Director of Culinary Operations

Director of Culinary Operations

Location: Butter Beans Kitchen, Greater New York City Area

Reports to: VP of Operations

About Healthy Bites Collective

Healthy Bites Collective is a national K–12 food service platform uniting four regional leaders: Healthy Lunch Box (Houston), Twelve Oaks Catering (Dallas), Butter Beans Kitchen (New York), and Gourmet Gorilla (Chicago). Together, we bring decades of experience delivering high-quality, compliant, and student-focused meal programs.

Serving a diverse mix of public, private, and specialized schools, our collective leverages local relationships and cross-state expertise to provide tailored, efficient, and culturally responsive nutrition services. Schools benefit from our hands-on support and the innovation of a nationwide team committed to excellence in school nutrition.

The Opportunity

Healthy Bites Collective is seeking an experienced Director of Culinary Operations to lead production planning and drive operational excellence at Butter Beans Kitchen, a high-volume commissary producing approximately 30,000 meals per day for schools across the greater New York City area. This role is ideal for a production leader who thrives in a high-volume environment and treats inefficiency as a problem to be engineered out.

Reporting to the VP of Operations, this position owns end-to-end production planning, scheduling, and daily execution across procurement coordination, kitchen, packaging, and distribution. The Director will elevate the facility into a mature, systems-driven operation and build a food-safety-first culture, with clear accountability for yield, food cost, labor efficiency, on-time delivery, and audit-ready compliance. This is a builder role focused on making the operation measurably better, not simply keeping it running.

Key Responsibilities

· Own the master production schedule, translating menu, volume, and delivery forecasts into daily and weekly production, packaging, and labor plans for a large, high-volume kitchen operation

· Drive measurable improvement in labor productivity, yield, food cost, and throughput through process redesign, line balancing, and workflow standardization

· Establish standardized recipes, batch sizes, yields, and production standards, and hold adherence across shifts

· Own the facility food safety program, including HACCP plans, SOPs, sanitation and temperature controls, allergen management, and traceability, always keeping the operation audit-ready

· Ensure compliance with all local, state, and federal regulations related to food safety and nutritional standards, including applicable National School Lunch Program (NSLP) production and record-keeping requirements

· Coordinate with procurement to align purchasing, inventory turns, and cost targets with production capacity

· Track, analyze, and report KPIs (cost per meal, labor efficiency, yield, on-time delivery)

· Implement production and inventory controls and daily management routines (shift huddles, tiered accountability, visual management)

· Manage, staff, and develop the production, packaging, warehouse, and sanitation teams across shifts, and build bench strength through cross-training and documentation

Qualifications & Experience

· 4-7 years of experience in large scale food production and kitchen or commissary operations

· Demonstrated track record of measurably improving efficiency (labor, yield, food cost, throughput, or on-time delivery)

· Strong understanding of production planning systems, scheduling, and logistics

· Familiar with HACCP, USDA, and local health codes; hands-on experience owning food safety programs and passing regulatory and third-party audits

· Experience managing budgets, cost targets, and KPI dashboards

· Continuous-improvement experience (Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent) is a plus

· Experience in school food service or NSLP is a plus

· Strong leadership, organizational, and communication skills

· Passion for child nutrition, health equity, and educational impact

· Bilingual (Spanish/English) is a plus

Compensation

The base salary range for this position is $125,000 to $140,000 annually. This position is also eligible for a discretionary performance-based bonus, bringing total target compensation to $140,000 to $150,000. Actual compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and internal equity. This position is also eligible for our full benefits package outlined below.

Why Join Us?

At Healthy Bites Collective, you’ll support our mission to help schools serve meals that truly reinforce student health and learning. We’re a fast-growing, passionate company looking for people who bring energy, follow-through, and a drive to do meaningful work. If you want a mission, you can feel good about, and the chance to grow with a team that’s building something impactful, we’d love to meet you.

Benefits

Paid Time Off

Predictable weekday hours that follow the school calendar

Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)

Retirement Plan (401k, IRA) with company match

Life Insurance