Research And Development Chef Jobs in Wheeling, IL

Job Type
Full-time
Description
Provide research driven innovation of raw value-added proteins and fully cooked sous vide products that align with Kilcoy Global Foods vision for unparallel high quality growth and excellence within the food industry.
Role and Responsibilities
• Participate & contribute to cross-functional teams to drive new product innovation
• Identify gaps in our portfolio through competitive analysis of our categories
• Comparison shop and perform competitive product analysis
• Create and execute trend innovation ideas and formulas for foodservice and retail channels
• Coordinate multiple concurrent product development projects (raw value-added protein and fully cooked sous vide items) from bench top testing to production commercialization
• Manage new product development projects and assist in setting specifications to include sourcing/qualifying ingredients, establishing equipment requirements, determining manufacturing processes for new products
• Assist operations/production in new product scale ups
• Performance test developed products based on use case
• Provide new product specifications to Regulatory, Sales, QA and Purchasing
• Develop and validate cooking & reheat instructions for retail packaging and applicable foodservice items
• Process, schedule, produce, inventory and ship product samples (Labeling, FedEx, etc.)
• Organize ingredient inventory and request necessary ingredients for development projects
• Manage and execute production sample evaluations and document results
• Prepare food for in-house evaluations including shelf-life studies
• Culinary expert for internal and external events (trade shows, sales calls, etc.)
• Prepare and serve food for customer presentations
• Provide technical support services to sales team. Overnight travel may be necessary
• Expert knowledge of industrial sous vide cooking including robust understanding of CCP's combined with the sensory objective and the ability to program our cooking apparatuses accordingly
• Know, adhere to and enforce all GMP's
• Performs other duties as assigned
Requirements
Supervisory Responsibilities
This position has no supervisory responsibilities.
Qualifications and Education Requirements
• Bachelor's Degree in Culinary Arts with concentration in food science / R&D preferred
• 1 to 3 years R&D Chef Experience
• Must be Proficient in MS Office Suite with intermediate
• Experience with Sous Vide cooked proteins is a plus
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Proven ability to interact with teammates in a professional manner, including under stressful situations
• Proven ability to problem solve and organize a large volume of information in a fast moving, dynamic environment
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a team
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Products
Core Competencies, Knowledge, and Skill Requirements
Candidates should be self-starters with a strong work ethic and the ability to prioritize their workload to ensure timely issue resolution. In addition, this individual should possess the following skills:
• Communication and Presence: Effectively conveys information and expresses thoughts and facts to a diverse audience of both internal and external stakeholders. Demonstrates effective use of listening skills and displays openness to other's ideas and thoughts. Can lead large-scale presentations and discussions as well as collaborative working sessions.
• Customer and Personal Service: Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Kitchen Management Experience: Must have knowledge/experience of variety of commercial cooking equipment (including cleaning and maintenance).
• Analytical Thinking: Must be able to identify and define problems, extract key information from data and develop workable solutions for the problems identified to test and verify the cause of the problem. Develop solutions to resolve the problems identified.
• Organization: Organize and prioritize your own actions efficiently. Be flexible and react favorably to multiple priorities, changing schedules and daily assignments while paying attention to detail.
Work Environment and Physical Requirements
The work environment is mainly an R&D Kitchen and occasionally a production floor. This position requires the team member to:
• Required to stand and walk for an extended period of time
• Sit for an extended period of time, when needed
• Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance, vision, color vision, and the ability to adjust focus.
• Occasionally lift and/or move up to 40 pounds.
• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate to loud.
Food Safety
Kilcoy has adopted the SQF System for food safety management and is under continuous USDA meat & poultry jurisdiction. All Kilcoy team members are responsible for food safety and quality requirements. Team members will be regularly informed, trained, and held accountable for managing food safety and regulatory expectations within their work areas. Team members should notify their department management about any food safety issues or concerns to be adequately addressed.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential job duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.
The salary range for this position is $65,000 - $75,000 annually. This range reflects our good faith estimate at the time of posting. Final compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and internal equity.