Senior Manager, Culinary & Commercialization

About the role

Jersey Mike’s is seeking an experienced leader to own menu innovation end to end: from ideation through commercialization to system-wide scale across 3,000+ franchise locations. As Senior Manager, Culinary & Commercialization, you will own the company’s menu strategy in support of the corporate growth strategy, run the ideation process in partnership with Marketing, lead supplier-driven product development, and manage a disciplined stage-gate process from concept through national rollout. We are looking for someone who can connect technical food science with strategic business acumen.

Responsibilities

Menu Strategy & Innovation Pipeline

• Own the menu innovation strategy and annual roadmap (new items, LTOs, platform development) in support of company strategy and growth targets.
• Leverage Marketing-owned consumer insights, frontline/franchisee input, and industry and culinary trends to identify customer need states and menu gaps.
• Build and manage the innovation funnel: concept development, screening, and prioritization.

Supplier-Driven Product Development

• Lead R&D through supplier partners: briefs, specifications, bench builds, iterations, and sensory validation.
• Partner with Quality Assurance on product specifications, food safety, & nutritional review as part of gate approvals.
• Support supplier scale-up and manufacturing readiness: trial production runs, process-capability assessment, and scale-up risk identification to de-risk launch.
• Apply technical knowledge of food science, ingredient functionality, and manufacturing constraints to develop products that are operationally executable in a high-volume restaurant environment.

Stage-Gate Process Ownership

• Design, own, and run the end-to-end stage-gate process from ideation to scale; accountable for on-time, on-quality delivery of the pipeline.
• Manage defined gates for cross-functional stakeholder approvals (Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain, IT, Finance), preparing gate materials and driving decisions to schedule.

Commercialization & Rollout

• Design & manage in-store market tests in partnership with Ops to convert learnings into go / no-go recommendations.
• Own rollout readiness, partnering cross-functionally to ensure the proper training materials, operational procedures, supply chain lead times & inventory, marketing plans, and system communication for national launches.
• Own post-launch performance scorecards to generate learnings & inform future activations.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in product development, R&D, and/or commercialization.
• Demonstrated track record of taking products from R&D through commercialization to commercial scale, including hands-on experience running or working within a stage-gate product development process.
• Strong cross-functional stakeholder management.
• Strong project management skills; organized, deadline-driven, and comfortable owning a multi-workstream pipeline.
• Strategic business acumen: comfortable with product costing, margin analysis, and business-case development.
• Degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition, Culinary Science, or equivalent technical R&D experience.
• Willingness to travel and work hands-on in restaurants, test markets, and supplier facilities, as needed.

Preferred

• Experience within CPG, restaurant, or food manufacturing / supplier environments (e.g., protein, bakery, etc.).
• Experience in franchise or multi-unit restaurant systems.
• Supplier-side R&D experience and familiarity with co-manufacturing / co-development models.
• Experience managing LTO pipelines and restaurant menu calendars.