Senior Culinary Lead: Menu & Innovation Leader

Bay Center Foods, LLC; Atlanta (GA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

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

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.