Culinary Project Manager (Food Science)
About The Position
The Culinary Project Manager serves as the culinary voice behind CHEF iQ smart cooking products, combining culinary expertise, food science, and project management to define and validate product performance. The role focuses on rigorous, repeatable testing and maintaining quality, including the safety and cooking experience of products and content. The position defines culinary performance standards, provides feedback on hardware, firmware, software, and UI/UX, writes and maintains standardized testing procedures, evaluates products throughout development, and tests firmware and app releases. It also oversees real-food testing of product presets, conducts competitive research, and turns findings into quality benchmarks and product recommendations. The role manages culinary workstreams for new products, coordinating timelines, deliverables, milestones, and cross-functional collaboration. It organizes Guided Cooking recipe content and supports Marketing, Copywriting, photo and video teams, packaging review, Sales inquiries, and product demonstrations. The position is onsite in Mahwah, New Jersey. Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Culinary Arts, or a related field; alternatively, a culinary degree plus equivalent hands-on experience.
- At least 3 years of culinary experience in product development or test kitchen work.
- At least 2 years of project management or coordination experience, ideally on cross-functional product teams.
- Hands-on experience writing and running product or food testing procedures.
- Experience with competitive testing, benchmarking, or market research for consumer products.
- Extensive culinary expertise, including technique and validating standards, and a deep understanding of smart kitchen technologies.
- Food science knowledge applied to food testing.
- Ability to create organized reports combining culinary and technical results.
- Ability to plan, prioritize, and track multiple projects and deadlines.
- Exceptional communication skills across teams, including translating technical and culinary information for non-technical audiences.
- Excel data analysis skills, including averages, variance, and charts across test runs.
- Strong organization, attention to detail, and critical thinking about product performance.
- Collaborative, flexible, and respectful of others’ opinions.
- Authorization to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
Nice To Haves
- Recipe development experience.
- Food science testing background with sensory experience, such as Sensory Scientist, Food Technologist, or R&D or test kitchen roles.
- Experience testing small kitchen appliances or smart and connected consumer products.
- Restaurant experience.
- Some familiarity with AI tools.
Responsibilities
- Define and communicate culinary performance and experience standards for all CHEF iQ products.
- Provide culinary feedback on hardware, firmware, software, and UI/UX.
- Use testing data to challenge product decisions that could compromise cooking performance or food safety.
- Maintain quality control for CHEF iQ products and content.
- Write, standardize, and maintain testing procedures to produce repeatable results across testers, units, and SKUs.
- Assess products at each development stage and provide clear feedback and recommendations.
- Test and validate firmware and app releases, documenting bugs, features, and enhancements for the appropriate teams.
- Oversee presets for all products and test them with real food.
- Develop product function charts and conduct market research, including competitive testing, to set quality benchmarks.
- Track competitor launches and culinary features and turn findings into product and positioning recommendations.
- Manage culinary workstreams for new products, including timelines, deliverables, and milestones.
- Serve as the main contact for product-related culinary questions across teams.
- Partner with UI/UX, Software, Firmware, and Product Development on features and new products.
- Present testing results and clear recommendations to Product Development.
- Keep spreadsheets current and communicate the status of each product.
- Organize Guided Cooking recipe content for development and release.
- Support Marketing, Copywriting, photo, and video teams with content, functionality explanations, and packaging review.
- Support Sales with product demonstrations, cooking demos, and product inquiries.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
