Title: Director of Kitchen Innovation

Status: Full Time, Exempt

Regular Work Hours: 9am-5pm Monday - Friday (any US Time Zone)

Reports to: Executive Director

Compensation: $70,000 to start, $95,000 at 6 months experience on the job

Location: Remote, anywhere in the United States

Benefits: Paid vacation time, paid sick time, paid holidays, Health & Wellness Benefits (all benefits below start the first day of the month following 30 days of employment) - Medical, Dental, Vision, Life and AD&D, Long-Term Disability, FSA, HSA, Pet Insurance, perks/discount program, voluntary 403(b) retirement plan.

Catalyst Kitchens, fiscally sponsored by Mission Edge San Diego, is a network of over 90 nonprofit and social enterprise teaching kitchens and workforce development programs, serving populations with barriers to employment in communities across the country. The network staff works to provide resources, funding, relationships, and points of connection and learning for all our member programs. Catalyst Kitchens is comprised of social enterprise teaching kitchens that collaborate to solve common problems, meet common needs, and accomplish common goals. We recognize the social, economic, and community benefits of the teaching kitchen model. More information about Catalyst Kitchens and our members can be found at www.catalystkitchens.org. We are a small and nimble team, and there is a lot of room to carve out your own ways of operating and finding success in the work we do. We invite creativity.

Description: The Director of Kitchen Innovation oversees best practice and resource acquisition and/or creation of operational strategy for kitchens, enterprises, and feeding operations within the Catalyst Kitchens network. This position is responsible for working with our member kitchens to expand network resources, especially foodservice business and operations plans and practices, in order to organize, distribute, and create technical assistance packages, trainings and workshops using those materials. This position will also collect from members best practices related to integrating training programs into kitchen operations, integrating fundraising with social enterprises and hunger relief operations, and collaborate with other Catalyst Kitchens staff on the storage and use of those resources. The Director of Kitchen Innovation will also conduct research with member programs and their partners to understand operational needs and enterprise design, working across member organizations to design initiatives and engage staff to maximize peer learning and knowledge sharing. The Director of Kitchen Innovation works nationally to recruit employer partners and foodservice corporations/businesses to enhance membership value, advocate for the mission of Catalyst Kitchens and its members, and ensure the programmatic strength of the network.

Who You Are: You are an experienced chef or culinary director, potentially across multiple areas, including social enterprise, business innovation, and/or hunger relief. You will drive the organization’s social enterprise and hunger relief growth and ability to aid members in building better kitchens and culinary operations. You have a strong passion for the dual models of hunger relief and social enterprise. Ideally, you may also have experience with teaching kitchens and on-the-job training or workforce development. You are well-versed in business planning and capacity-building, highly energetic, and an intellectually courageous person. This isn’t your first time—you know how to skillfully build culinary operations as well as strategically develop business and operational plans. You will also help to maintain the systems and activities related to an online resource library and professional communities of practice for our network members.

Competencies and Responsibilities

This is a new position reporting to the Executive Director that will contribute to Catalyst Kitchens’ resource collection and kitchen innovation strategy across the network, including work with all of our members as well as outside partners. We are seeking an ambitious and creative person to join our small but growing team and help shape the future of the Catalyst Kitchens Network. Much of what is written below is based on our current strategy but is adaptable to the vision of success brought to the organization by the right candidate.

Core Competencies:

• Writing: Able to convey ideas and facts using language that the reader and audience will best understand and relate to utilizing Catalyst Kitchens’ most up-to-date language and metrics, especially for business plan writing and professional development workshops
• Decision Making & Judgment: Makes timely and informed decisions in choosing projects and relationships to pursue that take into account the relevant facts, goals, constraints, and risks
• Research: Identifies, collects, and organizes the necessary data for analysis and decision-making on hunger relief and social enterprise operations, especially regarding growth and performance over time
• Data Fluency: Understands how to organize, interpret, and work with data from hunger relief and business operations to use trends to find innovative practices to capture and promote
• Accountability & Dependability: Takes personal responsibility for the quality and timeliness of work and achieves results with little oversight
• Attention to Detail: Highly organized, diligently attends to detail and pursues quality in accomplishing work
• Development & Continual Learning: Displays an ongoing commitment to learning and self-improvement through different opportunities
• Ethics & Integrity: Earns others' trust and respect through consistent honesty and professionalism in all interactions, whether it’d be internal or external stakeholders
• Influencing Others: Influences others to be excited and committed to furthering the organization's mission, values, and objectives
• Relationship Building: Builds working relationships (internally and externally) characterized by a high level of acceptance, cooperation, and mutual respect

