Director of Culinary Operations and Procurement

ABOUT US

Rethink Food is a chef-led nonprofit partnering with restaurants to better feed communities.

Through strong partnerships with local restaurants and community-based organizations, we work with a responsive, hyperlocal network that provides culturally celebrated, nutritious meals. Since 2017, we've served over 35 million meals and reinvested more than $157 million into local economies.

Our work falls into three core areas:

• Building the Network: We connect restaurants, community-based organizations, and food donors to deliver meals where they're needed most.
• Setting the Example: Through our Sustainable Community Kitchen, we demonstrate what dignified, community-centered food access can look like.
• Advocating for Change: We champion policy and systems change to create a more sustainable, equitable food future for all.

ROLE SUMMARY

We are seeking a Director of Culinary Operations and Procurement who pairs a serious culinary background with rigorous sourcing and compliance discipline. The ideal candidate came up in professional kitchens and moved into dedicated procurement and operations work. You can read a spec sheet and a cost model with equal fluency, hold a purveyor to a delivery standard, and keep a production kitchen clean, organized, and inspection-ready.

You will partner with our culinary team to build the operational systems and standards that keep the kitchen running, and you will own procurement end to end - category strategy, purveyor relationships, competitive bids, contracts, and negotiations. You will also own the permits, HACCP programs, and USDA and city inspection readiness that our Sustainable Community Kitchen depends on. This is a hands-on, onsite leadership role that works closely with Culinary, Operations, Finance, and Programs, and serves as our primary point of contact with vendors, inspectors, and regulators.

In our agile environment, your role extends beyond core duties - it's an invitation to amplify your influence. You'll be expected to proactively leverage your diverse talents, contributing across a variety of initiatives to directly achieve our shared objectives.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Culinary Operations

• Collaborate with the Culinary Team: Identify daily and seasonal procurement needs, balance inventory, and source ingredients that align with menu development and the communities we serve. Work alongside the team on the line during production peaks, service pushes, and events.
• Operational Systems Design: Build out, implement, and maintain robust standard operating procedures for receiving, prep, production, storage, and cleaning so the kitchen runs seamlessly, efficiently, and predictably.
• Sanitation & Efficiency Standards: Establish systems, schedules, and accountability loops that ensure the culinary team is working clean, organized, and in strict compliance with the highest food safety and sanitation standards.
• Yield, Waste & Food Cost Discipline: Build and maintain ingredient, recipe, meal, and unit-cost models covering yield and trim loss, freight, rebates, payment terms, waste, spoilage, and price variance. Track verified savings and report budget risks and opportunities early.
• Agile Budget Management: Monitor supply chains, seasonal agricultural shifts, and market price fluctuations to protect operational budgets while maintaining high ingredient standards.
• Kitchen Equipment & Cold Chain Reliability: Own preventive and corrective maintenance, work orders, service vendors, and replacement planning for kitchen equipment, refrigeration, and cold storage. Building systems, security, janitorial, capital projects, and fleet operations sit outside this role.
• Emergency Readiness: Lead response to equipment failures, utility interruptions, and food-safety incidents. Maintain escalation protocols and business-continuity plans so people, food, and operations stay protected.

Vendor Relations & Procurement

• Purveyor & Vendor Relations: Cultivate, maintain, and expand relationships with local farms, regional growers, specialty distributors, and culinary purveyors. Bring your own network and keep building it.
• Category Strategy & Sourcing: Own purchasing for food, packaging, supplies, smallwares, equipment, and kitchen service vendors. Translate program and production needs into clear specifications, volumes, and sourcing plans.
• Contracts & Negotiation: Lead RFPs, RFQs, vendor diligence, competitive bids, negotiations, contracts, and service-level agreements. Secure volume pricing and hold firm quality, consistency, and delivery terms. Maintain alternate sourcing and continuity plans so a single supplier cannot stop production.
• Procurement Records & Grant Compliance: Maintain procurement records, conflicts documentation, cost/price analyses, and required clauses for applicable government- and grant-funded purchases.
• Supplier Performance: Maintain approved-supplier files, insurance, licenses, certifications, and food-safety documentation. Use scorecards and corrective-action plans to manage quality, service, delivery, and price, and develop qualified local, small, and diverse suppliers, including MWBE-eligible businesses, where practical.
• Planning & Inventory: Partner with Culinary and Programs on demand forecasts, PAR levels, purchasing calendars, receiving standards, cycle counts, inventory turns, cold-chain control, and reduction of shrink, spoilage, and emergency buys.

Permits, Food Safety & Compliance

• USDA & Regulatory Permits: Identify, secure, document, and maintain all applicable permits and inspection readiness across USDA-FSIS, FDA/FSMA, NYC DOHMH, New York State Agriculture and Markets, and OSHA. Determine jurisdiction, keep permits and records current, and coordinate inspections, audits, regulators, and specialist advisors.
• HACCP Program Ownership: Maintain and continuously improve HACCP plans and records, including hazard analyses, critical control points, monitoring, verification, deviations, corrective actions, reassessment, record review, retention, and employee training.
• Meat Processing, Sanitation & Traceability: Maintain compliant meat-processing controls, sanitation SOPs, GMPs, approved-source documentation, receiving and production records, lot traceability, temperature controls, storage records, and recall readiness.

