Research & Development Chef (Manager)

Orbital Kitchens • New York, NY

1d • $80,000 - $90,000

About The Position

The Research & Development Manager is a hands-on culinary developer and team lead responsible for day-to-day product development, testing, and commercialization across Orbital Kitchens' 20+ brands. The role delivers products that meet culinary quality standards, margin targets, and consistency requirements at volume. It is designed to grow into a Director of R&D role as the function scales.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of experience in culinary R&D, product development, or senior culinary roles, including taking products from concept to launch.
• Experience leading small teams or projects, with motivation to grow into a Director role.
• Strong culinary foundation and working knowledge of food science, recipe development, scaling, shelf life, yields, and food costing.
• Business sense to balance culinary quality with feasibility, cost, and margin.
• Strong project-management, documentation, and communication skills.
• Working knowledge of food safety, sanitation, QA, and HACCP, plus experience writing or supporting SOPs.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in high-volume, multi-unit, commissary, or manufacturing settings.
• Culinary or food science education.
• ServSafe certification.
• PCQI or SQF knowledge or certification.

Responsibilities

• Lead hands-on development of menu items, recipes, ingredients, and processes from concept through approval, including recipe testing, food costing, yield and shelf-life testing, stabilization, large-batch validation, and tastings.
• Manage concurrent R&D projects by setting priorities, timelines, testing requirements, and success criteria; keep projects moving, flag risks, and help shape pipeline priorities.
• Use food trends, competitor menus, sales data, and customer feedback to propose new products and menu improvements.
• Lead, train, and develop the R&D kitchen team; set daily priorities and foster creativity, disciplined experimentation, and clean documentation.
• Convert concepts into repeatable, production-ready products for a high-volume, multi-brand operation. Test under real production conditions and resolve labor, equipment, storage, capacity, workflow, and food safety issues before launch.
• Build accurate product costing and work with Procurement, Supply Chain, and Finance to meet food cost, yield, waste, and margin targets.
• Create complete recipes, specifications, yields, build sheets, and SOPs for approved products. Coordinate launches with Operations, Production, Training, and Marketing, including kitchen training and post-launch troubleshooting.
• Track product and launch KPIs, including sales, margin, quality, and on-time launches, and use results and operational feedback to improve products and processes.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed