Company Profile:
At CAVA we make it deliciously simple to eat well and feel good every day. We are guided by a Mediterranean heritage that’s been perfecting how to eat and live for four thousand years. We prioritize authenticity, curiosity and the pursuit of excellence in everything we do. We are working towards something big, together.
We foster a culture built on five core values:
- Generosity First, Always: We lead with kindness. Our best work happens when we act in service of others.
- Constant Curiosity: We are eager to learn, grow, and explore beyond the obvious.
- Act with Agility: We welcome change; it’s the only constant. We embrace, adjust, adapt.
- Passion for Positivity: We greet each day with warmth and possibility.
- Collective Ambition: We have high aspirations that are achieved when we work together with a shared purpose.
Senior Manager, Culinary Innovation & Commercialization
The Senior Manager, Culinary Innovation & Commercialization role is focused on driving culinary development and delivering industry-leading menu items that support business growth for CAVA. This role will be focused on initiatives that enhance CAVA’s guest experience and help sustain and scale restaurant growth. Critical to the role is the ability to understand all strategic briefs/processes and identify culinary solutions that deliver on our concept essence.
CAVA is a very active environment with multiple key initiatives being driven forward at any given time. This role will need to have capacity to lead multiple areas of focus at the same time and must be comfortable in ambiguous and fast-paced environments, where more needs to be done with less. The scope of these multiple initiatives will range across all disciplines, including, but not limited to Commercialization, Operations, Packaging, Equipment, Sustainability, etc. Successful teamwork and the ability to work effectively across disciplines will be essential within this role.
This job description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all the duties and responsibilities of the position, and such duties and responsibilities may change without notice.
Job Summary
We are seeking a skilled and innovative individual to fill the role of Senior Manager, Culinary Development. You will be responsible for scaling and commercializing products from prototype to launch, overseeing the development and execution of culinary projects, and ensuring the seamless integration of new recipes and processes into our culinary operations. The successful candidate will possess a deep understanding of culinary development, strong organizational and managerial skills, and have a passion for creating exceptional food experiences for team members and guests.
What You’ll Do:
Commercial Development Functions
- Support consumer and supplier testing, internal cuttings as well as operation and market testing.
- Track and measure testing effectiveness, focusing on team member impact and ease of recipe execution.
- Partner with operations to support training content and delivery for new seasonal rollouts.
- Drive commercial development and refinement after concepting/ bench innovation through scale up and launch including, but not limited to, product matching, ingredient testing, hold, yield, and portioning analysis.
- Navigate creative culinary innovation with technical R&D, food science to support cross-functional collaboration across Operations, Finance, FSQA and Supply Chain.
- Support product scale-up in test kitchens, commissaries, or co-manufacturing environments, including coordination of plant trials and evaluations and postproduction adherence audits.
- Manage creation and maintenance of project development, including standardized recipes, ingredient specifications, nutritional data, allergen declarations, and process SOPs.
- Drive new and existing supplier discovery to include collaborative R&D efforts, process improvement and the generation of CAVA product specifications.
- Identify and establish the critical culinary components within the menu that help to maintain the highest food quality standards for CAVA on a continuous basis.
Financial Analysis Functions:
- Conduct initial COGs and labor analysis to support target performance KPIs to inform project priorities and key areas for improvement and value add engineering.
- Navigate ambiguity and measure what matters- determine measurable and actionable objectives throughout testing and development process and distill findings and drive solutions.
- Partner with FP&A on cost parameters to ensure product profitability and performance expectations.
- Reformulate recipes whenever necessary to allow for greater cost controls, without compromising established food quality standards.
The Qualifications:
- Strong leadership and team management skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate others.
- Experience with product scaleups and commercialization.
- 5+ Years working in a similar role with multi-unit restaurant organizations or experience with operations management, supply chain logistics, or manufacturing preferred.
- Ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects and initiatives simultaneously.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Outlook, SharePoint, and Adobe Creative Suite.
- Strong leadership skills with a proven ability to develop and implement training programs.
- Track record of demonstrable skillset in development strategy with operational focus.
- Qualitative and quantitative approach to problem solving and a drive for continuous process improvement.
- Relationship-focused -strong team orientation and collaborative style.
Physical Requirements:
- Ability to maintain stationary position to be able to operate a computer and other office equipment
- Must be able to identify, analyze and assess details
- For certain positions, must be able to occasionally move or transport items up to 50 pounds
- Ability to communicate with others and exchange information accurately and effectively
- Constantly positions self and move about to support ordinary restaurant or food production support or office operations, as applicable
- Ability to work in a constant state of alertness and in a safe manner
What we offer:
- Competitive salary, plus bonus and long-term incentives*
- Early Wage Access!
- Unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, plus paid opportunities to give back to the community
- Health, Dental, Vision, Telemedicine, Pet Insurance plus more!
- 401k enrollment with CAVA contribution
- Company-paid STD, LTD, Life and AD&D coverage for salaried positions*
- Free CAVA food
- Casual work environment
- The opportunity to be on the ground floor of a rapidly growing brand
- All exempt and non exempt employees are eligible for benefits. Benefits are effective the 1st of the month following 30 days of service and you have until the day before the effective date to enroll. A new hire can enroll in our benefit program by selecting a link that is emailed directly to the new hire at their personal email address once hired.
- Please note that visa sponsorship is not available.
- The posting range is an all cash range.
*Indicates qualifying eligible positions only
CAVA – Joining “A culture, not a concept”
This job description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all the duties and responsibilities of the position and such duties and responsibilities may change without notice. As an equal opportunity employer, CAVA considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, height, weight, marital status, sexual orientation, familial status, genetic information or any other characteristic or protected classes as defined by federal, state, or local law.
