R&D Chef

Scope of Position

On the culinary team, supervised by the R&D Culinary Lead, the Sr. Culinary Product Developer is responsible for developing Chinese food products from concept to commercialization. This person will be proficient in culinary research, analysis, development, documentation, and presentation.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a passion for Asian cuisine who feels at home marrying analytical and creative approaches to sophisticated culinary and business challenges.

Responsibilities

• Distill insights from researching culinary and competitive landscape. Define key product characteristics and propose product culinary and functional design.
• Develop gold standard recipes based on defined north stars and functional requirements.
• Synthesize feedback from varying points of view.
• Lead & own food development projects and deliver results on time.
• Assess commercialization tradeoffs and propose data-backed solutions.
• Produce and document recipes and operating materials
• Stay up-to-date with food trends, market research, and culinary techniques to create innovative new products
• Source ingredients and equipment
• Travel occasionally; less than 10%
• Occasional local errands (ingredients)
• Occasional industry trade show or food events (1 - 2 times/year)
• Be onsite full-time at HQ in Sumner, WA.
• Ad hoc culinary duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Expert in Asian food, with a POV you can speak/cook to
• Effective researcher who knows where/when to invest development resources
• Proficient in developing gold-standard dishes with clear paths to commercialization
• Self-motivated. Ability to take direction well, ask questions, and work independently and efficiently.
• Strong business communicator. You know when to keep it short, but how to go into detail.
• At-home collaborating with cross-functional, and external teams; verbally, in writing, in-person, and remote.
• Strong in productivity tools: MS Office, Google Suite. Proficient in Excel or Sheets. Familiarity with Notion and Slack is a plus.

Education & Experience

• 5+ years of applied culinary knowledge (restaurants, recipe development, product development, stages, cooking abroad, etc.). Preferably 3+ years of work on CPG scale products.
• A Culinary degree is preferable, but not required if the culinary foundation is strong