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Job Title: Culinary Director

Location: Remote (Must live within a 25-mile radius of a venue)

Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer

 

Role Overview

The Culinary Director is responsible for leading the food strategy, culinary standards, and kitchen operations for F1® Arcade across the US, while also providing culinary leadership and operational support to franchise partners. This role owns the end-to-end development of the food

offer, from concept creation and menu engineering to execution, training, supplier alignment, and ongoing performance improvement.

The Culinary Director will ensure the F1® Arcade food experience is commercially strong, operationally executable, on brand, and consistent across our own venues and franchised venues. The ideal candidate combines creative culinary leadership with strong multi-site operational discipline and a clear understanding of hospitality economics, guest experience, and international market adaptation.

 

Key Areas of Responsibility

Culinary Strategy and Brand Development

• Define and lead the culinary vision for F1® Arcade across the US, ensuring the food proposition aligns with the brand, guest expectations, and commercial goals.
• Develop innovative, high-quality, and operationally efficient menus that complement the overall guest experience and support daypart, event, and group sales occasions.
• Create a food strategy that can scale effectively across both corporate and franchise locations while maintaining consistency and flexibility for local market
• Partner with senior leadership to evolve the culinary proposition in line with business growth, consumer trends, and brand

Menu Development and Innovation

• Lead menu creation, testing, costing, rollout, and seasonal refreshes across all
• Balance creativity with practicality by designing dishes that are visually compelling, high quality, profitable, and executable in a high-volume environment.
• Adapt menus for the US, considering local tastes, ingredient availability, pricing structures, regulatory requirements, and operational
• Build and maintain menu engineering processes that optimize mix, margin, labor efficiency, and guest
• Oversee recipe development, portion standards, plating guides, allergen information, and specification

Multi-Site Operational Excellence

• Establish and uphold culinary standards across all venues, ensuring consistency in food quality, presentation, preparation, and kitchen
• Conduct regular site visits, kitchen audits, and performance reviews to identify opportunities for improvement and ensure compliance with brand
• Work closely with operations teams to ensure kitchen systems, prep models, service workflows, and labor deployment support efficient
• Identify and solve operational challenges related to equipment, production flow, staffing capability, and quality

Franchise Partner Support

• Serve as the lead culinary contact for franchise partners, supporting successful openings, menu implementation, and ongoing operational
• Support franchise partners with culinary innovation and menu
• Develop franchise-ready culinary systems, playbooks, and training tools that enable consistent execution in different
• Provide guidance on kitchen design, equipment selection, supplier standards, product specifications, and new venue opening readiness.
• Support franchisees with troubleshooting, performance improvement plans, and menu adaptation within approved brand
• Collaborate with franchise and international teams to ensure partners understand and deliver the F1® Arcade food experience to

Training and Capability Building

• Partner with the L&D team to build and deliver culinary training programs for chefs, kitchen managers, and operations teams across both corporate and franchised
• Create clear SOPs, recipe manuals, training materials, and onboarding tools to support consistent
• Coach venue leaders to improve quality, team capability, and

Supplier and Commercial Management

• Partner with procurement and supply chain to source products that meet quality, availability, and cost requirements across both US.
• Support supplier selection, product testing, and specification
• Monitor food cost performance and identify opportunities for margin improvement without compromising quality or guest
• Ensure menus and recipes are built with supply continuity, scalability, and operational simplicity in

Compliance and Food Safety

• Ensure all culinary standards, recipes, and operating procedures align with applicable food safety, allergen, and regulatory requirements in the US.
• Partner with operations and compliance teams to maintain best in class food safety practices across all
• Support audit readiness and ensure franchise partners understand and comply with required

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Operations, Beverage, Training, Procurement, Finance, Marketing, and Franchise teams to deliver an integrated guest
• Partner with marketing on menu launches, promotional activity, and brand storytelling around the food
• Contribute to new venue openings, feasibility reviews, and strategic planning for future growth in domestic and international

Skills Required

Experience

• Significant senior culinary leadership experience in a multi-site hospitality, restaurant, or entertainment led venue business.
• Proven experience overseeing culinary operations across multiple regions or international markets
• Experience supporting franchise, licensed, or partner operated businesses strongly
• Strong background in menu development, recipe standardization, kitchen operations, and cost
• Demonstrated success in building food concepts that are both brand led and operationally
• Strong knowledge of food safety, allergen management, and regulatory compliance in complex operating
• Experience opening new venues and supporting new venue opening culinary execution is highly
• Financial acumen, including menu costing, margin management, and labor aware operational

Skills and Competencies

• Strategic and commercially minded, with the ability to connect culinary vision to business
• Hands-on and detail oriented, with strong standards around food quality and
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence cross-functional teams and franchise
• Excellent coaching, training, and communication
• Highly organized, adaptable, and comfortable working in a fast-paced growth
• Strong problem solver with a practical, solutions focused
• Able to balance brand consistency with local market

Success Measures

• Consistent food quality and presentation across US and franchise
• Successful rollout of menu updates and new culinary
• Strong food cost performance and improved menu
• High operational compliance with culinary and food safety
• Effective franchise partner execution and
• Positive guest feedback and improved food-related performance
• Smooth culinary support for new venue openings and market

Travel & Work Requirements

• Ability to travel globally up to 70% of the
• Ability to work a minimum of 40 hours per week, with flexibility to support global business operations across multiple time

Ability to consistently demonstrate F1® Arcade Core Values;

Pursuit of Excellence

Positive Energy

Integrity

Team Spirit

 

Basic Physical Requirements

When working at an F1® Arcade venue, Team Members must be able to perform the duties of that venue. The team member will frequently sit for short periods of time, talk via Cloud Based video conferencing and the phone often, and hear and manipulate objects constantly.

Additional requirements will include lifting up to 10 (ten) pounds constantly and up to 50 (fifty) pounds as required. Lifting from floor to shoulder constantly and overhead infrequently. Twisting and reaching frequently. Grasping objects to move or manipulate constantly. Working in hot then cold environments for extended periods of time. Will stand and walk for extended periods of time. Frequent hand washing and sanitation is required. Ability to use knives, slicing equipment, and other food preparation equipment. Team Member must be able to communicate with Guests and other Team Members and manipulate handheld and desktop devices.

F1® Arcade is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.