Senior Manager, Culinary & Commercialization

Jersey Mike’s is a fast-casual sub sandwich franchise with over 3,300 locations nationwide, offering fresh sliced subs on freshly baked bread. Established in 1956, the company is committed to providing delicious food made with premium ingredients and giving back to the communities it serves. Ranked #1 in 2026 America’s top franchises by Entrepreneur Magazine, Jersey Mike’s is recognized for its rapid growth, dedication, and philanthropic initiatives like its Annual Day of Giving, which has raised millions for local charities.

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, 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. This role requires connecting technical food science with strategic business acumen and hands-on project management to bring products from R&D into thousands of restaurants.

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

Requirements

• 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 Qualifications

• 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