Culinary Manager, United States

World Central Kitchen is seeking a highly skilled chef, and innovative Manager to lead Culinary Operations on the ground to ensure the service of nourishing, comforting meals to disaster-affected communities. The ideal candidate is a committed, innovative Culinary expert who thrives in fast-moving, rapidly changing environments, and is able to develop culturally appropriate menus, manage rotating inventories, and cook at scale in low-resource environments to ensure food reaches communities in need. The Culinary Manager plays a critical role in building and training locally led response teams in order to coordinate the efficient and effective provision of food resources promptly. The Culinary Manager is responsible for ensuring food aid rapidly reaches communities in need in alignment with WCK’s North Star values. 

Duration: The Culinary Manager is a two (2) year term exempt position with the opportunity for renewal, offering a unique chance to lead and shape WCK's responses.

This position reports directly to the Response Director during activations, and the Senior Manager while off activation. 

Preferred Location(s): North America (Northeast, California, Florida, Texas). Must live within one (1) hour of an international airport.

• Atlanta, Georgia
• Chicago, Illinois
• Denver, Colorado
• Houston/Dallas, Texas
• Miami, Florida
• New Orleans, Louisiana

Key Responsibilities:

Activation Management

• Respond within four (4) hours notice to a disaster area to act as Culinary Manager, managing relief operations on the ground, or in rare cases, remotely.
• Lead and manage field teams specializing in culinary operations. Ensure strategic and streamlined implementation of relief activities on the ground, operationalizing WCK’s North Star values.
• Design and implement response strategies in the field that are adaptable and robust enough to function in high-stress, dynamic environments affected by natural disasters or conflicts.
• Recruit, onboard, train and manage culinary teams, including local hires and Corps members in the field. 
• Consult on the scope of the response, and manage or implement Culinary operations.
• Provide regular updates on operations to the Response Director to ensure ongoing, transparent information sharing across the organization. 
• Collaborate with all WCK departments on the ground, or remotely to support the needs of the activation.  
• Ensure smooth transitions and complete handovers with other Activation Managers, and between Response Corps team members when rotating field teams through phases of the activation.
• Complete the After-Action Report process immediately following activation wind-down, collating and drawing learnings for process improvement.

Culinary Operations 

• Design and manage high-volume production kitchens with locally led chef teams, ensuring the preparation of culturally appropriate meals for affected populations.  
• Direct and oversee multiple modalities of rapid food production, across many kitchens in low-resource, austere environments. 
• Create or advise on rotating menus; prepare order lists informed by local culinary partners, soliciting regular feedback from field teams and guaranteeing that all meals are culturally aligned and served with dignity and respect.
• Manage and liaise with the procurement and logistics team to predict future production capacity and timelines; maintaining daily pull lists, tight inventory, and procurement of fresh, high quality ingredients. 
• Guide and teach WCK culinary teams and vendor partners (restaurants, catering companies, food trucks etc) to adhere to high standards of food safety, temperature, quality, hygiene, and scalability. Ensure all meals are prepared in a timely manner to be ready for distribution teams. 

Budgeting and Logistics

• Work with the finance team and Response Director to share cost projections for culinary operations, focusing on meal production and logistical needs.
• Collaborate with the procurement and logistics team to source materials and supplies efficiently and ensure timely delivery to affected areas.

Personnel Management and Training

• Recruit, train, and motivate diverse culinary teams on activation, ensuring a high-performance culture aligned with WCK’s North Star. 
• Provide leadership, mentorship, training and support to team members, promoting a culture of urgency, accountability, adaptability and continuous learning within the team.
• Address personnel issues on activations in real time, and provide reg