R&D Chef

RUPRECHT CO•Mundelein, IL

About The Position

The R&D Chef provides research-driven innovation of raw value-added proteins and fully cooked sous vide products, supporting Kilcoy Global Foods’ vision for high-quality growth and excellence in the food industry. The role develops and commercializes products for foodservice and retail, coordinating projects from bench-top testing through production and scale-up. It also provides culinary and technical support for internal and external events, customer presentations, and the sales team; overnight travel may be necessary. The position works mainly in an R&D kitchen and occasionally on a production floor. It has no supervisory responsibilities. Kilcoy operates under the SQF food safety system and continuous USDA meat and poultry jurisdiction. Team members are responsible for food safety and quality requirements, are trained and held accountable for relevant regulatory expectations, and should report food safety concerns to department management. Reasonable accommodations may be made for qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

Requirements

One to three years of R&D Chef experience.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office products.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to interact professionally with teammates, including in stressful situations.
Ability to problem-solve and organize a large volume of information in a fast-moving, dynamic environment.
Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
Self-starter with a strong work ethic and ability to prioritize workload for timely issue resolution.
Ability to communicate effectively with diverse internal and external stakeholders, listen effectively, and remain open to others’ ideas.
Ability to lead large-scale presentations and discussions as well as collaborative working sessions.
Knowledge of customer and personal service principles and processes, including assessing customer needs, meeting service quality standards, and evaluating customer satisfaction.
Knowledge or experience with a variety of commercial cooking equipment, including cleaning and maintenance.
Analytical thinking skills, including defining problems, extracting key information from data, testing and verifying causes, and developing workable solutions.
Ability to organize and prioritize work efficiently, adapt to multiple priorities and changing schedules, and pay attention to detail.
Ability to stand and walk for extended periods, sit for extended periods when needed, and occasionally lift or move up to 40 pounds.
Vision abilities including close vision, distance vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Culinary Arts with a concentration in food science or R&D preferred.
Experience with sous vide cooked proteins is a plus.
Intermediate-level proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite is mentioned.

Responsibilities

Participate in cross-functional teams to drive new product innovation.
Identify portfolio gaps through competitive analysis and conduct comparison shopping and competitive product analysis.
Create and execute trend-driven innovation ideas and formulas for foodservice and retail channels.
Coordinate multiple concurrent product development projects, from bench-top testing through production commercialization, for raw value-added proteins and fully cooked sous vide items.
Manage new product development projects and help establish specifications, including sourcing and qualifying ingredients, establishing equipment requirements, and determining manufacturing processes.
Assist operations and production with new product scale-ups.
Performance-test developed products based on their intended use cases.
Provide new product specifications to Regulatory, Sales, QA, and Purchasing.
Develop and validate cooking and reheating instructions for retail packaging and applicable foodservice items.
Process, schedule, produce, inventory, label, and ship product samples, including through FedEx.
Organize ingredient inventory and request ingredients needed for development projects.
Manage and conduct production sample evaluations and document results.
Prepare food for in-house evaluations, including shelf-life studies.
Serve as a culinary expert at internal and external events, including trade shows and sales calls.
Prepare and serve food for customer presentations.
Provide technical support to the sales team; overnight travel may be necessary.
Apply expert knowledge of industrial sous vide cooking, including CCPs, sensory objectives, and programming cooking apparatuses accordingly.
Know, follow, and enforce GMPs.
Perform other duties as assigned.
Follow food safety and quality requirements, stay accountable for food safety and regulatory expectations in the work area, and notify department management of food safety issues or concerns.