AM Line Cook

Orbital Kitchens•New York, NY

About The Position

The supplied job description describes a Research & Development Manager who leads hands-on culinary product development, testing, and commercialization across Orbital Kitchens' 20+ brands. The role develops products that meet culinary quality, margin, and high-volume operational consistency goals, and is intended to grow into a Director of R&D role as the function scales. The manager oversees concurrent projects from concept through launch, leads and develops the R&D kitchen team, and works with Procurement, Supply Chain, Finance, Operations, Production, Training, and Marketing. The position also ensures products are production-ready, properly documented, costed, food-safe, and evaluated after launch for continued improvement.

Requirements

At least 3 years in culinary R&D, product development, or senior culinary roles, including taking products from concept to launch.
Experience leading small teams or projects, with the drive to grow into a Director role.
Strong culinary foundation and working knowledge of food science, recipe development, scaling, shelf life, yields, and food costing.
Business sense to balance culinary quality with feasibility, cost, and margin.
Strong project-management, documentation, and communication skills.
Working knowledge of food safety, sanitation, QA, and HACCP.
Experience writing or supporting SOPs.

Nice To Haves

High-volume, multi-unit, commissary, or manufacturing experience.
Culinary or food science education.
ServSafe certification.
PCQI or SQF experience.

Responsibilities

Lead hands-on development of menu items, recipes, ingredients, and processes from concept through approval.
Conduct recipe testing, food costing, yield and shelf-life testing, stabilization, large-batch validation, and tastings.
Manage concurrent R&D projects, setting priorities, timelines, testing requirements, and success criteria; flag risks and help shape pipeline priorities.
Use food trends, competitor menus, sales data, and customer feedback to propose new products and menu improvements.
Lead, train, and develop the R&D kitchen team; set daily priorities and promote creativity, disciplined experimentation, and clean documentation.
Scale concepts into repeatable, production-ready products for a high-volume, multi-brand operation; test in production conditions and resolve labor, equipment, storage, capacity, workflow, and food-safety issues before launch.
Build accurate product costing and collaborate with Procurement, Supply Chain, and Finance to meet food cost, yield, waste, and margin targets.
Write recipes, specifications, yields, build sheets, and SOPs for approved products.
Coordinate product launches with Operations, Production, Training, and Marketing, including kitchen training and post-launch troubleshooting.
Track product and launch KPIs, including sales, margin, quality, and on-time launches, and use results and operational feedback to improve products and processes.