Primary Responsibilities:

• Works with leadership and members to identify high-performing kitchen models and operational resources and leverage collective impact to package, train, and deliver technical support on those resources to bolster Catalyst Kitchens member programs
• Creates annual plan for member engagement with technical support services, including publishing content produced with knowledge partners and hosting complex events, including member summits & webinars delivered in-person & remotely
• Facilitates multi-stakeholder groups, including the committees of the Catalyst Kitchens Member Leadership Board and working sub-committees
• Leads efforts to cultivate and expand national partnerships with relevant content/knowledge partners, and peer affiliate networks in alignment with strategic priorities, e.g., Feeding America, REDF, National Restaurant Association, Social Enterprise Alliance, Fair Kitchens, America Forward, etc..
• Identifies opportunities for member network innovation by cultivating relationships with peer organizations in the social enterprise and hunger relief arenas
• Along with the Executive Director, leads Catalyst Kitchens development of new services, benefits, and processes related to technical advising or consulting to benefit current members and generate new member interest
• Along with other Directors, creates strategy for engaging relevant foodservice and nonprofit industry partners and leaders to advocate for the mission of Catalyst Kitchens and its members.
• Contributes to the curation and expansion of the Resource Library and other parts of the member portal as needed.
• Assist Catalyst Kitchens team in finding stories and testimonials to be used in newsletters and other collateral
• Attend in-person network events and or conferences and trainings when able
• Attend professional development opportunities

Other Duties and Responsibilities:

• Works with leadership and members to identify shareable kitchen operations and social enterprise resources to build out a collection of best practices for the resource library
• Assists in writing grants and grant reports with the Director of Development
• Support external stakeholder engagement with resource partners and in-kind donors as appropriate
• Attend staff meetings, manager meetings, and regular one-on-one meetings with Executive Director
• Demonstrate ability to work independently and within a team, seeking guidance as appropriate
• Comply with all organizational policies and procedures
• Collaborates with Catalyst Kitchens team to ensure consistency in national collective impact collection, member compliance, and data analysis
• Clarifies pathways to Model Membership for members and supports the member Standards Review process
• Maintains, enhances, and enforces Catalyst Kitchens network value proposition, branding, and messaging standards both internally and externally with members who steward the brand
• Generates pitches and proposals for national speaking engagements, awards and earned media and, when appropriate, represents Catalyst Kitchens at the national level during relevant conferences & events
• Demonstrates listed competencies in all aspects of work

Requirements:

• 4-6 years of kitchen or operations oversight experience in the foodservice industry with at least 2 years directly related to hunger relief and/or social enterprise, and 2 years in a leadership role
• Familiarity with workforce development and on-the-job training programs as a service model
• Familiarity with work in social services for populations in need, especially formerly incarcerated persons, unhoused populations, and/or people with substance use disorder.
• Proficient with Google applications and platforms

Other Desired Qualifications or Relevant Experience:

• Experience working at or with a member(s) of the Catalyst Kitchens network
• Lived experience that overlaps with that of populations served by our member programs (see more here www.catalystkitchens.org/member-map)
• Experience with hunger relief, social enterprise, or other culinary operations in start-up phase of development
• Experience as an advisor or consultant to start-up kitchen or restaurant operations
• Experience writing business plans for hunger relief or social enterprise operations.
• Optimistic, positive, and forward-thinking
• A passion for social justice and a commitment to human rights for all people
• Exceptional follow-up and follow-through skills
• Creativity and an openness to new ideas and ways of doing things
• Energetic and purpose-driven
• Effective in a fully remote team environment