Director of Culinary/Corporate Chef

Job Description

Job Description

Director of Culinary / Corporate Executive Chef

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer

Location: Southeast Michigan (on-site, with regional travel)

Type: Full-Time, Exempt

The Opportunity

A beloved, decades-old pizza brand with a multi-unit restaurant group and a national frozen retail line is hiring one culinary leader to own both businesses. You'll protect a signature recipe, build what's next and make it repeatable, from the test kitchen to the restaurant line to a co-manufacturing plant.

What You'll Own

• Recipes and standards. Own the gold standard for dough, sauce, cheese, bake and portioning. Document, train and audit it across restaurants and retail product.
• Menu development. Lead new items, LTOs and catering from idea to launch, partnering with operations and marketing.
• Frozen product development. Take products from bench to shelf: formulation, gold standards, plant trials and first-production sign-off with the co-manufacturer. This is a hands-on role, not managing outside resources.
• Quality. Run regular quality checks in restaurants and on retail product, and fix drift at the source.
• Food cost. Partner with purchasing and finance on recipe costing, pricing and ingredient or supplier changes.
• Training and food safety. Build kitchen training and certification, and support allergen, nutrition and labeling accuracy.

What You Bring

• 8+ years in professional kitchens, including 3+ years as Executive Chef, Corporate Chef or Culinary Manager in a multi-unit restaurant company
• Hands-on bench-to-production experience with a co-manufacturer or plant (scale-up, specs, plant trials)
• Strong knowledge of dough, fermentation, baking and cheese; pizza or bakery experience is a strong plus
• A track record of launching menu items across multiple locations
• Recipe costing and food cost management
• ServSafe Manager certification (or ability to obtain it), plus working knowledge of HACCP, allergens and labeling
• Comfort training line cooks, presenting to retail buyers and talking margins with finance

Preferred: a degree in Food Science or a related field, CRC or CCS certification, frozen or CPG retail experience, and heritage-brand experience.

Why This Role

• An iconic brand with deep regional loyalty
• A seat at the leadership table, working directly with the CEO
• Two growing businesses with one standard behind both
• Competitive pay, bonus and benefits