Culinary Manager

Overview Who We Are At BJ’s Restaurants, we’ve been bringing people together to celebrate life’s moments since 1978. We’re more than a restaurant, we’re a team of passionate people who take pride in creating great food, memorable experiences, and a workplace where everyone feels valued. If you’re energized by teamwork, motivated to keep learning, and passionate about creating great experiences for others, you’ll feel right at home here. Responsibilities What You’ll Do Great menu innovation starts with creativity but bringing it to life across our restaurants takes much more. We’re looking for a Culinary Manager who can turn culinary ideas, emerging trends, and brand priorities into craveable menu items that our guests love and our restaurant teams can execute consistently. Working alongside our culinary leadership team, you’ll help develop new menu items, improve existing favorites, and support seasonal and limited-time offerings. You’ll take ideas from early concept through testing and refinement, balancing creativity with food cost, scalability, ingredient availability, and restaurant execution. This is an opportunity for a talented culinary professional who loves the creative process but also understands what it takes to translate a great dish into a successful menu item across a multi-unit restaurant environment. How You’ll Contribute The Innovation: Translate culinary briefs and strategic priorities into compelling menu concepts that reflect the BJ’s brand, while researching, developing, testing, and refining new ingredients, preparations, presentations, and flavor profiles. The Menu: Help shape both what’s next and what’s already loved. Develop seasonal and limited-time offerings while identifying opportunities to improve existing menu items for flavor, quality, consistency, guest appeal, value perception, and restaurant execution. The Trends: Stay curious about what’s happening across restaurants, food, consumer behavior, and the competitive landscape, bringing forward relevant trends and ideas that can inspire future menu innovation. The Development: Create detailed, repeatable recipes and preparation procedures, including ingredient specifications, batch recipes, yields, portion standards, plate presentations, and line builds. Conduct tastings and recipe iterations and maintain accurate development records, testing notes, and final specifications. The Execution: Evaluate concepts through the lens of our restaurants, considering BJ’s current kitchen equipment, labor model, ingredients, and operating platform. Support restaurant testing, document product performance outside the test kitchen, and identify opportunities to cross-utilize ingredients and minimize unnecessary operational complexity. The Partnership: Collaborate with Operations, Marketing, Supply Chain, Purchasing, Quality Assurance, Training, Finance, and vendor partners to help move products successfully through the development process. Provide accurate culinary, recipe, yield, portion, and ingredient information to support operational, financial, and guest-facing decisions. The Presentation: Prepare menu concepts and product samples for tastings and presentations with culinary leadership and cross-functional partners. Clearly communicate culinary intent, recipe details, testing results, and operational considerations. The Feedback: Approach the development process with flexibility and curiosity. Receive feedback constructively and translate input from culinary leadership, consumers, financial partners, and restaurant operators into thoughtful recipe and concept revisions. Qualifications What You’ll Bring Culinary arts degree or certificate from an accredited culinary school preferred.4-6 years of progressive professional restaurant experience.Experience within upscale independent restaurants, chef-driven concepts, polished casual dining, or respected multi-unit restaurant brands strongly preferred.Strong foundation in classic and contemporary culinary techniques with a demonstrated ability to develop, test, refine, or improve menu items.A strong palate and passion for food, culinary trends, and creating memorable guest experiences.Working knowledge of recipe scaling, food costing, yield management, portion control, and restaurant kitchen execution.Understanding of food safety, sanitation, allergen awareness, and quality-control standards.Experience supporting seasonal menu development or limited-time offerings is a plus.Ability to balance creativity with brand standards, financial considerations, scalability, and restaurant execution.Strong organization, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines.Collaborative communication and presentation skills with the ability to work effectively across multiple functions.Adaptability and a willingness to receive feedback, adjust direction, and continue refining ideas.Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and recipe-management systems preferred.Ability to travel to restaurants, vendor facilities, product cuttings, and market visits as needed. Salary Range USD $90,000 - $100,000 plus bonus eligibility and comprehensive benefits. This pay range reflects the anticipated compensation for this role. Final salary within the range will be determined based on factors such as geographic location, relevant experience, and other job-related qualifications. Benefits that matter… Live your best life! 401(k) with company match to help you plan for the futureComprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefitsFree and discounted mealsCareer growth and advancement opportunitiesFinancial wellness and life planning resourcesEmployee discount program and additional lifestyle perksA collaborative culture built on teamwork, service, and celebrating wins If you’re a creative culinary professional who loves developing great food and is energized by the challenge of turning an idea into something guests can enjoy across restaurants, we’d love to hear from you. Join BJ’s and help us continue creating menu experiences worth celebrating. This role follows a hybrid schedule. You’ll join us at our Restaurant Support Center in Huntington Beach Monday through Thursday, with the flexibility to work remotely on Fridays. BJ’s Restaurants is an equal opportunity and E-Verify employer. Pay Range USD $90,000.00 - USD $100,000.00 /Yr.