hospitality.
• Strong knowledge of food cost management, labor planning, inventory control, forecasting, and operational analytics.
• Experience managing P&L and achieving financial targets.

Responsibilities

• Design and manage production systems across all culinary operations.
• Develop production schedules, prep plans, station workflows, and replenishment standards.
• Forecast production needs using sales trends, seasonality, events, weather patterns, and historical performance data.
• Establish and optimize production pars, batch sizes, labor deployment, and sequencing.
• Monitor production versus sales performance and adjust plans to maximize freshness and profitability.
• Lead waste reduction initiatives through forecasting, inventory management, and operational discipline.
• Track, analyze, and reduce waste by location, department, and shift.
• Partner with store leadership to utilize ingredients efficiently and repurpose usable inventory.
• Create a culture of continuous improvement focused on full-product utilization and waste recovery.
• Monitor labor productivity, overtime, scheduling effectiveness, and workforce utilization.
• Develop cross-training programs to create flexibility and resilience across stations.
• Improve labor efficiency through planning and performance management.
• Establish and maintain operating standards across all store locations.
• Oversee recipe execution, portion control, product quality, freshness, and presentation.
• Ensure guests receive a consistent, high-quality experience across locations.
• Conduct regular operational reviews and culinary walks to identify improvements.
• Lead food safety programs and ensure compliance with health and regulatory requirements.
• Oversee temperature controls, labeling, allergen management, sanitation, and handling procedures.
• Drive ongoing food safety training and accountability.
• Own recipe standardization, food costing, yield management, and portion specs.
• Analyze actual vs theoretical food costs and implement corrective measures.
• Establish inventory standards, ordering needs, and forecasting processes.
• Prevent excess inventory, spoilage, and stockouts through disciplined inventory management.
• Build and coach culinary managers and teams.
• Lead training programs focused on culinary execution and operational excellence.
• Develop a highly capable, cross-trained team.

Skills

Culinary Leadership

P&L Management

Food Safety

Forecasting

Inventory Control

Labor Planning

Team Development

Analytics

Cross-functional Collaboration

Menu Development

Job description

Happier Grocery in New York is seeking an experienced Culinary Director to lead all Prepared Foods operations across multiple locations. You will own the financial performance, drive sales growth, optimize labor, reduce waste, and ensure food safety and quality across departments.

You will build scalable systems, develop a high-performing culinary team, and partner with store leadership to maintain freshness, availability, and profitability across all locations.