Sr. Manager, F&B New Ventures
About The Position
The Senior Manager, New Ventures – Food & Beverage identifies, evaluates, and implements innovative products, ingredients, and vendor partnerships to improve culinary execution, operational efficiency, and cost effectiveness across the fleet. The role works with culinary, supply chain, operations, finance, brand teams, and external vendors to develop ideas, conduct data-driven assessments, and bring scalable solutions to market. It oversees analytics and insights related to new ventures and manages one Specialist and one Analyst. Approximately 50% travel is required for vendor engagement, tastings, testing, ship visits, and fleet-level implementation.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Culinary Arts, Hospitality Management, or a related field.
- Minimum of 7 years of experience in large-volume food and beverage operations, such as cruise lines, casinos, conventions, airlines, hotels, or comparable environments.
- Demonstrated experience sourcing products or ingredients at scale while balancing cost, quality, and operational constraints.
- Proven ability to collaborate cross-functionally and influence stakeholders at multiple levels.
- Strong analytical skills, including experience overseeing data analysis, financial assessments, and performance metrics.
- Ability to travel approximately 50% of the time, including ship visits, vendor facilities, and industry events.
Nice To Haves
- Experience managing and developing direct reports.
Responsibilities
- Identify, source, and evaluate new food, beverage, ingredient, and production-driven products that support culinary disciplines and large-scale execution.
- Build and manage strategic relationships with external vendors, manufacturers, and partners aligned with cost, quality, and operational standards.
- Lead new venture ideation with Culinary, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Brand teams.
- Oversee data analytics, financial modeling, and performance assessments related to new products, vendors, and initiatives.
- Evaluate products for fleetwide scalability, consistent execution, and operational feasibility.
- Drive sourcing strategies for ingredients and products to ensure consistent quality and execution across the fleet.
- Ensure new products meet established cost targets, quality benchmarks, and food safety requirements.
- Plan, organize, and lead product tastings, trials, and validations with culinary leadership and key stakeholders.
- Develop business cases, pilot plans, and post-implementation reviews to inform go/no-go decisions.
- Manage and mentor a Specialist and an Analyst, providing direction, performance feedback, and professional development.
- Partner with procurement and supply chain teams to support contract negotiations and vendor onboarding.
- Stay current on industry trends, emerging technologies, and innovative solutions in high-volume food and beverage environments.
- Perform other job-related functions as assigned.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
