Job description

 JOB PURPOSE:

Strategic and senior culinary leader responsible for ADNOC C-Store’s end-to-end food innovation, private label product development. Accountable for portfolio governance of the culinary pipeline, R&D capability building, and scale-up excellence to deliver sustainable, profitable growth while ensuring UAE regulatory, food-safety, and Halal compliance. Private label product & culinary strategy and portfolio leadership are owned by the Category Manager; the Development Chef leads product development in line with the approved strategy.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Job Specific Accountabilities

Culinary Innovation & Product Development

• Lead end-to-end development of new food products through a structured Stage-Gate methodology, ensuring alignment with category briefs and operational feasibility across multiple store formats.

• Develop recipes, formulations, and product specifications that are scalable, cost-efficient, and suitable for both commissary and in-store execution environments.
• Conduct product testing, trials, and sensory validation to ensure consistency in taste, quality, and customer acceptance prior to launch.
• Define preparation standards, process flows, and product handling requirements to ensure consistent execution and ease of operations across stores.
• Identify and drive innovation opportunities based on market trends, customer preferences, and evolving retail food concepts.

Private Label Product Development

• Execute private label product development in line with Category Manager-approved strategy, ensuring adherence to portfolio direction and commercial objectives.
• Translate business briefs into detailed product specifications including formulation, bill of materials, packaging, and technical requirements.
• Manage supplier collaboration for product trials, technical validation, and production readiness to ensure scalability and quality assurance.
• Oversee packaging design and labelling requirements, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards including allergens, nutrition, and local labelling requirements.
• Drive value engineering initiatives to optimise cost structures while maintaining product quality, consistency, and brand positioning.

Portfolio Governance & Pipeline Management

• Manage the culinary innovation pipeline, including project prioritisation, stage progression, and tracking of development milestones.
• Translate category strategies into structured development roadmaps with clearly defined timelines and deliverables.
• Monitor project risks, dependencies, and resource allocation to ensure timely and effective delivery of product initiatives.
• Establish governance frameworks including stage-gate reviews, reporting structures, and performance tracking mechanisms.
• Maintain structured documentation and reporting to ensure visibility, accountability, and alignment across stakeholders.

Commercial & Menu Engineering Support

• Support Category Managers in menu engineering activities, including product positioning, performance analysis, and mix optimization.
• Contribute to product costing, portion sizing, and cost optimization to support overall commercial objectives and margin considerations.
• Conduct pilot testing and market validation to assess customer acceptance, operational feasibility, and commercial viability.
• Analyze trial performance and customer feedback to recommend product improvements and refinements prior to full launch.
• Align product development outcomes with category performance targets while balancing quality, cost, and customer expectations.

R&D Capability & Centre of Excellence

• Establish and manage the R&D Kitchen as a centre of excellence for culinary innovation, testing, and capability development.
• Develop and implement standard operating procedures, frameworks, and best practices for food innovation and product testing.
• Build organisational capability through structured training programmes, skill development initiatives, and knowledge sharing.
• Maintain repositories of formulations, product specifications, and development documentation to support consistency and scalability.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency, speed of innovation, and overall development quality.

Scale-Up & Operational Readiness

• Lead the transition of products from development to full-scale rollout, ensuring operational readiness across all store formats.
• Define processes, equipment requirements, and training standards to ensure smooth and consistent product execution.
• Coordinate with supply chain and procurement teams to ensure availability of ingredients, packaging, and logistics readiness.
• Monitor post-launch performance, identify operational gaps, and drive corrective actions to stabilise performance.
• Ensure consistency in product quality and customer experience across all locations during and after rollout.

Compliance, Food Safety & Quality Assurance

• Ensure all products comply with UAE food regulations, labelling standards, and food safety requirements.
• Implement and maintain food safety systems such as HACCP and ISO-based frameworks across product development processes.
• Ensure adherence to Halal standards across sourcing, production, packaging, and distribution activities.
• Conduct audits and quality assessments to ensure compliance with internal standards and external regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with quality teams to manage risks, ensure product integrity, and drive continuous improvement in food safety practices.

Generic Accountabilities

Supervision

• Plan, supervise and coordinate all activities in the assigned area to meet functional objectives.
• Train and develop the assigned staff on relevant skills to enable them to become proficient on the job and deliver the respective section objectives.

Budgets

• Provide input for preparation of the functional budgets and assist in the implementation of the approved Budget and work plans to deliver objectives.
• Investigate and highlight any significant variances to support effective performance and cost control.

Policies, Systems, Processes & Procedures

• Implement approved Unit / Divisional policies, processes, systems, standards and procedures in order to support execution of the work programs in line with Company and International standards.

Performance Management

• Contribute to the achievement of the approved Performance Objectives for the function in line with the Company Performance framework.

Innovation and Continuous Improvement

• Design and implement new tools and techniques to improve the quality and efficiency of operational processes.
• Identify improvements in internal processes against best practices in pursuit of greater efficiency in line with best Industry standards in order to define intelligent solutions for issues confronting the function.

Health, Safety, Environment (HSE) and Sustainability

• Comply with relevant HSE policies, procedures & controls and applicable legislation and sustainability guidelines in line with international standards, best practices and ADNOC Code of Practices.

Reports

• Provide inputs to prepare Section MIS and progress reports for Company Management.

5. COMMUNICATIONS & WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:

Internal

• Category Managers (F&B)
• Retail Operations
• Supply Chain & Procurement
• Quality Assurance / QA Teams
• Marketing & Commercial Teams

External

• Food suppliers and manufacturers
• Packaging and labelling vendors
• Regulatory authorities
• Halal certification bodies
• Equipment and systems providers

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

Minimum Qualification

• Degree in Culinary Arts, Food Technology, or related discipline

Minimum Experience & Knowledge & Skills

• 8 years of experience in culinary R&D, product development, or menu engineering
• Experience in convenience retail, QSR, or multi-site food service environments
• Proven experience in private label product development and product lifecycle management
• Experience in scaling food concepts across multiple locations
• Strong knowledge of UAE food regulations and compliance frameworks
• Culinary innovation and product development expertise
• Commercial understanding including costing, yields, and optimisation

Professional Certifications

• Professional certifications in food safety standards such as HACCP or equivalent