Executive Chef

***Local candidates only***

***100% onsite role, primarily Monday through Friday (days)***

Our premier food manufacturing plant in Compton, CA (Gourmet Foods) was established in 1986 to create hand-crafted premium foods without compromising quality, flavor or consistency. We help Chefs create solutions to meet their growing demand by collaborating on menu ideas and providing items that are relevant and ahead of today’s flavor and lifestyle trends.

Gourmet Foods is searching for an Executive Chef, R&D, to lead their R&D activities.

Position Summary

The Executive Chef, Research & Development leads the day-to-day culinary R&D function for Gourmet Foods. Reporting to the Senior Director, Research & Development / Corporate Executive Chef. This role translates enterprise innovation strategy into an executable development pipeline and is accountable for culinary quality, project delivery, commercialization transition, and team performance.

The Executive Chef leads the R&D Manager and assigned R&D personnel, provides hands-on direction for complex and high-priority product development, and serves as a primary culinary partner to Operations, Sales, Quality Assurance, Procurement, Finance, Marketing, and Supply Chain. The role balances creativity with food science, manufacturing capability, food safety, cost targets, and customer expectations to move products successfully from concept through launch and continuous improvement.

Essential Responsibilities

R&D Leadership & Execution

• Translate the enterprise R&D strategy established by the Senior Director into annual priorities, project plans, and daily execution for assigned operations and customer programs.

• Own the active R&D pipeline, including project intake, prioritization, stage-gate readiness, resource allocation, timelines, risks, and status reporting.

• Establish culinary and technical standards for recipe development, sample preparation, sensory evaluation, documentation, and project handoff.

• Lead complex, high-value, or high-risk projects directly and escalate portfolio, resource, capital, or cross-business decisions to the Senior Director as appropriate.

• Promote a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration, urgency, and continuous improvement within the R&D organization.

Product Development & Culinary Innovation

• Lead new product development from customer brief and culinary concept through formula optimization, validation, and commercial implementation.

• Create and refine products that deliver against flavor, appearance, texture, nutritional, cost, shelf-life, packaging, and operational requirements.

• Direct culinary ideation sessions with customers, competitive reviews, trend exploration, product demonstrations, and customer tastings.

• Evaluate emerging ingredients, formats, technologies, and preparation methods for application across refrigerated, frozen, prepared food, appetizer, meal, and protein platforms.

• Drive improvement of existing products to strengthen consistency, manufacturability, profitability, customer satisfaction, and overall product quality.

Commercialization & Manufacturing Support

• Lead scale-up planning and partner with Operations and Quality Assurance to convert benchtop formulas into repeatable, efficient manufacturing processes.

• Coordinate and support plant trials, first production runs, process validation, yield confirmation, sensory approval, and launch follow-up.

• Ensure formulas, methods, ingredient specifications, process parameters, yields, product standards, and change records are accurate and complete before production handoff.

• Identify manufacturing constraints early and recommend practical formula, equipment, labor, sequencing, or process solutions.

• Troubleshoot product and process failures using structured root-cause analysis and implement corrective actions with Operations and Quality Assurance.

Customer & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as a senior culinary and technical partner during customer presentations, ideation sessions, product reviews, and plant visits.

• Partner with Sales to translate customer needs into clear, achievable development briefs, product solutions, and delivery timelines.

• Maintain strong working relationships with key customers and respond promptly to development feedback, product concerns, and changing requirements.

• Coordinate with Procurement and suppliers on ingredient sourcing, substitutions, technical functionality, availability, and cost.

• Collaborate with Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, Operations, and Quality Assurance to align product claims, costs, capacity, packaging, launch timing, and service expectations.

Quality, Food Safety & Documentation

• Develop products in accordance with applicable FDA, USDA, HACCP, SQF, GMP, allergen-control, labeling, and company food safety requirements.

• Partner with Quality Assurance to address regulatory requirements, product specifications, shelf-life needs, sensory standards, and validation plans.

