Culinary Innovation Manager (Sonic)

Inspire Brands•Brookhaven, GA

About The Position

The Culinary Innovation Manager should bring a creative viewpoint to all new product development, while delivering relevant food and beverage concepts to the SONIC guest. This position will lead and manage product development of new products and execution of strategic initiatives as it relates to all segments and dayparts from concept approval to product launch, including bringing concepts to life through consumer and in-store testing. It will be critical for this role to partner with cross-functional teams to deliver products that best meet successful criteria for consumer, operations & financial goals. At SONIC, we encourage and attract wildly creative people. Bold, unique personalities whose passion for what they do shows in the food, the experience and the culture of our brand. Sound like you? Join us as we deliver delightful and delicious moments to our guests! Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 33,000 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide. We’re made up of some of the world’s most iconic restaurant brands, but we’re much more than just a restaurant company. We’re a team of hundreds of thousands who individually and collectively are changing the way people eat, drink, and gather around the table. We know that food is much more than a staple—it’s an experience. At Inspire, that’s our purpose: to ignite and nourish flavorful experiences. Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 33,000 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants across nearly 60 global markets. In an industry facing increasing disruption, our leaders saw an opportunity to build a restaurant company unlike any other – one that brings together differentiated yet complementary brands and aims to make them stronger than they would be on their own. Found inherently in the purposes of our family of brands, we identified a common thread between our restaurants – the capacity to inspire. From guest experience to career development to community well-being, Inspire plays a role in the lives of millions of people every day. Our brands are diverse, distinctive, and fan favorites. In a sense, you could say we seek those who provide something different than the norm.

Requirements

2 Year Degree Preferred - A culinary or Food related degree is preferred for this position
3-5 years’ experience in a culinary or product development role required.
Experience in QSR culinary development highly preferred
Ability to think strategically, be detail oriented and respond quickly to business needs
Bring creativity to menu development and trend dives for the team
Excellent communication and presentation skills, especially the ability to explain difficult concepts and insights in applicable business terms.
Ability to summarize insights into PowerPoint presentations in clear and understandable calls to action.
Ability to collaborate and motivate across the operations, supply chain, field, and marketing teams.
Self-starter with the ability to project manage and handle multiple assignments simultaneously and meet all desired deadlines.
Strong leadership, sales support, project management and training skills
Understanding how to take products or programs through a development and testing process
Effective problem-solving skills and ability to listen and translate details accurately
Should possess an innate curiosity and growth mindset

Responsibilities

Support the Product Innovation team and Director of Culinary in delivering against organizational and personal goals, objectives, and strategies
Work independently on development projects, with check-ins and guidance from supervisor as needed
Participate in the creation of new product development objectives while collaborating with cross functional teams including Category Management, Brand Experience, Operations, Procurement, Commercialization, Quality Assurance, and others as appropriate
Independently work with vendor partners to develop new products from gold-standard products to initial benchtop samples and through commercialization process.
Own development of products.
Make recommendations for improvements to current prototypes.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams in the development and creation of product specifications on commercialized products with vendor partners, Commercialization Quality Assurance, and other teams as necessary
Lead product taste tests and new product showings
Present product improvement/change recommendations based on taste test results and/or feedback to Culinary Innovation leadership
Partner with Procurement Team to develop accurate food & paper formulas.
Plan and execute Product Showcase events to (and not limited to) SONIC Senior Management, Board of Directors, Franchise Community, Marketing Leadership, Shareholders & SONIC National Convention
Provide guidance and support to other product developers
Other duties assigned as needed