Research & Development Director (Culinary)
About The Position
The Director of Research & Development is a culinary innovator, strategic operator, and people leader who runs Orbital Kitchens' R&D function. The Director owns product development from concept through commercialization, delivering products that taste great, hit margin targets, and run consistently at volume across the company's 20+ brands and production kitchens. The role sets R&D strategy, builds and prioritizes an innovation pipeline, leads product development and commercialization, and manages a high-performing R&D team. It ensures concepts become repeatable, production-ready products by validating operational feasibility, quality, food safety, cost, and profitability. The Director partners with Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, Production, Training, and Marketing to launch products, document specifications and procedures, and continually improve performance.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of experience in culinary R&D, product development, or related food-industry leadership, including leading teams and taking products from concept through commercialization.
- Strong culinary foundation and knowledge of food science, recipe development, scaling, shelf life, yields, food costing, production systems, and quality control.
- Business acumen to balance culinary quality with feasibility, cost, and margin.
- Excellent project-management skills across multiple concurrent initiatives.
- Strong leadership, communication, analytical, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Working knowledge of food safety, sanitation, QA, and FDA, USDA, state, and local regulations.
- Experience developing or supporting SOPs, SSOPs, and HACCP plans.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in high-volume, multi-unit, commissary, or manufacturing environments.
- Culinary or food science education.
- ServSafe, PCQI, or SQF certification.
Responsibilities
- Set culinary R&D strategy based on company growth objectives, brand priorities, market opportunities, and operational needs.
- Build and prioritize an innovation pipeline that maximizes return on R&D resources.
- Lead the development and improvement of menu items, recipes, ingredients, concepts, processes, and technologies.
- Set standards for taste, quality, consistency, scalability, and profitability.
- Own the product lifecycle, including concept development, recipe testing, food costing, yield and shelf-life testing, stabilization, large-batch validation, tastings and approvals, launch, and post-launch review.
- Manage concurrent projects with clear priorities, timelines, and success criteria.
- Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing R&D team; establish expectations and accountability while fostering creativity, disciplined experimentation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Validate labor, equipment, storage, capacity, workflow, food safety, and execution complexity to ensure products and systems are production-ready.
- Partner with Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Operations to manage food cost, yields, waste, sourcing, and margin without compromising quality.
- Deliver complete recipes, specifications, yields, build sheets, quality standards, and SOPs for approved products.
- Lead product launches with Operations, Production, Training, and Marketing, validate results, and hand off clear ownership.
- Set R&D KPIs and use sales, margin, operational feedback, and launch results to improve the development process.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
Education Level
No Education Listed