• Ensure R&D records, formulas, revisions, samples, technical documents, and approvals are complete, traceable, and maintained within established systems.

• Act promptly on food safety, quality, employee safety, or regulatory concerns and escalate issues in accordance with company policy.

• Model safe practices in test kitchen, pilot, warehouse, and production environments and reinforce a strong food safety culture across the team.

Team Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop the R&D Manager and other assigned R&D personnel; set clear expectations, provide feedback, and hold the team accountable for results.

• Build team capability in culinary technique, food science, project management, commercialization, sensory evaluation, documentation, and customer communication.

• Establish team workflows, coverage, meeting cadence, kitchen standards, sample readiness, and project ownership.

• Support recruiting, onboarding, performance management, development planning, succession, and retention of R&D talent.

• Foster effective collaboration between R&D personnel across facilities and share knowledge, standards, and best practices.

Business & Financial Management

• Manage assigned departmental spending, ingredients, samples, outside services, travel, and resources within approved budgets.

• Evaluate product cost, yield, labor, throughput, and margin implications throughout development and commercialization.

• Identify and lead cost-reduction and value-engineering initiatives that protect product quality and customer requirements.

• Provide reliable project forecasts, resource needs, risks, and business-impact updates to the Senior Director.

• Perform other related duties and strategic projects as assigned.

Qualifications

Required

• Degree or formal education in Culinary Arts, Food Science, Food Technology, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

• Eight or more years of progressive culinary product development or food manufacturing R&D experience, including at least three years of team leadership or supervisory responsibility.

• Demonstrated success developing and commercializing refrigerated, frozen, prepared food, appetizer, meal, or protein products in a manufacturing environment.

• Strong culinary foundation combined with practical knowledge of formulation, ingredient functionality, sensory evaluation, scale-up, yields, costing, and manufacturing processes.

• Working knowledge of FDA, USDA, HACCP, SQF, GMPs, allergen controls, sanitation, and food safety requirements.

• Ability to lead multiple projects simultaneously, establish priorities, meet deadlines, and communicate risks and decisions clearly.

• Strong customer-facing, presentation, coaching, problem-solving, and cross-functional leadership skills.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and experience working with recipe, specification, product lifecycle, ERP, or project-management systems.

• Ability to travel to customer locations, suppliers, and industry events as business needs require.

Preferred

• Certified Executive Chef (CEC) or comparable professional culinary certification.

• Bachelor's degree in Culinary Arts, Food Science, Food Technology, Business, or a related field.

• Experience leading R&D for multiple product categories, customer channels, or manufacturing sites.

• Experience supporting private-label, hospitality, airline, retail, club, catering, or foodservice customers.

• Experience in a growth-oriented or private equity-backed food manufacturing organization.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• On-time execution of the assigned R&D project pipeline and development milestones.

• Successful plant-trial, first-run, and commercialization outcomes.

• Speed from approved brief to customer-ready sample and production launch.

• Customer acceptance, sample conversion, and satisfaction with product development support.

• Formula, specification, process, and change-control accuracy at handoff.

• Product quality, consistency, yield, cost, and gross-margin improvement.

• Timely closure of product or process issues and effectiveness of corrective actions.

• R&D team capability, engagement, performance, and retention.

• Cross-functional stakeholder satisfaction and adherence to approved resources and spending.

Working Conditions & Physical Requirements

• Work is performed in office, test kitchen, pilot, warehouse, and food manufacturing environments.

• Regular exposure to refrigerated, frozen, wet, hot, and active production areas; required use of personal protective equipment and adherence to site safety and sanitation practices.

• Ability to stand and work on the production floor for extended periods and lift up to 30 pounds, with or without reasonable accommodation.

• Periodic travel to company facilities, customer locations, suppliers, and industry events; occasional early, late, or weekend hours may be required for trials, launches, or customer needs.