Senior Manager, Culinary Operations

Cinemark•Plano, TX

About The Position

As part of our Cinemark Universe, you'll discover fun opportunities with real growth potential and plenty of perks. With 500+ theatres and nearly 6,000 screens; we're truly a global presence of 20,000 movie lovers working together to make unforgettable experiences. Role Summary: The Senior Manager, Culinary Operations is responsible for supporting and driving the enterprise in culinary management by defining governance, establishing readiness standards, and driving end-to-end implementation of culinary strategy into scalable, executable systems across locations enterprise-wide. This role manages and supports culinary leaders, partners with Operations to drive operational consistency, and ensures menus, processes, and kitchens perform efficiently while meeting brand, quality, and financial expectations. This position functions as an F&B operational partner—with deep interconnection across various departments including but not limited to field and support center Operations teams to drive flawless execution, Marketing team to ideate and drive innovation, Finance, Sourcing, Distribution, and Risk Management teams.

Requirements

5 years of corporate culinary leadership experience in multi-unit environment required (20+ locations preferred)
Strong understanding of food cost, labor models, and kitchen systems required
Proven ability to lead culinary development at scale required
Experienced in building cross-functional partnerships in a corporate environment required
Customer focus
Business acumen
People leadership and coaching
Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills
Planning and organization
Change management and problem-solving
Analytical mindset with multi-tasking abilities
Willing to travel up to 15% of the time.

Nice To Haves

Background in restaurant, stadium, hospitality, healthcare, or contract dining environments preferred
Experience with menu rollouts, new unit openings, or system standardization preferred
Comfortable using operational data and KPIs to drive decisions

Responsibilities

Operational Engagement Ensure culinary programs are executable, consistent, and operationally sound across all assigned locations
Partner with Operations to align menu execution with labor models and kitchen workflows
Identify and resolve execution gaps impacting food quality, speed, or cost
Support new unit openings with culinary readiness, training, and launch execution
Maintain relationships and alignment with vendors, partners, and key suppliers to ensure readiness, spec adherence, and operational viability/feasibility
People Management & Development Directly manage R&D coordinator(s)
Conduct performance reviews, goal setting, and development planning
Partner with the operations team to coach leaders on execution standards, accountability, and team engagement
Identify high-potential culinary talent and support succession planning
Menu & Systems Execution Support and drive menu rollouts by ensuring recipes, prep systems, and station builds are operationally viable
Partner with Operations, Marketing, Finance, Sourcing, and Distribution on feasibility reviews
Partner with Operations to ensure culinary documentation (SOPs, prep guides, execution tools) is accurate and utilized
Monitor SKU complexity and provide recommendations to simplify execution
Participate in menu change governance and execution readiness discussions
Recommend menu, process, and system improvements; escalates enterprise-level decisions
Financial & Performance Accountability Support food cost, waste reduction, and portion control initiatives
Monitor operational KPIs tied to culinary performance (food cost variance, execution audits, labor impact)
Partner with Finance, Sourcing, and Distribution teams to address cost pressures and product substitutions
Identify opportunities to improve margin through operational efficiency
Own all culinary SOPs, training content, equipment guides, and testing protocols, ensuring materials are intuitive, executable, and continuously improved through field feedback loops
Field Leadership & Compliance Conduct regular field visits, kitchen audits, and execution reviews with the Operations team
Ensure adherence to brand standards, food safety policies, and culinary SOPs
Present and lead corrective action plans when standards are not met
Support food safety and quality assurance initiatives through corrective action and training