Senior Manager, Product Development and Culinary Commercialization

The Senior Manager of Culinary Commercialization will drive the development of upstreamed food products and ingredients in line with our mission of connecting people to real food. This role brings benchtop R&D ideas to a production state. Within the Culinary department, this Senior Manager will own cross-functional partnerships with the Quality Assurance Team, Supply Chain Team, and external R&D partners, while also interacting closely with the Food Safety, Marketing/PR, and Commercial teams. This role participates in the company-wide Stage Gate process and Menu Strategy forums as the primary culinary and commercialization voice, and manages a team of direct reports responsible for sample operations and evaluation support.

More of What You'll Do:

Upstreaming & Commercialization Lead:

New Supplier Production Partners

• Owns the identification, vetting, and initial onboarding of potential new suppliers for emerging products and initiatives within Sweetgreen.

• Authors Culinary RFPs as needed to help gather suppliers and supplier examples for emerging products and initiatives.

• Works closely with the Sweetgreen Chef Team to match an in-house gold standard (if one exists) for new SKUs.

• Organizes and leads cross-functional culinary tastings as formal decision gates for new product launches, engaging stakeholders across Culinary, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, and executive leadership as appropriate.

• Provides detailed feedback to suppliers on ingredients, appearance, aroma, flavor, and texture to meet Sweetgreen standards.

Secondary Supplier Production Partners

• Works collaboratively with Supply Chain and Quality Assurance to identify, vet, and onboard secondary suppliers for existing Sweetgreen SKUs to provide cost-savings, product improvements, and supplier redundancy.

• Leads tasting rounds within the culinary team and acts as the culinary voice providing feedback to suppliers on ingredients, appearance, aroma, flavor, and texture to match the original or existing SKU.

Core Product Refinement

• Works closely with Supply Chain and Quality Assurance as needed to address product changes like ingredient substitutions, quality improvements, and cost reductions.

• Leads tasting rounds within the culinary team and provides feedback to suppliers to match the original or existing SKU.

BOH Optimization

• Works collaboratively with OPS, Supply Chain, Food Safety, and Quality Assurance on the upstreaming of existing in-house prepped ingredients to find quality improvements and labor savings.

External R&D Partner Management:

• Manages ongoing R&D partnerships with external food development partners, maintaining recurring check-in cadences, driving formula iteration cycles, and evaluating directional pricing.

• Acts as the primary Culinary point of contact for R&D partner accounts, coordinating across Supply Chain and Operations to advance emerging product categories from concept to commercialization.

• Negotiates and evaluates supplier pricing in collaboration with Supply Chain, balancing cost targets with culinary quality standards.

Stage Gate Liaison:

• Serves as the Culinary team's representative in the cross-functional Stage Gate process, providing product readiness updates, validating timelines, and flagging culinary risks for all products moving through commercialization.

• Participates in executive Stage Gate reviews and ensures all culinary deliverables are met at each gate, from formula lock through final validation.

Menu Strategy Contributor:

• Participates in ongoing Menu Strategy forums to provide culinary and commercialization perspective on seasonal planning, LTO pipeline, and new product builds.

• Collaborates with Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain to evaluate the feasibility of menu changes from a product and ingredient standpoint.

QA Liaison:

• Meets regularly with the QA Team on behalf of the Culinary Team to give product and project status updates.

• Authors the initial draft of Sweetgreen Product SKU Specifications.

• Works closely with the QA team as the culinary liaison ensuring that existing SKUs are produced and received at an acceptable level of quality as per the product specification.

• Is the lead culinary representative at quarterly product cuttings.

Supply Chain Liaison:

• Meets regularly with Supply Chain on behalf of the Culinary Team to give product and project status updates.

• Acts as the Culinary Team intake person for Supply Chain culinary requests.

• Participates in weekly S&OP (Sales & Operations Planning) meetings to provide culinary input on product readiness, ingredient lead times, and launch timing alignment.

People Management:

• Manages a team of direct reports responsible for culinary commercialization support, including sample procurement and logistics, Test Kitchen operations, and weekly product evaluation coordination.

• Delegates and prioritizes work across the team to ensure sample pipelines, evaluation schedules, and vendor follow-ups are executed efficiently and on time.

• Conducts regular 1:1s, sets clear performance expectations, and supports the professional development and growth of direct reports.

• Maintains accountability for team output across all active supplier and R&D projects.

Qualifications:

• 4-year degree in restaurant management, business administration, operations management or like field

• Preferred: Master's degree in food science, food production or like field

• 5+ years of experience in food production or commercialization

• Experience with fast casual operations

• Experience with a large vendor network and external R&D partnerships

• Experience managing and developing direct reports

• Strong project tracking skills across complex, multi-stakeholder launches

• Comfortable presenting to and influencing executive stakeholders

• Highly analytical; natural curiosity and desire for continuous improvement

• Mastery of Google Suite of apps (or like)

• Excellent communication skills with ability to persuade stakeholders with sound analysis

What you'll get:

• Highly competitive pay + bonus plan
• Three different medical plans to suit your and your family's needs
• Dental and Vision insurance
• Flexible PTO plan
• 401k program
• Employee HSA and FSA
• Complimentary greens
• An opportunity to make a real impact on the people around you, both by growing them and by connecting them to real food
• To live the sweetlife and celebrate your passion + purpose
• A collaborative team of people who live our core values and have your back
• A clear career path with opportunities for development, both personally and professionally
• Free sweetgreen swag

Come join the sweetlife!

About sweetgreen

Sweetgreen is a national restaurant brand dedicated to building healthier communities by connecting people to real food. Since 2007, Sweetgreen has reimagined fast food to be fresh, flavorful, and rooted in relationships with farmers and communities. As we grow, we are committed to developing our people in our restaurants and at our support center, so that everyone can be part of the movement. When you join Sweetgreen, you not only invest in your own future but help create spaces where food, people, and purpose come together