Senior Director of Culinary

Retail and Dining Positions•Atlanta, GA

29d

About The Position

The Senior Director of Culinary will lead culinary operations across the Paradies Lagardère Dining Division and serve as the primary driver of the division’s culinary strategy. This role is responsible for developing and executing culinary standards, building and leading high-performing teams, supporting menu development and rollouts, ensuring brand partner execution, and serving as a key contributor to new concept development and new store growth. In close partnership with Operations Leadership, Brands, Food Safety, and Procurement, the Senior Director of Culinary will elevate quality, consistency, profitability, and guest experience across all dining concepts and locations.

Requirements

Proven experience leading multi-unit culinary operations and building scalable standards across a dining organization.
Demonstrated ability to develop culinary strategy and execute improvements in quality, training, consistency, and profitability.
Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence and collaborate across brands, operations, procurement, and food safety.
Ability to work various shifts in a 7/365 team-oriented environment and travel as needed to support locations.
Proactive, self-motivated, and self-directed; thrives in a fast-paced multi-site environment.
Strong commitment to guest service and culinary excellence.
Excellent communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
Demonstrated ability to meet goals and lead multiple priorities with flexibility and urgency.
Flexible work cycle; readily adapts to business, team needs, and change.
Analytical mindset with experience setting KPIs and using performance data to improve training outcomes.
Legal Age: 18 years
Bachelor’s degree in Culinary Arts, or equivalent experience.
10+ years Supervisory/Managerial Experience
12–15+ years of restaurant/hospitality culinary experience, including executive or senior culinary leadership.
5-7+ years of multi-unit culinary oversight, supporting multiple concepts and high-volume operations.
Demonstrated experience leading culinary strategy, menu development, and operational rollout execution across multiple locations.
Proven experience partnering with Brands and ensuring consistent execution of brand standards and culinary requirements.
Experience supporting new concept development and/or new store openings, including kitchen setup, training, and launch execution.
Strong experience in food safety and quality compliance (ServSafe required).
Experience working cross-functionally with Procurement, Food Safety, Operations, and Training teams to drive enterprise-wide initiatives.

Nice To Haves

Experience within corporate restaurant groups is preferred.
Hotel culinary leadership experience is a plus
Experience with Unions a strong plus
Proven experience building and maintaining strong culinary partnerships.
Experience partnering with regional and/or globally recognized chef partners preferred.

Responsibilities

Culinary Strategy & Leadership Develops and leads the overall culinary strategy for the dining division, aligning culinary standards, innovation, and execution with business objectives, operational capabilities, and guest expectations.
Establishes scalable culinary systems, processes, and performance expectations across all concepts and locations.
Acts as the senior culinary leader and strategic partner to Operations, Brands, Food Safety, and Procurement, driving alignment and shared accountability.
Leads continuous improvement initiatives based on performance metrics, audit results, operational feedback, and guest experience trends.
Culinary Standards, Quality & Compliance Creates, implements, and ensures Culinary Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are being followed in the areas of food safety, receiving, food storage, prep recipes, line procedures, recipe execution, and all culinary processes.
Performs executive-level culinary audits during store visits; observes, corrects, and trains culinary behaviors and standards to ensure consistency across all locations.
Measures recipe adherence and execution during restaurant visits (taste, plating, portioning, line procedures, etc.) and provides real-time coaching and corrective follow-up.
Partners with the Director of Food Safety to ensure food recall communications and processes are implemented quickly and consistently, ensuring unsafe product is not used in any location.
Menu Development & Rollout Execution Leads and supports menu development, recipe standardization, and rollout execution to ensure every item is operationally scalable, cost-effective, and delivers a consistent guest experience.
Develops, operationalizes, and trains weekly in locations from beginning to end — working with purchasing, training, food safety, and operations.
Assesses and evaluates new menu items after rollout; measures success through quality checks, team adoption, guest feedback, and financial performance.
Implements seasonal menu offerings and culinary programs to support local suppliers and enhance the guest experience.
Brand Partner Execution Works with Brand partners to ensure adherence to brand standards, culinary expectations, and operational requirements.
Builds strong brand partner relationships by ensuring execution consistency, responsiveness, and proactive culinary leadership.
Serves as the culinary lead during brand reviews, operational evaluations, and cross-functional strategy calls.
Conducts monthly calls with Brand chef partners as applicable to drive culinary best practices, execution improvement, and continuous development.
Procurement, Vendor Partnerships & Food Cost Optimization Collaborates and helps support/lead company-wide dining procurement strategy in partnership with key stakeholders, including vendor relationships, supplier alignment, and escalated delivery issues.
Serves as liaison between Suppliers and Operations to ensure product availability, quality, and consistency.
Monitors purchasing practices, pricing, and product availability; communicates best practices and anticipated price fluctuations to operations teams.
Implements best practices and corrective actions to lower food cost, reduce waste, and improve overall restaurant profitability.
Identifies best practices, troubleshoots underperforming restaurants, and drives corrective action plans to improve execution and results.
Standardizes culinary tools, smallware’s, and equipment used in restaurants and ensures each location supports the standard.
Team Development & Training Leads the selection, development, and performance coaching of Culinary Leaders and high-potential chefs across the portfolio.
Partners with operations leadership to strengthen the people pipeline by identifying future chef candidates with strong culinary skills and leadership potential.
Supports operations in the certification of Chefs and Culinary Leaders on culinary processes, SOPs, and execution expectations.
Builds and maintains training standards and development pathways to improve team capability, retention, and performance across multiple locations.