Sous Chef

Qrata; Concord (CA); On-site; USD 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Qrata is seeking a Sous Chef to oversee day-to-day culinary production, ensuring quality, throughput, and cost targets are met in a high-volume kitchen. You will lead the team, refine systems, and maintain strict portioning, safety, and process documentation.

The role requires hands-on leadership, experience with large-batch equipment, and the ability to scale recipes to volume while meeting gluten-free, paleo, and vegan specifications.

Qualifications

• 3+ years as CDC, Sous Chef, or higher in a high-volume batch cooking environment.
• Experience with gluten-free, paleo, vegan/vegetarian, and specialty diets at scale.
• Proficiency with large-batch production equipment (combi-ovens, tilt-skillets).
• Ability to manage purchasing, inventory, and production scheduling.
• Strong leadership with clear communication and accountability.

Responsibilities

• Run daily production from prep through portioning, packaging, and handoff to fulfillment.
• Lead the cook team with coaching and direct accountability.
• Ensure portioning accuracy to the gram and document the data.
• Oversee scheduling, timekeeping, and assist with recruiting for culinary team.
• Maintain food safety, sanitation, and cleanliness to high standards.
• Develop SOPs, portioning guides, and prep protocols; document processes.
• Attend weekly R&D calls; own production buildout when dishes are approved.

Skills

Large-batch production

Leadership

Food cost awareness

Attention to detail

Google Suite

Tools

Google Suite

Payroll systems

Job description

The Sous Chef is the aircraft controller of day-to-day culinary production. The role

develops, directs, improves, and manages all production processes and the metrics that accompany them: quality, throughput, productivity, and food cost. Highly hands-on by design. Cooking, leading the team, and building the systems that make consistency possible at volume. In it, not above it.

The kitchen runs with Rational combi-ovens, tilt-skillets, and the full range of high-volume production equipment. Monday through Friday with some weekend production as needed.

What You Own

Production

• Run daily production from prep through portioning, packaging, and handoff to fulfillment. On schedule, on spec, every shift.
• Manage the cook team with clear expectations, real-time coaching, and direct accountability.
• Enforce portioning protocols to the gram. Every ingredient weighed and documented. The nutritional data on a customer’s app has to match what is in their container. That accuracy lives at this level.
• Manage scheduling, timekeeping, and support recruiting for the culinary team.
• Maintain food safety, sanitation, and cleanliness to the highest clinical standard. This kitchen produces meals for health-compromised individuals and GLP-1 patients.
• Build and maintain SOPs, portioning guides, and prep protocols. The kitchen runs on documentation and process, not memory and instinct.
• Develop the team. As the company upgrades its offerings and extends its lead, people ready to step into larger roles become essential. Building that talent is part of this job.

Soft-pedaling performance problems is not a cultural fit here.

R&D and Menu Execution

• Attend the weekly R&D call with both co-founders and the full culinary team. Dishes are built, killed, and reformulated in real time. Ideas are expected from everyone in the room.
• When a dish is approved, own the production buildout: yield testing, batch sizing, portioning documentation, plating standards, and team training.
• Taste everything. If a recipe is inconsistent at scale, find the root cause and fix it. The kitchen does not stall waiting for someone else to act.
• Develop recipes within the constraints: no gluten, dairy, refined sugar, or canola oil, while delivering food that competes with the best restaurants in the country.

Cost and Systems

• Analyze culinary operating budgets. Control costs of food, labor, and related purchases in line with the overall operating budget.
• Own food purchasing, inventory management, and production scheduling. Connect the sourcing workflow to kitchen execution so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Build and maintain SOPs, portioning guides, and prep protocols. The kitchen runs on documentation and process, not memory and instinct.
• Develop the team. As the company upgrades its offerings and extends its lead, people ready to step into larger roles become essential. Building that talent is part of this job.

The Facility

A 12,000-square-foot production facility in Concord, CA: 4,000 square feet of kitchen and prep space, 8,000 square feet of warehouse and order fulfillment. Active investment is ongoing: improved workflow between prep, cook, and portioning stations, added cold storage, and an optimized layout for how the team actually cooks, chills, and packages.

A search for new space is also underway. Over the next few years, the goal is a purpose-built production kitchen double our current size in Northern California, designed from the ground up for component-based cooking, precision portioning, cold chain management, and automation integration.

Non-negotiable

• 3+ years as CDC, Sous Chef, or higher in a high-volume batch cooking environment. Direct reports would rave about the experience of working for you.
• Strong proficiency with large-batch production equipment: combi-ovens, tilt-skillets, and similar.
• Proven experience with gluten-free, paleo, vegan/vegetarian, and specialty diet recipe development at volume.
• Precision mindset. Ingredients weighed, specs followed, nothing winged.
• Experience with food purchasing, inventory management, and production scheduling.
• Proficient in Google Suite (Docs and Sheets). Experience with payroll and timekeeping systems.
• Strong floor leadership. Clear communication, real accountability, no drama.
• Working understanding of food cost: yields, waste, and how every kitchen decision affects the P&L.

Strong Signals

• Fine dining background combined with high-volume execution. Someone who cares about how food tastes as much as how fast it comes out.
• Allergen-free, medically tailored, or clinical nutrition production experience.
• Comfort with food production equipment: enrobing machines, dough rounders, conveyor systems.
• ServSafe Manager certification (required within 90 days if not currently held).
• Genuine curiosity about nutrition and health outcomes. No degree required. Just care about why this food matters to the people eating it.