Product Development Chef, Culinary Innovation

Position Summary

Roth Foods is seeking a creative, passionate, and commercially minded Product Development Chef, Culinary Innovation to lead the culinary development of innovative, high-quality food products for our branded portfolio and private label retail customers.

This position combines culinary expertise, consumer insights, food trend knowledge, and practical food manufacturing experience to develop differentiated products that deliver exceptional taste, quality, convenience, and consumer appeal. The chef will collaborate with Product Development, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Quality Assurance to translate concepts into commercially viable products.

Location & Work Environment

This is a full-time, on-site position based at Roth Foods’ Denver, Colorado office, with periodic travel to our manufacturing facility in Colorado Springs, as well as occasional travel for customer meetings, industry trade shows, and other business activities.

At Roth Foods, we believe a collaborative, in-office culture is essential to driving innovation and business success. Working together in person fosters stronger relationships, deeper business understanding, greater team camaraderie, and faster, more effective decision-making. We believe this environment encourages creativity, strengthens cross-functional collaboration, and ultimately delivers better business results.

As a key member of our Product Development team, the chef will play an active role in this collaborative environment, working closely with colleagues across the organization to bring innovative food concepts to market.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead culinary development of new food concepts for Roth Foods’ branded products and private label customers, incorporating feedback from customers, retail merchants, and internal leadership.
• Identify emerging food trends, flavors, cuisines, ingredients, and consumer preferences to inspire new product innovation.
• Partner with Marketing to lead culinary ideation sessions and develop differentiated concepts aligned with customer needs and market opportunities.
• Develop and refine recipes, formulations, and prototypes through hands-on culinary experimentation, sensory evaluation, and iterative testing.
• Provide culinary expertise and hands-on support preparing samples for new product presentations and enhancements to existing products.
• Develop product improvements based on sensory testing, consumer research, customer feedback, and product performance data.

Commercialization & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Production, Supply Chain, Finance, and other cross-functional teams to ensure products are operationally executable, scalable, cost-effective, and profitable.
• Collaborate with Product Development and Operations to translate culinary concepts into commercial manufacturing processes while maintaining intended flavor, appearance, texture, and quality.
• Work with Quality Assurance on ongoing evaluations of product performance, consistency, and quality; identify opportunities for improvement.
• Interface with technical consultants, contractors, and internal team members to support shelf-life studies, USDA regulatory approvals, and other technical requirements.
• Support commercialization, including production trials, product specifications, and finished-product quality validation.

Customer Engagement & Industry Leadership

• Attend meetings with key retail customers to present culinary innovations, demonstrate concepts, and support customer-specific development.
• Attend industry trade shows, customer innovation events, and culinary conferences to showcase capabilities and identify trends.
• Collaborate with Sales and Marketing on culinary presentations and product demonstrations that communicate differentiation.
• Serve as a culinary resource on applications, flavor profiles, preparation methods, and food trends.

Culinary Kitchen & Innovation Center Leadership

• Manage the internal culinary development kitchen, maintaining an organized, efficient, professional environment for innovation, sampling, and demonstrations.
• Participate in planning, design, equipment selection, and development of the Roth Innovation Center.
• Establish culinary development processes, kitchen operating standards, and best practices.
• Coordinate culinary resources, ingredients, equipment, and sample preparation for development initiatives and customer presentations.

Qualifications & Experience

Required

• Culinary degree from an accredited institution or equivalent professional culinary experience.
• 7+ years of progressive culinary experience, including meaningful culinary innovation, R&D, or commercial food product development.
• Ability to translate innovative recipes into scalable, commercially manufactured products.
• Strong knowledge of food trends, ingredients, flavor development, cooking techniques, and consumer preferences.
• Experience working across Product Development, Operations, Marketing, Sales, and Quality Assurance.
• Strong communication, presentation, organization, and project management skills.
• Ability and willingness to work on-site in Denver and travel as required.

Preferred

• Experience developing products for food manufacturing, CPG, retail grocery, or other commercial food channels.
• Experience with refrigerated prepared foods, fully cooked proteins, sauces, entrées, and complete meal solutions.
• Experience developing branded and private label products for major retail grocery customers.
• Familiarity with commercial food processing, packaging technologies, refrigerated shelf life, and reheating performance.
• Working knowledge of USDA/FDA requirements, food safety standards, and quality assurance.
• Experience with sensory evaluation, consumer testing, and product optimization.

Key Competencies

• Culinary Creativity — Develop distinctive, craveable concepts that reflect evolving consumer preferences.
• Commercial Acumen — Understand ingredient costs, manufacturing capabilities, retail pricing, and profitability.
• Consumer Focus — Translate customer needs and consumer insights into compelling innovations.
• Collaboration — Work effectively across functions and with customers.
• Execution — Move multiple projects from ideation through commercialization.
• Culinary Leadership — Elevate product quality and innovation throughout the organization.

Measures of Success

• Strong pipeline of differentiated concepts for branded and private label opportunities.
• Successful commercialization of innovative, high-quality, profitable products.
• Positive customer response to presentations, samples, and innovation initiatives.
• Measurable improvements in existing product quality, consumer acceptance, and sensory performance.
• Effective collaboration and timely project execution.
• Successful establishment and operation of the Roth Innovation Center.