Executive Chef

Key Purpose

The Executive Chef serves as the culinary leader responsible for creating exceptional hospitality experiences through food, people, and innovation.

Working alongside an accomplished leadership team, the Executive Chef leads culinary strategy, food safety, menu development, operational excellence, and team development across a dynamic workplace hospitality environment.

This role combines culinary creativity with operational discipline. Success is measured not only by food quality, but by guest engagement, team development, operational performance, food safety excellence, and the memorable experiences created every day.

What Success Looks Like

Hospitality First

• You understand that food is more than a meal.
• Food creates connection, community, celebration, and culture.
• You create experiences people remember and talk about long after they leave the café.

Culinary Creativity

• You are naturally curious.
• You follow trends, explore new ideas, and enjoy turning inspiration into experiences that guests love.
• You balance innovation with consistency and know when to push boundaries and when to perfect the classics.

Operational Excellence

• You know that creativity only succeeds when supported by strong systems.
• You build consistency through training, standards, accountability, and execution.
• Success is not heroic effort. Success is sustainable excellence.

Food Safety & Allergen Leadership

• You create confidence through industry-leading food safety and allergen management practices.
• You know trust is built through discipline.
• Safety is never compromised.

Team Development

• You build great chefs.
• You coach, mentor, develop, and inspire people to grow beyond what they thought possible.
• You believe the best leaders create more leaders.

Business Stewardship

• You understand the relationship between guest experience, participation, labor, food cost, and financial performance.
• You make smart business decisions while protecting the quality of the guest experience.

Key Responsibilities

Culinary Leadership

• Lead culinary operations across all assigned food service locations.
• Develop seasonal, globally inspired, and guest-focused menus.
• Drive culinary innovation and elevate the overall food experience.
• Ensure consistent execution of food quality standards across all outlets.
• Utilize trends, data, and guest feedback to continuously improve programming.
• Support R&D initiatives, testing, and menu development.

Hospitality & Guest Experience

• Create experiences that increase participation and engagement.
• Partner with hospitality, marketing, and workplace experience teams to bring ideas to life.
• Support activations, celebrations, events, and special programming.
• Champion hospitality as a competitive advantage.
• Create environments where guests feel welcomed, valued, and cared for.

Food Safety & Operational Excellence

• Lead food safety, allergen management, sanitation, and compliance programs.
• Maintain audit readiness and a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
• Drive operational consistency through standards, technology, reporting, and best practices.
• Ensure readiness across all meal periods, events, and service channels.

Financial Leadership

• Manage food, labor, and operating costs responsibly.
• Partner with Finance on forecasting, budgeting, and performance improvement.
• Identify opportunities to reduce waste and improve value without compromising the guest experience.

Talent & Leadership

• Recruit, coach, and develop high-performing culinary teams.
• Foster a culture of accountability, learning, inclusion, and growth.
• Build future leaders through development planning and succession planning.
• Lead by example and serve as a champion for hospitality and operational excellence.

The Ideal Candidate

You might be our person if you:

• Love developing people as much as developing menus.
• Stay curious about food, trends, and new ideas.
• Can move comfortably between the kitchen, the client, and the boardroom.
• Believe hospitality and culture drive great experiences.
• Enjoy solving problems, building teams, and challenging the status quo.
• Have high standards and know how to have fun along the way.

Qualifications & Experience

• Proven success leading large teams and developing future leaders.
• Strong communication, financial, and organizational skills.
• Culinary degree and ServSafe certification preferred (or equivalent experience and ability to obtain certification).

What Makes This Opportunity Unique

You'll work with:

• A talented and engaged culinary team
• An R&D kitchen that encourages experimentation and innovation
• Hospitality professionals who love what they do
• Leaders who value creativity and operational excellence equally
• Guests who appreciate great food and memorable experiences

This is not a maintenance role.

This is a chance to shape the future of a hospitality program while working alongside people who care deeply about food, culture, and service.

We're not looking for someone to fix a broken operation.

We're looking for someone who wants to help an already strong team become exceptional.

Compensation, Benefits & The Important Fine Print

Let's talk about compensation.

The annual salary range for this position is $95000 - $105500 . Final compensation will be determined based on experience, skills, and the unique strengths you bring to the role.

ISS Guckenheimer offers eligible employees a comprehensive benefits package including:

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Life and disability insurance
• Paid time off and company holidays
• Retirement savings programs
• Employee assistance programs
• Professional development and career growth opportunities
• Additional leave benefits based on employment status

A Few Practical Details

This role requires the ability to:

• Lift up to 25 pounds.
• Work in a fast-paced environment and manage competing priorities.
• Spend time standing, walking, coaching, tasting, teaching, and engaging with employees and guests throughout the day.
• Work occasional evenings, weekends, and special events based on business needs.
• Travel between locations when required.

The best Executive Chefs around here spend more time with their teams than behind a desk.

Safety, Quality & Compliance

At ISS Guckenheimer, safety is not a program. It's part of how we operate.

All employees are expected to comply with Health, Safety, Environment, and Quality (HSEQ) policies and procedures, including participating in required training, maintaining safe work practices, supporting environmental responsibility, and promptly reporting hazards or concerns.

We are committed to creating workplaces that are safe, compliant, and focused on continuous improvement.