Home Chef is building new ways to navigate the booming meal kit delivery industry. Our team is a unique mix of creators, chefs, entrepreneurs, and trailblazers and we’re growing quickly. Our customer-first mentality, combined with a zest for supporting our peers, helped us bring home Built in Chicago’s Startup of the Year Moxie award in 2017. If you’re ready to be part of the action, we’re ready to connect with you. There are no limits to where we can go together.

The Ingredients Excellence Lead will head up all of Culinary’s ingredient-related priorities, building an optimized mix of ingredients that serve as the inputs for all Home Chef meals. This role is an opportunity to construct the strategy, tools, and processes that lead to an ingredient pantry that will support the growth of our current product and give life to our new product offerings.

Optimize Ingredient Pantry:

• Build out strategy for the optimal pantry: the right mix of ingredients, introducing new ingredients, and retiring redundant ingredients
• Own & improve new ingredient and sampling processes: track new ingredients from idea to menu, identifying and solving bottlenecks
• Ability to translate patterns & data into recommendations, then implementation
• Maintain clean, updated information on active ingredients internally
• Inform & empower culinary team to make delicious meals through transparent systems regarding ingredient-related changes, initiatives, and introductions

Procurement Support:

• Execute cross-functional projects that require both culinary and food supply chain expertise
• Act as the voice of the culinary team in food procurement planning meetings and projects
• Help food procurement team balance key culinary priorities (nutritional guidelines, flavor/experience, cost, portioning) to ensure the right sourcing decisions are being made
• Develop proactive solutions through tools & processes to reduce and eliminate substitution-related touchpoints

New Recipe Development:

• Be actively involved in the recipe tasting and and improvements that happen in the test kitchen - everyone on the team is expected to participate in the creation of our product
• Taste and provide constructive, thoughtful feedback daily on all meals chefs develop, including red meat, vegetarian, soy, seafood, shellfish, and pork (no allergies or restrictions can be accommodated)
• Contribute actively to ideation sessions for menus and new meal ideas
• Ensure recipes consistently meet nutritional & portion size expectations
• Review ingredient-related portion of recipe cards & online recipes for accuracy

Qualifications:

• Passion for food & willingness to eat all meals created by chefs (allergens and dietary restrictions cannot be accommodated)
• 2-4 years of experience in a fast-paced work environment with quick turnaround & deadlines
• Flexible: you thrive in an environment of frequent change
• Strong proclivity towards processes and systems: you see patterns quickly and develop solutions that scale to future problems
• Strong communicator and relationship builder
• Highly organized and solution-oriented
• Bachelor’s Degree, or relevant work experience

Perks and Benefits:- Candidates can experience Home Chef as a customer - enter promo code PEOPLE30 for $30 off your first order!- Direct access to senior management – our leadership team works alongside our team members every day- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance- Generous paid time off (PTO) policy- 401k program - Flexible spending accounts for qualified medical, dependent care, parking, or transit expenses- Free water taxi, discounted gym membership, and daily bike storage for Wrigley building employees- Cold brew coffee on tap at no charge- Employee discounts for Home Chef meal kits- Free lunch every Friday and snacks and beverages on hand every day- Casual dress Home Chef is an equal employment opportunity employer