Culinary Director

Role overview

The Culinary Director will steer F1® Arcade’s food direction, kitchen standards, and culinary operations across the United States, while also supporting franchise partners with hands-on culinary guidance. This position is accountable for taking the food offering from idea stage through menu design, costing, rollout, team training, supplier coordination, and continuous improvement.

The role is focused on making sure the food experience is commercially sound, practical to run, aligned with the brand, and delivered consistently in both company-operated and franchised venues. The right person will bring creative culinary leadership together with strong multi-location operational discipline, plus a solid understanding of hospitality economics, guest experience, and how to adapt to different markets.

Location and reporting

This is a remote role, but the candidate must live within a 25-mile radius of a venue. The position reports to the Chief Executive Officer.

Core responsibilities

The role covers culinary direction, menu innovation, operational consistency, franchise support, capability building, supplier management, compliance, and collaboration with key internal teams.

Culinary strategy and brand development

• Set and champion the culinary direction for F1® Arcade in the US so the food program supports the brand, guest expectations, and business objectives.
• Design food offers that are inventive, high quality, and efficient to run, while fitting daypart, event, and group sales opportunities.
• Build a culinary strategy that can expand across company and franchise locations without losing consistency, while still allowing room for local market needs.
• Work with senior leaders to evolve the food proposition in step with business expansion, changing consumer preferences, and the brand’s direction.

Menu development and innovation

• Lead the full menu process, including creation, testing, costing, rollout, and seasonal menu updates across all venues.
• Ensure dishes are creative yet practical, with strong visual appeal, excellent quality, profitability, and suitability for a high-volume environment.
• Adjust menus for the US market by considering regional tastes, ingredient access, pricing, regulations, and operating realities.
• Put in place menu engineering methods that improve mix, margin, labour efficiency, and guest satisfaction.
• Oversee recipes, portion controls, plating standards, allergen details, and product specifications.

Multi-site operational excellence

• Set, maintain, and improve culinary standards across all sites so food quality, presentation, prep, and kitchen discipline stay consistent.
• Carry out regular venue visits, kitchen audits, and performance reviews to spot improvement opportunities and confirm brand compliance.
• Partner with operations teams so kitchen systems, prep approaches, service flow, and labour deployment support efficient execution.
• Resolve operational issues connected to equipment, production flow, staffing capability, and product quality.

Franchise partner support

• Act as the main culinary contact for franchise partners, helping with successful openings, menu rollout, and ongoing operations.
• Support franchise partners with new menu ideas and innovation.
• Create franchise-ready systems, playbooks, and training resources that allow consistent execution across different markets.
• Advise on kitchen layout, equipment choices, supplier standards, product specs, and readiness for new venue launches.
• Help franchisees troubleshoot issues, improve performance, and adapt menus within approved brand boundaries.
• Work with franchise and international teams to ensure partners understand and deliver the F1® Arcade food experience.

Training and capability building

• Collaborate with the learning and development team to design and deliver culinary training for chefs, kitchen managers, and operations teams across corporate and franchised venues.
• Develop SOPs, recipe books, training content, and onboarding tools that support repeatable execution.
• Coach venue leaders to raise quality, strengthen team capability, and improve operational performance.

Supplier and commercial management

• Work with procurement and supply chain teams to source products that balance quality, availability, and cost across the US.
• Assist with supplier selection, product trials, and specification alignment.
• Track food cost performance and look for margin improvement opportunities without lowering quality or guest satisfaction.
• Ensure menus and recipes are designed for supply continuity, scalability, and operational simplicity.

Compliance and food safety

• Make sure all culinary standards, recipes, and procedures meet relevant US food safety, allergen, and regulatory requirements.
• Partner with operations and compliance teams to maintain strong food safety practices across all venues.
• Support audit readiness and ensure franchise partners understand and follow required standards.

Cross-functional collaboration

• Work closely with Operations, Beverage, Training, Procurement, Finance, Marketing, and Franchise teams to deliver a connected guest experience.
• Partner with marketing on menu launches, promotional campaigns, and storytelling around the food offer.
• Contribute to new venue openings, feasibility reviews, and strategic planning for future growth in domestic and international markets.

Experience and competencies

This role calls for senior culinary leadership experience in multi-site hospitality, restaurant, or entertainment-led businesses. Experience across multiple regions or international markets is important, and prior work with franchise, licensed, or partner-operated models is a strong advantage. The ideal candidate will have deep experience in menu development, recipe standardization, kitchen operations, and cost control, along with a track record of building brand-led, operationally workable food concepts.

Strong knowledge of food safety, allergen management, and regulatory compliance in complex operating environments is required. Experience with new venue openings and culinary launch support is highly valued, along with strong financial acumen in menu costing, margin management, and labour-aware operations.

Skills and working style

The right person will be strategic and commercially aware, able to connect culinary vision to business performance. They should be practical and detail-focused, with high standards for food quality and presentation. Strong leadership, influence, coaching, and communication skills are essential, as is the ability to work well with cross-functional teams and franchise partners. The role also requires someone who is highly organised, adaptable, comfortable in a fast-moving growth environment, and skilled at solving problems in a practical way. Balancing brand consistency with local market flexibility is also key.

Success measures

Success in this role will be reflected in consistent food quality and presentation across US and franchise sites, effective rollout of menu changes and new culinary ideas, stronger food cost performance and menu margins, high compliance with culinary and food safety standards, strong franchise partner execution, positive guest feedback, and smooth culinary support for new openings and market expansion.

Travel, hours, and work expectations

• Global travel may be required up to 70% of the time.
• The role requires a minimum of 40 working hours per week, with flexibility to support global business needs across multiple time zones.

Core values

• Pursuit of Excellence
• Positive Energy
• Integrity
• Team Spirit

Physical requirements

When working at an F1® Arcade venue, the team member must be able to carry out the duties required of that environment. The role includes regular sitting for short periods, frequent phone and cloud-based video conferencing, and constant hearing and handling of objects. The person must be able to lift up to 10 pounds regularly and up to 50 pounds when needed, including lifting from the floor to shoulder level often and overhead occasionally. The job also involves frequent twisting and reaching, constant grasping, working in hot and cold environments for extended periods, standing and walking for long periods, and frequent hand washing and sanitation. Safe use of knives, slicing equipment, and other food preparation tools is required, along with the ability to communicate with guests and team members and operate handheld and desktop devices.

Equal opportunity statement

F1® Arcade is an equal opportunity employer. All candidates will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or disability status.