Executive Chef
gategroupAbout the role
We’re looking for motivated, engaged people to help make everyone’s journeys better.
Reporting to the General Manager of the unit, the Executive Chef, Operations is responsible for daily monitoring of the preparation of the pre-designed meals for multiple customer accounts with culinary expertise through the management of all Chefs, Sous Chefs and Cooks at the unit, and promoting and providing quality food services to airline clients.Executive Chef - Airline Catering
Salary Range: 115-130K
Location: 30 Inip Dr, Inwood NY 11096
Benefits
Paid time off
401k, with company match
Company sponsored life insurance
Medical, dental, vision plans
Voluntary short-term/long-term disability insurance
Voluntary life, accident, and hospital plans
Employee Assistance Program
Employee Discounts
Free hot healthy meals for unit operations roles
The Executive Chef is the senior culinary and production leader responsible for overseeing a high-volume, complex airline catering operation functioning as an industrial-scale food manufacturing production department. This role ensures the safe, compliant, efficient, and cost-effective production of high-quality meals across multiple airline customers, while leading teams, enforcing strict process controls, and driving continuous improvement through data, standardization, and advanced production techniques.
The Executive Chef operates at the intersection of culinary excellence, industrial engineering, food safety, and operational leadership, ensuring all outputs meet regulatory requirements, airline specifications, and internal “gold standard” quality benchmarks.
Key Responsibilities
1. Safety, Sanitation & Compliance
The Executive Chef serves as the ultimate champion of a zero-compromise culture around food safety, employee safety, and sanitation. This role requires unwavering commitment to ensuring that every aspect of the operation consistently meets or exceeds regulatory and industry standards, including Health Department requirements, USDA and FDA regulations, as well as HACCP, GMP, and stringent airline-specific protocols.
Beyond compliance, the Executive Chef partners with the QA Support teams in the design, execution, and continuous improvement of robust sanitation programs, ensuring that cleaning schedules, validation processes, and verification mechanisms are rigorously followed. A strong focus is placed on allergen management and the prevention of cross-contamination, safeguarding both product integrity and consumer well-being.
Through proactive audits, inspections, and disciplined follow-up on corrective actions, the Executive Chef ensures full traceability and control throughout the production lifecycle, embedding food safety and operational discipline into the DNA of the kitchen organization.
2. Production Leadership
In this role, the Executive Chef operates as the senior production leader of a high-volume, industrialized food manufacturing environment. They are responsible for orchestrating complex, multi-line, multi-shift operations, ensuring that production flows seamlessly across kitchens and assembly lines.
Success in this position requires absolute discipline in execution—ensuring that production schedules, batch sheets, and product specifications are followed with precision. The Executive Chef establishes and reinforces standardized processes, driving consistency and eliminating variability. At the same time, they are accountable for optimizing kitchen throughput, maximizing efficiency, and ensuring on-time and in-full delivery to assembly (ie Make & Pack) in a fast-paced and demanding operational environment.
3. Production Planning, ERP/MRP & Process Control
The Executive Chef owns the end-to-end food production planning process, including the Master Production Schedule (MPS) for the kitchen and detailed production sequencing required to meet dynamic customer demand. Leveraging ERP and MRP systems, they ensure accurate material planning, capacity alignment, and real-time execution tracking.
This role demands rigorous control over batch sheets and work orders, ensuring data accuracy and operational discipline at every stage. The Executive Chef implements structured process control mechanisms to reduce variability, enhance predictability, and improve overall system performance. Clos
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