EXECUTIVE CHEF - SEATTLE, WA

Compass Group•Bellevue, WA

8d•$90,000 - $105,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Executive Chef is responsible for culinary excellence, operational execution, team leadership, and controllable financial performance in a seven-day, multi-concept operation. Working within a compact kitchen footprint, varied menu portfolio, fluctuating demand, and lean staffing model, this highly visible, hands-on leader establishes disciplined systems to deliver consistent quality, efficient production, and reliable execution. The role develops the team, maintains culinary and operational standards, and drives continuous improvement. The Executive Chef leads recipe execution, food safety, production planning, kitchen throughput, order accuracy, fulfillment, and launch readiness. The position also owns controllable kitchen results, including food cost, labor productivity, purchasing, inventory, packaging consumption, waste, and contribution margin. The role partners with Culinary leadership, Operations Leadership, Finance, project partners, and platform partners to improve performance and customer experience.

Requirements

Culinary degree or equivalent progressive training and experience.
Typically 5+ years of progressive, hands-on culinary leadership.
Strong production planning, equipment utilization, menu engineering, quality control, and food safety expertise.
Demonstrated financial fluency in food cost, labor productivity, purchasing, inventory, packaging, waste, and menu profitability.
Demonstrated ability to build and develop a high-performing, cross-trained culinary team that adapts to changing operational demands.
Comfort with order-management technology, spreadsheets, and operational performance reporting.
ServSafe Manager certification or ability to obtain it as required.
Availability to support evening, weekend, and holiday operations according to business needs.

Nice To Haves

Experience in virtual-brand or ghost-kitchen operations.

Responsibilities

Own taste, recipe adherence, portioning, presentation, allergen controls, and food safety across virtual concepts and lunch and dinner service.
Partner with Culinary leadership on menu architecture and engineering, considering delivery suitability, ingredient cross-utilization, item complexity, customer demand, and contribution margin.
Validate packaging and product quality at handoff, including temperature, labeling, and suitability for off-premise consumption.
Plan production and deployment around forecast demand, equipment capacity, cooking methods, prep lead times, and available space.
Optimize station layout, sequencing, and shared equipment utilization to manage simultaneous concepts and order surges without compromising standards.
Use throughput, preparation times, bottlenecks, waste, and rework data to refine processes and manage capacity constraints.
Own controllable kitchen results for food cost, labor productivity, purchasing, inventory, packaging consumption, and waste.
Understand order-level economics, including menu mix, ingredients, packaging, labor, and contribution margin.
Partner with Operations Leadership and Finance to review performance, act on variances, and verify improvements without compromising customer experience.
Recruit, coach, schedule, and develop a versatile team able to shift among prep, cooking, assembly, packaging, and verification.
Build cross-training, clear station ownership, handoffs, and leadership coverage for seven-day lunch and dinner operations, including weekends and evenings.
Set clear expectations, observe performance, correct gaps promptly, and foster accountability, adaptability, and practical problem-solving.
Own kitchen order execution from receipt through preparation, assembly, packaging, final verification, and timely handoff to the designated delivery partner.
Enforce checks for items, modifications, add-ons, allergens, labels, and packaging, building a culture of order accuracy.
Monitor kitchen-attributable defects, ready-for-handoff performance, and customer feedback; resolve root causes with Operations Leadership and platform partners.
Lead kitchen readiness through recipe and packaging tests, equipment validation, staffing and training, service simulations, and documented procedures.
Identify unresolved dependencies and risks early, coordinate corrective actions with project partners, and make sound decisions as processes evolve.
Build repeatable production controls and verify sustained adoption as order demand, concepts, and operational complexity change.
Establish owners, monitor results, close execution gaps, and sustain improvements.