R&D Chef – Menu Innovation
Location: New York, NY
Employment Type: Full-Time
Travel: Domestic / International as Needed
About the Role
We are a growing fast-casual restaurant brand seeking a highly motivated, hands-on R&D Chef – Menu Innovation to join our culinary innovation team.
This role participates in the full product-development cycle — from identifying menu opportunities and developing concepts to hands-on kitchen testing, consumer validation, operational implementation, training, commercialization, and store launch.
The ideal candidate combines strong culinary execution and menu-development experience with an entrepreneurial, builder mindset. You should be comfortable working in a fast-changing environment, solving practical problems with limited resources, taking ownership of projects, and helping build processes and systems as the business grows.
Because this position works closely with teams in both the United States and China, professional fluency in Mandarin Chinese — speaking, listening, reading, and writing — is required.
Key Responsibilities
• Develop and test new menu items, including proteins, sauces, toppings, sides, bowls, snacks, desserts, seasonal products, and Limited Time Offers (LTOs).
• Lead hands-on recipe and product development from early-stage concept through testing, commercialization, and launch.
• Refine existing products based on consumer feedback, store performance, food cost, quality, and operational needs.
• Design and standardize recipes that can be consistently reproduced across multiple restaurant locations.
• Develop products suitable for build-your-own bowl, customizable, and assembly-line fast-casual operations.
• Balance flavor and ingredient quality with food cost, preparation time, labor requirements, equipment capabilities, operational simplicity, scalability, and speed of service.
• Conduct internal tastings, consumer testing, store trials, and launch validations.
• Create and maintain recipes, product specifications, SOPs, preparation standards, and other product-development documentation.
• Partner closely with Operations to validate recipes under real restaurant conditions and support training and execution.
• Collaborate with Supply Chain to evaluate ingredients, suppliers, substitutions, sourcing requirements, and commercial scalability.
• Work with Marketing and Brand teams to translate product attributes into clear consumer-facing concepts and selling points.
• Support new-store openings, product launches, store training, and in-market troubleshooting as needed.
• Monitor culinary, restaurant, and consumer trends to identify future menu and product opportunities.
• Travel to restaurant locations, suppliers, test kitchens, consumer-testing sites, new markets, and other domestic or international destinations as business needs require.
These responsibilities reflect the revised version's greater emphasis on commercialization, store validation, cross-functional implementation and actual restaurant execution, rather than R&D being primarily recipe development.
Qualifications
• Professional culinary experience with strong hands-on cooking capability.
• Demonstrated experience in menu development, culinary R&D, or product commercialization.
• Experience in fast-casual, multi-unit restaurant, or high-growth restaurant environments strongly preferred.
• Experience with brands or concepts similar to CAVA, Chipotle, Sweetgreen, QDOBA, or other build-your-own fast-casual concepts is a strong plus.
• Proven ability to move products from concept through testing, store validation, and commercial menu launch.
• Strong understanding of kitchen operations, recipe standardization, and restaurant execution.
• Experience balancing culinary quality with food cost, operational feasibility, scalability, and speed of service.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple development projects simultaneously.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Comfortable working in a fast-moving, evolving organization where processes and systems may still be developing.
• Culinary Arts degree or relevant culinary certification preferred.
The revised requirements specifically prioritize candidates who have demonstrated that they can take products beyond ideation and testing and actually get them successfully launched into restaurant operations.
Language Requirements
• Professional English communication skills are also required.
• Professional proficiency in Mandarin Chinese is preferred, but not required, due to collaboration with China-based teams and business partners.
• Must be able to communicate effectively with U.S.- and China-based teams across functions and time zones.
Travel Requirements
Candidates must be comfortable with regular business travel, including travel to restaurant locations, suppliers, test kitchens, new markets, and other domestic or international destinations as business needs require.
What We're Looking For
Beyond culinary expertise, we're looking for someone with an entrepreneurial mindset who:
• Takes ownership rather than waiting for detailed instructions.
• Is comfortable building processes while the business is still evolving.
• Moves quickly from idea to execution and learns through testing.
• Solves practical problems in kitchens and restaurants, not just in presentations.
• Is willing to remain hands-on and work across functional boundaries when necessary.
• Is resilient, adaptable, and comfortable with ambiguity.
• Thinks like a builder and treats product and brand success as a personal responsibility.
How to Apply
If you're interested, please send your resume and the following materials to diaoxy@haidilao.com:
• A portfolio of 3–5 menu items or products you personally developed, including photos and a brief description of each item and your role in its development.
• For each relevant position on your resume, please indicate:
o The restaurant concept/type;
o The approximate number of locations operated by the brand during your tenure; and
o Your specific responsibilities in menu development or R&D.
• Where possible, include examples of products you developed that successfully progressed from concept and testing to commercial menu launch.
Candidates with strong multi-unit fast-casual experience, hands-on product-development capability, Mandarin fluency, and demonstrated ownership of successful product launches will be prioritized.
Why Join Us?
This is an opportunity to have a direct impact on the future of a growing fast-casual restaurant brand. You'll have meaningful ownership over menu innovation, work closely with teams across multiple functions and markets, and see your ideas progress from the test kitchen to real restaurant menus.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to an inclusive and diverse workplace. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
If you're a hands-on culinary innovator who enjoys building, experimenting, solving problems, and turning great ideas into scalable restaurant products, we encourage you to apply.
Benefits
- Flexible schedule
- Paid time off
- Health insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Life insurance
- Disability insurance
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Employee discount
- Other
- Mileage reimbursement