Leadership & Reporting

• Cross-Functional Bridge: Act as the strategic link between the kitchen floor, logistics, finance, and programs to align ingredient sourcing with yield tracking, waste reduction, and community meal execution.
• Tech Stack & Reporting: Oversee procurement, inventory, and maintenance software to automate ordering, minimize waste, and produce clear food cost, compliance, and operational reporting for Operations, Culinary, Finance, and executive leadership.
• Team Leadership: Lead staff, vendors, and contractors through clear SOPs, training, service standards, KPIs, and accountability.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Professional kitchen experience on the line or in kitchen leadership (e.g., Sous Chef, Chef de Cuisine, Executive Chef), preferably within Michelin-starred, fine dining, high-volume, or luxury hospitality operations.
• 5+ years of subsequent, dedicated experience in a procurement, purchasing, or operations leadership role, including building internal logistics or kitchen systems, and at least 3 years leading people, vendors, and budgets.
• At least 3 of those years in a regulated food-production, commissary, food-manufacturing, meat-processing, or high-volume foodservice environment with cold-chain responsibility.
• A proven, active, and reliable network of farm contacts, food distributors, and specialized culinary purveyors.
• Demonstrated ownership of significant spend, competitive sourcing, vendor negotiations, contract lifecycle management, and measurable cost savings.
• Direct experience securing and maintaining USDA and city/state food permits and inspection readiness, including meat-processing controls, sanitation SOPs, GMPs, approved sources, traceability, temperature control, recall readiness, and regulatory inspections or audits.
• Working experience with USDA-FSIS requirements - grant of inspection, 9 CFR Part 416 (sanitation and SSOPs) and 9 CFR Part 417 (HACCP), or an equivalent meat and poultry inspection system.
• Formal HACCP training and demonstrated responsibility for HACCP plans, logs, verification, deviations, corrective actions, reassessment, and record retention.
• Experience with public or grant-funded procurement, including competition, conflicts controls, cost/price analysis, documentation, allowability, and audit readiness.
• Advanced food and total-cost analysis skills, including specifications, yields, trim loss, landed cost, freight, rebates, waste, spoilage, inventory, and purchase-price variance.
• Hands-on ownership of kitchen equipment and refrigeration maintenance, service contractors, and equipment replacement.
• A strong track record of designing workflow systems and enforcing strict kitchen cleanliness and organization protocols.
• Strong command of procurement, inventory, and maintenance software, plus advanced Excel or Google Sheets skills and clear operational reporting.
• Excellent judgment, negotiation, problem-solving, communication, and change-management skills; able to work independently, proactively, and resourcefully in a fast-moving environment.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and substantial relevant experience.
• NYC Food Protection Certificate required by the start date or within 30 days of hire; ServSafe Manager is preferred.

Nice to Have

• PCQI qualification under FDA/FSMA preventive controls (21 CFR Part 117), for the portions of our production that fall under FDA rather than USDA jurisdiction.
• Familiarity with 2 CFR Part 200 and NYC or New York State contracting rules.
• CPSM, ASCM CSCP, PMP, or a comparable procurement, supply-chain, or project-management credential.

• Must have excellent knife skills and proficiency in all aspects of cooking.
• Ability to work in a clean, organized, and efficient manner in a high-pressure environment.
• Able to work onsite and respond to urgent kitchen, equipment, or compliance needs outside normal hours when necessary.
• Must be able to stand, bend, stretch, lift and carry heavy materials up to 50 lbs.
• Must embrace the mission and core values of Rethink Food.

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TABLE: Commitment to embodying our values of -

Inventiveness: At our core, we are relentlessly curious about solving problems. As our name suggests, we're a team of creative thinkers, but we're also hands-on doers, challenging norms with humility to find practical solutions that can create lasting change.

Vulnerability: Guided by an “always be better” mindset, we are a team that intentionally reflects on what we are doing well and where we need to improve. We hold ourselves and each other accountable, every day. No blame, no shame — we just want to be sure we're always doing the right thing.

Thoughtfulness: Our vision for a nourished and thriving world starts with nourished and thriving individuals in each of our communities. Our work is centered on the needs of the people that bring our communities to life. We don't pretend to have all of the answers. We are committed to listening and learning in order to identify and scale solutions that ensure stable and reliable access to healthy food for all so each and every community can thrive.

Kindness: At Rethink, we show up every day with empathy and compassion and believe everyone should be treated with dignity. Kindness goes a long way — we are all about just being kind

EEO STATEMENT

Rethink Food is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.  We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender (including gender identity or expression), pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, marital status, domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking victim status, ancestry, national origin, alienage or citizenship, age, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristic, or other protected status. The organization is an Equal Opportunity Employer, drug-free workplace, and complies with ADA regulations as applicable.