Culinary Operations Manager

Overview

BUILT ON FLAVOR. FUELED BY PEOPLE. Kinder’s is a privately held, founder-led CPG company with a growing global footprint. We’re obsessed with flavor and passionate about making food unforgettable. As we expand globally toward $1 billion in revenue, we’re seeking smart, scrappy, flavor-obsessed people to come aboard. If you’re looking for a place where you can see the real impact of your work, this is it!

You’ll be part of a journey to add flavor to millions of meals and lives.

Kinder’s is seeking an experienced Culinary Operations Manager to join our team of passionate innovators who are bringing the future of flavor to consumers everywhere.

The Culinary Operations Manager will report to the Head of Culinary and will be a critical leader in strengthening collaboration, efficiency, and executional excellence of our culinary development engine. This role connects our culinary team to sourcing, R&D, innovation, marketing, field teams, and customer/consumer engagement initiatives. You will be the operational backbone of the culinary team, ensuring ingredient inventories are managed with precision, coordinating cross-functional requests, supporting innovation cycles, facilitating scale-up of new flavors and formulas, and building processes that enable chefs and product developers to work fast, clearly, and with strong alignment across the business.

• Ingredient Management
  • Manage all ingredient inventories, including receiving, tracking, replenishment, and documentation.
  • Partner with culinary team members to identify needs for new ingredients or raw materials.
  • Collaborate with Sourcing and R&D/PD on identification, vetting, and onboarding of new raw materials.
  • Ensure smooth coordination of ingredient availability for bench-top development, testing, and tastings.
  • Coordinate with technical resources to communicate flavor targets for new culinary concept development and document sensory notes, gaps, and refinements.
  • Coordinate with Sourcing and R&D/PD on documentation and tracking protocols to support food safety compliance and operational accuracy.
• Procurement & Vendor Management
  • Lead procurement of culinary supplies (utensils, cookware, small appliances, disposable goods, kitchen tools) as needed.
  • Procure food and ingredients for kitchen testing, tastings, and customer events in collaboration with Culinary leadership.
  • Manage kitchen-related vendors (cleaning services, equipment maintenance, suppliers of kitchen consumables).
  • Maintain vendor relationships, negotiate pricing, and assess performance to ensure service and value.
  • Coordinate with Finance to ensure accurate budget tracking and procurement policy compliance.
• Culinary Resource Coordination
  • Serve as the central point of contact for cross-functional requests for culinary support.
  • Coordinate culinary engagement in customer meetings, field marketing activations, internal events, media opportunities, and product demos.
  • Identify potential resourcing issues and coordinate with cross-functional partners to prioritize high-priority needs while maintaining workflow stability.
  • Communicate expectations, schedules, and deliverables clearly to internal partners.
• Culinary Development Pipeline Management
  • Identify key innovation meetings with cross-functional partners and maintain a master planning calendar for innovation and culinary.
  • Track progress across the full culinary development pipeline, including timelines, resource needs, risks, and dependencies.
  • Assign clear project ownership and maintain accountability for on-time delivery of milestones.
  • Schedule, prepare, and manage product tastings; ensure samples are presented accurately and documented for decision-making and approvals.
  • Keep leadership informed on development status and risk factors impacting timing or quality.
• R&D / PD Partnership & Coordination
• Act as a key partner to R&D and product development teams to transfer bench-top formulas into plant environments.
• Ensure all formula documentation, ingredient specifications, vendor details, and culinary intent are clearly communicated to R&D/PD teams.
• Support troubleshooting during scale-up by providing clear…