Senior Manager, US Culinary
Workwise
San Francisco, CA, USA
USD 140k-150k / year
Posted on May 8, 2025
Blue Bottle Coffee is a passionate and growing team of hundreds around the world, united by the simple purpose of connecting the world to delicious coffee. We roast on three coasts, make delicious drinks, clean up after ourselves, bake cookies, get change at the bank, and say please and thank you. We’re an impossibly eclectic group of coffee experts, artists, writers, sensory scientists, bakers, designers, and all-around dreamers, who also happen to be some of the most hard working and talented in the business. Join us.
About the job:
The Senior Manager, US Culinary will report directly to the US GM and is responsible for culinary strategy and managing the complete culinary portfolio and business channel for the US. This role is not just about overseeing menu offerings, but about contributing to the strategic direction for the entire culinary experience that resonates with our brand pillars and meets evolving customer expectations. This leader will shape the future culinary landscape for the US. Driving innovation that aligns with our brand pillars while ensuring that every product contributes to our company’s broader business goals. By owning execution of the culinary strategy and product portfolio, this role will influence how our cafes differentiate themselves in a competitive market, how we drive growth through new offerings, and how we deliver exceptional value to our guests while meeting our business objectives for revenue, labor, and gross margin.
You will:
- Contribute to the development of US Culinary Strategy and own the operations within the US Culinary department.
- Work closely with the US GM and Head of Product to prioritize culinary needs that align with our brand strategies.
- Develop a future approach and product strategy across all in-cafe culinary, grab-and-go, cold case, and future culinary offerings as merchandise or partnerships/collaborations.
- Be responsible for P&L accountability to all culinary performance as defined by the categories above (determined by standard performance indicators, e.g.sales and gross margin).
- Work alongside the West Sacramento R&D team to ensure that developed recipes and final products meet the sensory, business, and timetable requirements for execution and performance.
- Responsible for detailed menu requirement development and associated business performance as a key consultant for cafe format development teams and ownership of the final, localized US menus for these formats.
- Serve as sensory decision-maker in culinary with responsibility to taste and approve all US culinary products (internal or external).
- Hire, train, manage, and develop the US culinary specialists.
- Work within Blue Bottle I2L to ensure product briefs and business requirements are delivered on time and support commercial needs.
- Provide transparent reporting and performance management to senior leadership to ensure continual evaluation and adaptation of the portfolios
- Identify opportunities for continuous improvement and link approaches to strategic focus and performance objectives.
- Evaluate and co-create offerings with bakery partners/co-mans and lead the business requirements for all culinary product development.
- Conduct field research to discover new food trends and techniques and develop new food concepts.
- Partner with Operational Excellence to build new equipment relationships and develop LT equipment strategy.
You are:
- Passionate about coffee, food, design, and product innovation.
- Collaborative, working with cross-functional partners to achieve our company goals and objectives.
- Strategic, the ability to plan competitive strategies that show a clear connection between vision and action.
- Optimize work processes by identifying the most effective and efficient ones, with a focus on Kaizen.
- Customer-focused, identifies opportunities and solutions that meet customer needs.
- Manages ambiguity, deals comfortably with uncertainty, and can lead through change.
- An excellent communicator, able to convey complex information clearly to various audiences.
- Action-oriented, takes on new opportunities with a sense of urgency, with high energy and enthusiasm.
- Business insight into the marketplace and competition. Manage the P&L to hit revenue and gross margin targets.
- Knowledgeable about food production, food safety, and scaling concepts.
You have:
- 7 years of experience in the food and beverage industry.
- Managed driving revenue, COGS, and or other aspects of a P&L
- Experience in product development, management, merchandising, or similar fields.
- An exceptional palate and deep understanding of culinary and related categories.
- Ability to utilize data and create analytical frameworks, visualizing data for stakeholders.
- Familiarity with tools like Sigma, Tableau, etc., for data analysis.
Physical Requirements: The following is a list of the physical activity, requirements, and environmental factors related to this role. Blue Bottle is committed to partnering with all candidates and employees to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to meet the following:
- Expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word;
- Perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels with or without correction, and having the ability to receive detailed information through oral communication.
- Making substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.
- Close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal and written documentation.
- Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time. Occasionally walking, climbing stairs, and standing occur in this role.
- Environment: this role is protected within a building, but may be exposed to mild changes in temperature with heating or air conditioning.
- The ability to lift, push/pull, carry, and/or move up to 50 pounds.
- The ability to speak loudly and clearly. This role is subject to loud noise for extended periods of time, causing the worker to shout to be heard above the ambient noise level.
- The ability to have close visual acuity to perform repetitive visual checking, counting, spotting small defects, determining the accuracy of numbers, and packaging.
- The ability to smell and taste.
Travel:
- This role requires travel up to 30%. Additional walking, stooping, sitting, and mobility may be required. Exposure to outside environmental elements may be experienced due to travel through airports, airplanes, and in between facilities
A few benefits we offer:
- This position has a salary range of $140,000 - $150,000 annually. This salary is a good-faith estimate for this position. The final salary offer will be determined after reviewing relevant factors, which include a candidate's qualifications and experience, where appropriate.
- Health, dental, and vision coverage for eligible employees starting on your first day
- 401(k) plan
- Paid time off
- 50% discount on all products, both online and in-cafe. This includes food, beverages, whole-bean coffee, and merchandise
- Flexible spending account & commuter benefits
- Employee Assistance Program
- And more!
At Blue Bottle Coffee, you’ll be a vital part of our guests’ experience and a crucial link in delivering the most delicious coffee we can find to every person who walks through our doors, be it in person or online. If you’re ready to bring beautiful and thoughtfully rendered experiences to life, please apply and join us.
Blue Bottle is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value an open mind, dedication to work, and a collaborative spirit. We hire based on these qualities, a job’s requirements, our business’s needs, and an applicant’s qualifications. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind—in the hiring process or in the workplace.
We comply with the ADA and consider reasonable accommodation measures that may be necessary for eligible applicants/employees to perform essential functions.
We may refuse to hire relatives of present employees if doing so could result in actual or potential problems in supervision, security, safety, or morale, or if doing so could create conflicts of interest.
We will consider employment-qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
We participate in E-Verify. We will provide the federal government with employees’ Form I-9 information to confirm authorization to work in the U.S. We will only use E-Verify once an employee has accepted a job offer and completed Form I-9.
