Research Chef, Culinary Innovations

Job Details: Job Location: DC6 DLine - Graham, NC 27253, Position Type: Full Time, Salary Range: $78,000.00 - $95,000.00 Salary/year, Travel Percentage: Moderate | 25-50%, Position Summary

The Research Chef, Culinary Innovation is a key culinary innovation leader within AFI Labs. This role translates customer needs, consumer insights, culinary intelligence, and technical possibilities into commercially relevant food and beverage solutions.

The Research Chef combines culinary creativity with product development, sensory expertise, project leadership, and customer consultation. This person leads assigned innovation projects, establishes culinary gold standards, collaborates with Food Scientists through development and commercialization, and serves as a trusted food and beverage subject matter expert.

The right candidate is equally comfortable creating in the kitchen, collaborating in the laboratory, leading an ideation session, presenting to customers, evaluating products, exploring markets, and working through the realities of commercial manufacturing.

Key Responsibilities

Culinary Innovation & Product Development

• Lead culinary development for customer and internal innovation projects from concept through validated gold standard.
• Create food and beverage concepts grounded in customer objectives, consumer needs, market opportunities, and operational realities.
• Establish culinary gold standards including recipes, preparation methods, sensory attributes, ingredient expectations, and finished product targets.
• Translate culinary intent into actionable development direction for Food Scientists and technical teams.
• Collaborate with R&D through formulation, prototype development, sensory evaluation, scale-up, and commercialization.
• Apply practical knowledge of ingredient functionality, food science, processing, food safety, and Good Manufacturing Practices.
• Identify culinary, technical, operational, ingredient, and equipment challenges and help develop practical solutions.

Project & Customer Leadership

• Independently manage multiple innovation projects, priorities, timelines, and deliverables with strong ownership and follow through.
• Maintain accurate recipes, development records, sensory observations, decisions, and project documentation.
• Communicate progress, risks, resource needs, and decisions clearly across project teams.
• Serve as a culinary consultant and innovation partner for customer projects.
• Understand customer brands, consumers, products, operations, and business objectives, then translate those needs into actionable culinary solutions.
• Lead and support customer presentations, tastings, demonstrations, product reviews, and innovation sessions.
• Represent AFI Labs with confidence, preparation, professionalism, and strong customer presence.

Ideation, Trends & Consumer Insights

• Design and facilitate structured ideation and brainstorming sessions for customers and internal teams.
• Convert broad opportunities into focused concepts with clear consumer, culinary, operational, and commercial relevance.
• Maintain current knowledge of local, domestic, and global food and beverage developments.
• Track emerging flavors, ingredients, cuisines, formats, technologies, equipment, consumer behaviors, and cultural influences.
• Maintain strong awareness of foodservice, QSR, fast casual, retail, convenience store, and relevant adjacent channels.
• Conduct market visits, competitive reviews, menu research, and food and beverage immersions.
• Translate consumer, competitive, and market intelligence into practical innovation opportunities.

Sensory Leadership

• Apply advanced sensory acuity across flavor, aroma, texture, appearance, and the overall eating and drinking experience.
• Evaluate prototypes, ingredients, competitive products, and finished applications with consistency and discipline.
• Establish clear sensory targets and benchmarks for development projects.
• Communicate sensory observations using precise, actionable language while separating personal preference from customer, consumer, brand, and application requirements.

AFI Labs Capability Building

• Strengthen AFI Labs through culinary education, training, knowledge development, and experiential learning.
• Develop and lead food and beverage training programs for customers and internal teams.
• Create category, cuisine, ingredient, technology, and market immersions that build knowledge and inspire innovation.
• Develop reusable culinary resources, reference standards, applications, and training materials.
• Support customer experiences, demonstrations, tours, innovation sessions, and special events.
• Identify tools, technologies, ingredients, equipment, and methodologies that expand AFI Labs capabilities.

Industry Partnerships

• Build productive relationships with ingredient suppliers, equipment manufacturers, culinary organizations, technical experts, customers, and other food industry resources.
• Leverage external expertise to accelerate development and expand innovation capabilities.
• Maintain awareness of emerging ingredient technologies, processing capabilities, equipment, and commercial solutions.
• Coordinate supplier demonstrations, technical sessions, product evaluations, and collaborative development as needed.

Work Environment & Travel

This is a full-time, onsite position within AFI Labs. Regular presence in the innovation center is an essential requirement of the role.

The position works across culinary kitchens, R&D laboratories, sensory environments, customer presentation spaces, manufacturing facilities, supplier locations, and market environments. Travel of up to 40% is required based on customer engagements, supplier collaboration, market research, industry events, product trials, and business needs.

Schedule flexibility is required. Customer engagements, travel, product trials, events, and special projects can occasionally require early mornings, evenings, extended hours, or weekend support. The position also requires the ability to stand for extended periods, perform culinary and development work, safely operate commercial culinary equipment, and handle ingredients, supplies, samples, smallwares, and equipment associated with normal culinary and R&D activities.

Qualifications

• Culinary degree from an accredited institution or equivalent culinary education and professional training preferred.
• Professional experience in research culinary, product development, culinary innovation, applications, commercialization, or another commercial food and beverage development environment is strongly preferred.
• 7+ years of relevant professional experience is desirable. Candidates with fewer years who demonstrate exceptional culinary acumen, commercial product development experience, sensory expertise, creativity, and customer-facing capability are encouraged to apply.
• Demonstrated experience developing food or beverage concepts for commercial applications beyond traditional restaurant or foodservice kitchen execution.
• Experience collaborating with Food Scientists, R&D teams, manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, commercialization teams, or similar cross-functional technical partners.
• Working knowledge of food science, ingredient functionality, food safety, Good Manufacturing Practices, and commercial food processing.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to independently manage multiple priorities and respond constructively to changing direction.
• Strong customer-facing presence with experience presenting ideas, products, recommendations, or technical information to customers or business stakeholders.
• Working knowledge of consumer insights, sensory evaluation, competitive benchmarking, and market intelligence.
• Valid driver's license, reliable transportation, and strong professional references required.

Alamance Foods Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against persons because of age, race, color, creed, religion, disability, gender, ethnic or national origin, or veteran status. Alamance Foods Inc. prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities and will reasonably accommodate applicants with a disability, upon request, and will also ensure reasonable accommodation for employees with a disability.

Employment Eligibility: Alamance Foods Inc. participates in the federal E-Verify program. All employment is contingent upon the successful completion of a Form I-9 and verification of authorization to work in the United States.