Culinary R&D Manager
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Key skills for this role
About the Role
Flat White Specialty Coffee is seeking a creative and commercially driven Culinary R&D Manager to lead innovation and development of culinary portfolio across multiple brands.
Key Skills for This Role
Responsibilities
- Lead end to end development of new food concepts, menu items, seasonal offerings, and limited time promotions
- Conduct market research and identify emerging culinary trends, consumer preferences, and competitive opportunities
- Develop innovative recipes and products balancing creativity, operational feasibility, and profitability
- Create and maintain detailed recipe manuals, preparation methods, product specifications, and plating guidelines
- Establish standard recipes, portion controls, and yield management systems
- Collaborate with central kitchen and operational teams to ensure products can be efficiently produced at scale
- Improve production workflows, efficiency, consistency, and food cost management
- Lead product trials, pilot launches, and implementation plans for new menu introductions
- Establish quality benchmarks and conduct regular product evaluations
- Ensure compliance with food safety regulations, HACCP principles, and company standards
- Work collaboratively with Operations, Marketing, Procurement, and Training teams
- Provide culinary training and coaching to kitchen teams on newly developed products and procedures
Requirements
- Minimum 8–10 years of progressive culinary leadership experience
- At least 3–5 years in a senior leadership role such as Executive Chef, Group Executive Chef, Culinary Manager, or Culinary R&D Manager
- Experience managing large scale kitchen operations, high volume production environments, and central kitchen facilities
- Proven track record in menu development, recipe standardization, and culinary innovation
- Previous GCC experience strongly preferred
Full Job Posting
About the Role
- We are seeking a highly creative and commercially driven Culinary R&D Manager to lead the innovation, development, and continuous improvement of our culinary portfolio across multiple brands and concepts.
- This role is ideal for a seasoned culinary professional who combines the operational discipline of an Executive Chef with the creativity and strategic thinking required to drive food innovation and scalable production.
- The successful candidate will be responsible for creating innovative menu offerings, standardising recipes, optimising production processes, and ensuring operational excellence across both restaurant and central kitchen environments.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the end to end development of new food concepts, menu items, seasonal offerings, and limited time promotions.
- Conduct market research and identify emerging culinary trends, consumer preferences, and competitive opportunities.
- Develop innovative recipes and products that balance creativity, operational feasibility, and profitability.
- Drive continuous menu improvement through testing, analysis, and customer feedback.
- Create and maintain detailed recipe manuals, preparation methods, product specifications, and plating guidelines.
- Establish standard recipes, portion controls, and yield management systems.
- Develop comprehensive SOPs for food production and kitchen operations.
- Collaborate closely with central kitchen and operational teams to ensure products can be efficiently produced at scale.
- Improve production workflows, efficiency, consistency, and food cost management.
- Lead product trials, pilot launches, and implementation plans for new menu introductions.
- Ensure all products are commercially viable and operationally executable.
- Establish quality benchmarks and conduct regular product evaluations.
Experience
- Minimum 8–10 years of progressive culinary leadership experience.
- At least 3–5 years of experience in a senior leadership role such as Executive Chef, Group Executive Chef, Culinary Manager, or Culinary R&D Manager.
- Demonstrated experience managing large scale kitchen operations, high volume production environments, and central kitchen facilities.
- Proven track record in menu development, recipe standardisation, and culinary innovation.
- Experience working across multiple brands or concepts will be highly advantageous.
- Previous GCC experience is strongly preferred.
Required Competencies
- Exceptional culinary creativity and innovation capabilities.
- Strong commercial and financial acumen with food cost optimisation experience.
- Deep understanding of production planning, kitchen workflow design, and scalability.
- Excellent project management and organisational skills.
- Strong analytical, problem solving, and decision making abilities.
- Outstanding leadership and stakeholder management capabilities.
- Ability to translate culinary ideas into operationally sustainable products.
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