Senior Culinary Lead

Bay Center Foods, LLC

Atlanta, Northern (GA, KY)

Hybrid

USD 120,000 - 160,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Chick-fil-A is seeking a Sr. Culinary Lead to join the Menu & Packaging Team within Marketing, driving menu development and cost optimization across the supply chain.

You will support product and process innovation, ensuring quality and execution standards while collaborating with internal and external partners. This role requires extensive culinary expertise, leadership, and the ability to translate concepts into scalable production across restaurants, suppliers, and manufacturing facilities.

Qualifications

Mastery of fundamental culinary techniques.
Strong technical understanding of food production in a quick service restaurant environment.
Experience in creating, developing and executing new menu items.
Demonstrates energy and passion for food and the Chick-fil-A brand.
Ability to think critically and identify solutions and options.
Experience designing and executing experiments, process, sensory or consumer testing.
Strong communication skills to present to senior leadership and work with internal & external partners.
Commitment to maintaining confidential proprietary information.

Responsibilities

Drive growth for the organization by leading new menu development projects and protecting the core menu.
Lead development of solutions with Supply Chain Innovation to improve cost while maintaining or improving quality.
Manage projects from conceptualization to evaluation of menu item solutions.
Collaborate with suppliers and partners to drive outcomes.
Lead complex projects as a SME, aligning stakeholders and managing expectations.
Develop recipes and translate them into final formulations for production.
Coordinate field tests in Chick-fil-A restaurants and analyze results for chainwide launches.
Organize and lead product tastings and customer tests.
Work hands-on in kitchen/R&D, restaurants, suppliers or manufacturing facilities.
Design production methods that simplify menu items and ensure operational feasibility.

Skills

Culinary techniques

Food production

Menu development

Project management

Leadership communication

Experimentation

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Culinary Arts/Management

Job description

How We Work At Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A, Inc. ('Chick-fil-A' or 'the Company') Staff members play a vital role in achieving our strategic goals by developing their skills, fostering inclusive teamwork, and embracing innovation. All Staff are expected to contribute to a compelling future by inspiring and motivating those around them. Growth and development are essential at Chick-fil-A. We want Staff to seek new perspectives and adopt new methods to drive continuous improvement and adaptation to evolving business needs. Lastly, we ask Staff to seek wisdom, expect the best, accept responsibility, respond with courage, and think others first.

Our Flexible Futures Model offers a healthy mix of working in person (currently a minimum of 8-10 days per month) and virtually, strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community.

Overview

The Culinary team is responsible for cultivating remarkable food that drives Customer trust and brand value and ensuring it is executable with excellence by Team Members. This includes development of new menu items, improvement of existing menu items and serving as the subject matter expert on cross functional work.

Chick-fil-A is seeking a Sr. Culinary Lead to work on the Menu & Packaging Team in Marketing and will support Menu and Supply Chain innovation projects. This includes identifying and developing products, processes and tools that drive/enable growth and/or reduce overall cost to the system while ensuring product quality and product execution standards are upheld.

The primary responsibilities for this role will be to support short and long-term projects focused on creating craveable menu items and optimizing cost to support the health of the brand. This individual will require technical expertise to assist with development and review of formulations, tools/smallwares, procedures, specifications and quality requirements for current menu items.

This individual requires a high-level of self-direction and a proactive mindset that can provide innovative solutions to drive business growth. He or she should have a passion for exceeding Customer expectations, for food and the science behind it, for execution and for the Chick-fil-A brand. It is important that this role be able to collaborate effectively across various teams, both internally & externally, and is able to influence senior leadership and project leaders in regard to product and operational considerations.

Additional function-specific duties:

Menu Development & Menu Process Simplification
Production Method Development
Cross Functional Support
Restaurant Operational Expertise
Food Industry Awareness & Expertise

Responsibilities

Drive growth for the organization through leading new menu development projects and enable growth through protecting the core menu.
Lead the development of solutions in partnership with Supply Chain Innovation to improve cost across network while maintaining or improving quality.
Lead and manage various aspects of projects including conceptualizing, designing, developing and evaluating menu item solutions.
Work with autonomy to drive outcomes while managing relationships with suppliers, internal and external partners.
Lead complex projects, as a subject matter expert, effectively and professionally to ensure stakeholders are informed and aligned while also ensuring Restaurant Operator and customer expectations are met.
Develop recipes or applications and convert them to final formulations for products and production.
Coordinate field tests in Chick-fil-A restaurants and analyze results prior to chainwide launch.
Organize and lead product showings and customer taste tests.
Work hands‑on in a kitchen/R&D facility, as well as in Restaurants, at suppliers or in manufacturing facilities.
Design food production methods that simplify existing Chick-fil-A menu items as well as supporting new menu items.
Integrate simplification techniques into the food production process to ensure that all future menu items not only meet culinary standards but are operationally feasible.
Responsible for deep understanding of the food production process and the impact to food quality and team member experience.
Responsible for spending time engaging in Chick-fil-A Restaurants, learning from Operators and Team Members on operational opportunities.
Actively explore food trends to stay abreast of changes in the marketplace.
Exhibit strong knowledge and awareness of historical and competitive marketplace.
Maintain professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, establishing personal networks, benchmarking state‑of‑the‑art practices, and participating in professional societies.
Demonstrate Enterprise‑Wide thinking and decision‑making skills.
Exhibit the ability to present content and recipes to multiple levels of leadership – Executive Committee, Strategy Teams, Operators, Team Members, etc.

Required Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities)

Mastery of fundamental culinary techniques
Strong technical understanding of food production, particularly in a quick service restaurant environment
Successful track record of creating, developing and executing new menu items in a restaurant environment
Demonstrates a contagious energy and passion for food and the Chick‑fil‑A brand
Ability to think critically about issues and opportunities and identify solutions and options
Experience in designing and executing experiments, process, Sensory or consumer testing
Strong communication skills to present to senior leadership and work effectively with internal & external international business partners
Commitment to maintain and guard confidential proprietary company information as appropriate.
Proficient at Project Management

Preferred Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities)