Associate Director of Culinary Strategy & Operations

Imagine: 30 unique restaurants to order from, brought to your door in under 30 minutes. That’s what our customers experience.

At Wonder, we want to make world-class food within reach, no matter where you live. That’s why we’ve created a vertically integrated, new standard of dining that will allow you to enjoy menus from award-winning chefs and iconic restaurants across the country, all in one place. Our elevated brick + mortar locations will offer pick up and dine in options, as well as delivery to your home.

As a food-tech startup backed by top-tier venture capitalists and led by a team of experienced entrepreneurs—including some of the most accomplished leaders in the technology, culinary, and logistics industries—we’re growing . Join us in pioneering a new category of dining called “Fast-Fine”, and revolutionizing the way people eat.

About The Role

The Associate Director of Culinary Strategy & Operations will lead a team responsible for managing the Culinary Engineering strategic roadmap and will have end-to-end accountability for seamlessly executing the company’s most important culinary initiatives as part of Wonder’s overall strategy and vision. This individual will play a pivotal role by partnering with Wonder’s chef team and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver on top company objectives including but not limited to launching the best restaurants and brands for Wonder.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Planning: Partner with Culinary Leadership, Growth and Operations to prioritize and plan the culinary research & development roadmap including but not limited to new concept and restaurant launches
• Thought Leadership: Act as a thought partner to the Chief Culinary Officer and broader Culinary organization, translating company objectives into executable initiatives for the culinary team
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure alignment across all culinary initiatives; create operational and financial plans in support
• Strategy, Analytics & Reporting: Build executive-ready deliverables and conduct analyses for business problem solving; build reporting and metric tracking for the culinary team
• Goals & Performance Management: Lead and manage teams to deliver on business-critical goals, culinary KPIs, and annual targets; develop strategies and methodologies to drive efficient execution against department goals
• Strategic Relationship Management: Serve as Culinary Engineering department liaison internally and externally, and face of Wonder for strategic culinary relationships
• Process Improvement: Drive continuous improvement in operational efficiency across people, processes and technology for seamless execution end-to-end in partnership with Culinary Operations

The Experience You Have

• Experience: Background in management consulting, business operations (biz ops), corporate strategy, start-ups, or related roles. Must have some experience working in either food, e-commerce or CPG; preferred experience in food tech or with restaurants, chefs or food manufacturers.
• Strategic Thinker: Ability to think strategically and analytically, and to quickly translate vision into actionable plans.
• Project Management: Exceptional project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously and meet deadlines.
• Excellent Communicator: Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels and build connective tissue.
• Emotional Intelligence: High EQ with strong “backbone” and the ability to work with team members from different backgrounds, and to effectively influence both upwards and downwards within the team and cross-functionally.
• Proven Success: Demonstrated success in executing and delivering outcomes for high impact, fast-paced strategic initiatives that drive the business forward.
• Functional Breadth: Fluency and competency in a breadth of business operations areas including but not limited to process improvement, organizational design, cost reduction, growth strategy, product management.
• Industry Knowledge: Understanding of restaurants, culinary and/or general food and beverage interest, expertise preferred.
• Negotiation Skills: Excellent negotiation skills, with the ability to establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships.

Base Salary: $187,000

Benefits

We offer a competitive salary package including equity and 401K. Additionally, we provide multiple medical, dental, and vision plans to meet all of our employees’ needs as well as many benefits and perks that are not listed.?

A final note

At Wonder, we believe that in order to build the best team, we must hire using an objective lens. We are committed to fair hiring practices where we hire people for their potential and advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. As such, we do not discriminate or make decisions based on your race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, military service eligibility, veteran status, marital status, disability, or any other protected class. If you have a disability, please let your recruiter know how we can make your interview process work best for you.

We look forward to hearing from you! We’ll contact you via email or text to schedule interviews and share information about your candidacy.