Culinary Director

About Happier Grocery

Happier Grocery is a health-forward Grocery Store that seeks to provide a lifestyle oasis for New Yorkers. We are committed to providing the highest quality food and lifestyle experience.

Our mission is to create a shopping experience where customers can feel confident in their choices without needing to scrutinize every label. We strive to be a place of community, positivity, and life-affirming nutrition—where exceptional products, thoughtful hospitality, and meaningful experiences come together to support healthier, happier lives.

The Opportunity

Happier Grocery is seeking an experienced and results-driven Culinary Director to lead all Prepared Foods operations across multiple locations. This role owns the financial, operational, and quality performance of the Prepared Foods business, including Hot Bar, Grab & Go, prepared meals, salads, sandwiches, soups, and other culinary offerings.

The Culinary Director is accountable for achieving sales growth, controlling food and labor costs, reducing waste, ensuring food safety compliance, maintaining operational consistency, and developing a high-performing culinary team. This leader will establish scalable systems and processes that enable stores to execute exceptional culinary programs consistently, efficiently, and profitably.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Financial & P&L Leadership

• Own the complete financial performance of the Prepared Foods Department across all locations.
• Drive sales growth, margin expansion, and profitability through effective labor management, production planning, waste reduction, and merchandising strategies.
• Monitor and manage key performance indicators, including food cost, labor cost, prime cost, waste, shrink, inventory accuracy, and gross margin.
• Develop corrective action plans when financial results fall below established targets.
• Maintain accountability for departmental budgets and operational performance.

Production Planning & Operational Excellence

• Design and manage comprehensive production systems that ensure the right products are produced in the right quantities at the right time.
• Develop production schedules, prep plans, station workflows, and replenishment standards across all culinary operations.
• Utilize sales trends, seasonality, events, weather patterns, and historical performance data to forecast production needs.
• Establish and continually optimize production pars, batch sizes, labor deployment, and production sequencing.
• Monitor production versus sales performance and rapidly adjust plans to maximize freshness, availability, and profitability.

Waste Reduction & Product Utilization

• Lead company-wide waste reduction initiatives through forecasting, inventory management, production planning, and operational discipline.
• Implement systems to track, analyze, and reduce waste by location, department, station, product, and shift.
• Conduct root-cause analysis of significant variances and implement sustainable corrective actions.
• Partner with Produce and store leadership to recover and repurpose usable ingredients into approved culinary offerings whenever operationally appropriate.
• Create a culture of continuous improvement focused on full-product utilization and waste recovery.

Labor Management & Workforce Optimization

• Monitor labor productivity, overtime, scheduling effectiveness, and workforce utilization.
• Develop cross-training programs that create flexibility and operational resilience across culinary stations.
• Improve labor efficiency through workforce planning, process improvements, and performance management.

Culinary Operations & Guest Experience

• Establish and maintain operating standards that ensure consistency across all store locations.
• Oversee recipe execution, portion control, product quality, freshness, availability, and presentation standards.
• Ensure guests receive a consistent, high-quality experience regardless of location or shift.
• Conduct regular operational reviews and culinary walks to evaluate execution and identify improvement opportunities.

Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance

• Lead food safety programs and ensure compliance with all applicable health and regulatory requirements.
• Oversee temperature controls, product labeling, allergen management, sanitation practices, and food handling procedures.
• Ensure stores maintain inspection readiness and that managers consistently execute food safety standards.
• Drive ongoing food safety training, coaching, and compliance accountability.

Recipe Development, Costing & Inventory Control

• Own recipe standardization, food costing, yield management, and portion specifications.
• Analyze actual versus theoretical food costs and implement corrective measures when needed.
• Establish inventory standards, ordering requirements, and forecasting processes.
• Prevent excess inventory, spoilage, and stockouts through disciplined inventory management practices.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Build, coach, and develop culinary managers, supervisors, and team members.
• Establish clear performance expectations and accountability standards.
• Lead training programs focused on culinary execution, food safety, productivity, and operational excellence.
• Develop a highly capable, cross-trained team that can execute effectively without direct day-to-day oversight.

Merchandising, Presentation & Brand Standards

• Own the visual presentation and merchandising standards of all prepared food offerings.
• Ensure displays remain clean, fully stocked, visually appealing, and customer-ready throughout operating hours.
• Establish accountability for presentation standards, product rotation, replenishment, and quality inspections.
• Maintain culinary areas, service counters, equipment, and customer-facing environments to the highest standards of cleanliness and organization.

Reporting & Performance Management

• Create and maintain a recurring culinary performance scorecard.
• Track and report sales, labor, food cost, waste, inventory, productivity, food safety compliance, and operational performance metrics.
• Present insights and recommendations to executive leadership and drive measurable improvement initiatives.

Principal Skills and Attributes Required

• 7+ years of progressive culinary leadership experience in grocery retail, food service, commissary operations, prepared foods, or multi-unit hospitality environments.
• Demonstrated experience managing P&L responsibility and achieving financial performance targets.
• Strong knowledge of food cost management, labor planning, inventory control, forecasting, and operational analytics.
• Expertise in food safety, sanitation, HACCP principles, and regulatory compliance.
• Proven ability to build systems, develop talent, and drive operational consistency across multiple locations.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and leadership capabilities.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, growth-oriented retail environment.
• Ability to travel between locations regularly