Operational Lead (Culinary)

Bias to action. You act now to help fix a company's menu, kitchen, and margins.

Culinary craft with a business lens. You can support menu innovation and engineering, but you think about them in terms of food cost, labor, and contribution margin — not just flavor and creativity.

Strong interpersonal skills. In co-management situations, you work collaboratively with the president as their partner. In interim management situations, you calm the nerves of the kitchen and front-of-house teams, and instill confidence in the employee-owners.

Love of implementation and operations. This is not an ivory tower strategy or R&D chef role. It's to quickly develop menu and operational changes, and implement them in a working kitchen. You are both the chef and the CEO — comfortable on the line and in the P&L.

Running towards the fire. You can handle tough conversations about underperforming products, waste, or margin. A restaurant losing money is an intellectual puzzle, not something you run from.

Meaningful culinary experience in a scratch kitchen (e.g., chef, kitchen manager, culinary director, or similar) combined with operational or small business leadership experience

Track record of menu development, engineering, and costing — you understand recipe costing, food cost percentage, and how menu design drives margin

Business acumen and analytical skills to oversee company financials — P&L, COGS, labor cost — and translate that into culinary and operational decisions, akin to a President's lens on the business

Demonstrated people leadership skills, ideally managing kitchen or restaurant teams

Strong interpersonal and communication skills; low-ego

Entrepreneurial mindset and a desire to build

Project-management and problem-solving skills with a roll-up-the-sleeves, get-it-done attitude

Growth-mindset and a willingness to explore new ideas and innovations; not afraid to learn from your mistakes

An ability to think creatively, be adaptable and curious