Culinary R&D Manager

Revolution Foods•Bell, CA

About The Position

At Revolution Foods, we’re redefining what school food can be, fresh, flavorful, and built to scale. We serve hundreds of thousands of meals each week, and this role sits at the center of that impact. We’re looking for a Culinary R&D Manager who can bring together culinary creativity, product development, and operational execution. This is not a bench-only role; you will take ideas from concept to full-scale production, ensuring they deliver on taste, nutrition, and consistency across our sites.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience) in Culinary Arts, Food Science, Nutrition, or related field
5–8+ years of experience in culinary R&D, product development, or high-volume food production, with a strong focus on scratch cooking and recipe commercialization
Proven ability to take products from concept → development → production → scaled execution across multiple sites
Hands-on scratch cooking expertise, with the ability to build recipes from raw ingredients and scale them effectively
Experience developing and scaling recipes for high-volume production environments (e.g., 100K+ meals/week or multi-site operations)
Strong understanding of flavor development, ingredient functionality, and production scalability
Ability to operate in both a creative culinary environment and a fast-paced production setting
Experience supporting customer tastings, presentations, or culinary showcases
Strong problem-solving mindset with a focus on root cause analysis and continuous improvement
Ability to collaborate cross-functionally and influence without authority

Nice To Haves

Experience in K–12, CPG, food manufacturing, or large-scale foodservice environments
Familiarity with USDA meal programs (NSLP, SBP, CACFP)
Bilingual Spanish (written and verbal) is a big plus

Responsibilities

Develop and refine craveable, nutritious recipes aligned with USDA and internal standards
Lead end-to-end product development: concept → kitchen trials → production → scaled rollout
Identify gaps in current offerings and drive new product innovation, including scratch-cooked meals
Elevate flavor, quality, and presentation across the menu
Own recipe formulation, yields, and documentation to support high-volume production
Scale recipes from kitchen to multi-site production environments (100K+ meals/week)
Lead internal tastings, ingredient trials, and product validation
Translate culinary concepts into clear SOPs, recipe cards, and meal assembly standards
Partner closely with Operations and spend time on the production floor to ensure successful execution
Support first production runs and troubleshoot real-time challenges
Drive continuous improvement across recipes, workflows, and processes
Act as a hands-on problem solver, fixing root causes, not just symptoms
Lead student tastings and sampling sessions to validate product success
Gather and apply qualitative and quantitative feedback to refine recipes
Ensure meals are not just compliant, but genuinely enjoyable and repeatable for students
Partner with Sales to support customer presentations, tastings, and product showcases
Deliver high-quality, visually compelling food presentations that help win new business
Translate culinary innovation into customer-ready experiences and narratives
Work closely with FSQA, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Production to ensure feasibility and consistency
Align on ingredient sourcing, substitutions, and cost considerations
Ensure smooth handoff from R&D to Operations across all sites