About the Role

Department: Quality & Food Safety

Reports To: SVP, Procurement & Quality

Location: Watertown, MA (ButcherBox Headquarters)

Travel: 25- 35%

Level: Senior Manager

Base Salary: $120,000-137,000

Position Summary

The Corporate Chef, Quality & Innovation is the culinary conscience of the ButcherBox portfolio. This role ensures every food item we ship meets our standards for flavor, texture, and consistency to specification, while also partnering across functions to ideate and develop new products for our subscription business and emerging retail channels. The Corporate Chef brings deep culinary expertise in sustainable and humanely raised and clean label food, product evaluations, supplier collaboration, and consumer-facing recipe content, translating member expectations into clear, repeatable culinary standards.

Key Responsibilities

Quality & Specification Adherence

• Lead routine sensory evaluation of all current and incoming products to ensure flavor, texture, appearance, and consistency meet ButcherBox specifications.

• Establish and maintain culinary quality standards, spec sheets, and sensory rubrics in partnership with the Procurement and Quality and Food Safety teams.

• Conduct on-site supplier and co-manufacturer visits to evaluate processing, portioning, and finished-product quality as needed.

New Product Ideation & Partner Development

• Collaborate with the commercial and procurement teams along with supplier partners to ideate, prototype, and refine new products that fit the e-commerce portfolio.

• Lead culinary cuttings and benchmarking sessions; provide structured feedback to suppliers to bring products to spec before launch.

• Translate member insights and trend research into product briefs that suppliers can execute against.

Retail & Channel Expansion

• Partner with the retail and wholesale teams to adapt and develop products suitable for retail customers, including spec sheets, cooking guidance, and packaging considerations.

• Support customer pitches with culinary expertise, in-person tastings, and product demos as needed.

Consumer Marketing & Recipe Development

• Develop, test, and document recipes that showcase ButcherBox products for use in marketing, lifecycle, and content channels.

• Partner with the marketing and content teams on recipe shoots, video content, and seasonal campaigns.
• Provide culinary subject matter expertise for member education, FAQs, and customer service training.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as the culinary voice in cross-functional product, sourcing, and marketing meetings.

• Partner with food safety, procurement and supply chain to ensure new and existing products are commercially viable and safe.

Required Qualifications:

• Formal culinary training (CIA, Johnson & Wales, or equivalent) and 8+ years of progressive culinary experience, including time in a high-volume professional kitchen, hotel, restaurant group, or food manufacturer.

• Demonstrated experience in product development, R&D, or culinary innovation within a CPG, foodservice, or multi-unit restaurant environment.

• Strong sensory evaluation skills with the ability to articulate flavor, texture, and appearance in clear, structured language.

• Working knowledge of sustainable and humanely raised beef, pork, poultry, and seafood - including cuts, grading, sourcing standards, and protein cookery.

• Experience working directly with suppliers, co-manufacturers, or processors on spec adherence and quality troubleshooting.

• Comfort with food safety fundamentals (HACCP awareness, sanitation, allergen handling) and partnering with QA/Food Safety teams.

• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to translate culinary nuances into clear specs, briefs, and training materials.

• Willingness to travel up to 25-35% for supplier visits, cuttings, and customer meetings.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience developing products for retail grocery channels (spec sheets, packaging, merchandising fit).

• Experience developing and producing recipe content for digital marketing or video.

• ServSafe certification or equivalent.

What We Offer

Our Values

We are a mission-driven company and strive to embody our values in every step of the process. ButcherBox is driven by relentless improvement, accountability, humility, and customer obsession. We want our workplace to be one of growth and learning where everyone can be safe/comfortable to show up as their authentic self to work. Anyone who loves our products and goals is welcome here! We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer aspiring to incite positive change in the pastures, the fulfillment centers, the office, and the world.

Benefits
• Health: medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, an employer-funded HSA, and short & long-term disability benefits
• Financial: 401(k) with generous employer match
• Annual bonus based on company performance
• Time off: unlimited paid time off policy, 20 weeks parental leave, an executive team that encourages a good work/life balance
• Personal growth: Annual Learning & Development stipend, and access to a range of personal and professional coaching solutions through BetterUp
• Food: a free Custom Classic ButcherBox each month and weekly lunch reimbursement
• Others: reimbursement for wellness activities, an exceptional EAP, fertility benefits, life insurance and more