Principal Culinary Lead

Chick-fil-A is seeking a Principal Culinary Lead on the Culinary & Commercialization team, which is part of the Menu & Packaging team in Marketing. 

The Culinary & Commercialization team is responsible for cultivating remarkable food that drives Customer trust and brand value and is executable with excellence by Team Members.  This includes the development of craveable new menu items, the improvement of existing menu items to increase relevance and protect quality and developing menu process simplifications to improve the Team Member experience. 

This role requires leading with autonomy and collaborating with Menu Strategy, Category Leaders, Menu Services, Packaging, Production Design, Customer & Market Insights, Supply Chain, Food Safety, Supplier Quality & Safety, Operators and Team Members to achieve desired results. 

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, and for the Chick-fil-A brand.  It is important that this role be able to collaborate effectively across various teams as well as influence senior leadership and project leaders in regard to operational considerations.

Our Flexible Future model offers a healthy mix of working in person and virtually, strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community.

Menu Development:

• Drive growth for the organization through leading new menu development projects and enable growth through protecting the core menu. Responsible for defining the gold standard recipe target for menu items within category responsibilities of the role.
• Develop recipes or applications and convert them to final formulations for products and production.
• Work with autonomy to drive outcomes while managing relationships with suppliers, internal and external partners.
• Lead complex projects effectively and professionally to ensure stakeholders are informed and supportive, Restaurant Operator and customer expectations are met.
• Organize and lead product showings and customer taste tests.
• Conduct research on various topics such as ingredient functionality, processing technologies and consumer trends.
• Work hands-on in a kitchen/R&D facility, as well as in Restaurants, at suppliers or in manufacturing facilities.
• Participate in and lead cross functional project meetings.
• Conduct quality reviews, audits and shelf life studies.

Cross Functional Support:

• Provide subject matter expertise on complex projects to ensure product quality metrics and operational requirements can be attained.

Restaurant Operational Expertise:

• Responsible for deep understanding of the food production process and their impact to food quality and team member experience.  Responsible for spending time engaging in Chick-fil-A Restaurants, learning from Team Members and Operators on operational opportunities. 

Competence Development:

• 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.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

• Mastery of fundamental culinary techniques.
• Successful track record of creating, developing, and executing new menu items in a restaurant environment.
• Experience in designing and executing experiments, process, Sensory or consumer testing.
• Proven success in influencing at multiple levels across an organization.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills: highly collaborative with ability to build solid working partnerships across functional groups.
• Comfortable and confident presenting recommendations and answering questions to multiple levels of leadership – Executive Committee, Strategy Teams, Operators, Team Members, etc.
• 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.
• Commitment to maintain and guard confidential proprietary company information as appropriate.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Tools and Windows Operating Systems.

• Minimum of 8 years' professional experience in food product research and development. 

• 10 +  years’ professional experience in food product research and development.