- Production Chef responsible for leading a 15–20 person production team
- Strong focus on planning, team training, quality standards, and KPI performance
- Well-structured kitchen environment with strong operational systems and no weekend work
About the Business
Our client is a fast-growing fresh food production business in Sydney, producing thousands of meals daily from a CBD-based production kitchen. Their clients include tech companies, luxury brands, premium hotels, universities, law firms, and film studios. The menu is streamlined and focused on salad bowls, wraps, sandwiches, baguettes, grazing platters, breakfast pods, and bakery items—fresh products produced at scale.
This is not a traditional kitchen. The business has invested heavily in systems, time-tracking, labour intelligence and recipe standardisation. There is a full-time developer building proprietary software that is progressively replacing every physical document in the kitchen with interactive digital tools. It is one of the most organised, process-driven food production environments in Sydney.
The business is growing strongly year on year, has recently expanded through acquisition, and is actively planning for additional capacity. If you are looking for a business that is going somewhere and values the people who help it get there, this is worth a proper look.
The Role
This is a production-leadership role. It is built for chefs who find more pride in precision, planning, engaging and motivating team performance and getting the numbers right than in plating artistry or creative menus. If you are someone who loves organisation and training but has reached a point where you get more satisfaction from building people and running a tight operation than from the pass, keep reading.
You will lead the production shift with a team of up to 15–20 people. No weekends. Your team prepares all next-day catering and retail items. PMs initially, but with a genuine view to moving towards a more balanced mix once you’re settled in and the team underneath you is strong. Everything is produced to a recipe with measured quantities, photo references and time targets. Your success is measured by clear KPIs: quality at or above 98%, recipe adherence, labour on budget, team stability and engagement.
Some chefs love this level of organisation and some don’t. If you do, this might be for you.
Around 70% of your time will be spent leading the team, training staff, and managing quality. The remaining 30% is hands-on production alongside the team. On quieter days, when bringing in an extra casual isn’t justified, you may step onto a station yourself. The right person sees this as part of the role.
What Your Day Actually Looks Like
Before Shift
Before your shift starts, you’ll get sales and labour updates. Ten minutes to check how the day is tracking and whether you’re well-resourced. That’s it until you walk in.
Arriving on Shift
Print station sheets, assign stations to team members, hand them out. Quick huddle with the team. Anything to flag, any focus areas, any trials today. Then let them fly.
During Shift
- Walking the benches constantly. Checking products against recipe cards and photo standards. If something is not right, correct it on the spot and coach the team member through it.
- Monitoring the live performance screen. Every 30 minutes, team leaders check whether each person is on time or behind. You can see at a glance who needs attention and act on it.
- Training, upskilling and developing your people. Knife skills, presentation, food safety, speed, confidence. This is where a big chunk of your time goes and where the best supervisors make the biggest difference.
- Handling order updates. Two additional updates come through during the shift. Each time you reprint, redistribute and keep things moving. The final update of the day can be intense.
- Problem-solving. Staff questions, ingredient issues, equipment problems, someone calling in sick. You are the person people come to. You keep the rhythm.
End of Shift
Production wraps up in the final hour or so. Staff begin a thorough deep clean. You own this and make sure it is done to standard.
The Team You Are Leading
Your team is not a brigade of trained chefs. They are catering assistants, most with some kitchen or food preparation experience—reliable, hardworking people who value stability and structure. They respond well to coaching-style leadership. This is not the environment for a yeller.
The work is repetitive. Chopping, dicing, assembling, cleaning. The right supervisor creates energy and purpose around that. People want to hit their station times because you have made it matter, not because they are afraid. You can be firm with one person and gentle with the next. You read the room, you adapt, and you meet people where they are. Have the music on, have a chat and a laugh, but make sure it’s kept on track.
This is the part that has tripped up previous hires. The technical kitchen skills are a given. What separates the right person is how they lead a team that is not full of chefs, in an environment where the work is not glamorous, and the pressure is about consistency, not adrenaline.
The Systems You Will Work With
The systems here are genuinely impressive and make the job easier than most production environments. Here is what you will use:
- Station sheets: Every team member gets a printed sheet showing products, quantities, recipe references and time targets. They work top to bottom, tracking their own progress.
- Recipe cards: Standardised with photo references. Scoops, gram measurements, presentation standards. Not open to interpretation.
- Live performance screen: A TV in the kitchen showing a live dashboard. 30-minute check-ins per team member for on-time and cleanliness. Green means good. Red means go find out why.
The in-house software platform is being progressively rolled out and will eventually replace physical documents with interactive kitchen screens, automated production planning, and integrated training. As this develops, the role will continue to evolve and improve over time.
What You Do Not Have to Do
This is unusual and worth highlighting:
- No stock ordering. A dedicated stock controller handles all procurement.
- No recruitment admin. A recruitment team handles sourcing, screening and scheduling. You receive trial candidates ready to assess.
- No production planning from scratch. The systems generate station allocations and labour requirements for you.
You focus on production, people and quality. That is it.
You Will Be a Great Fit if You
- Have a strong organisational background (Head Chef, Senior Sous, Sous or equivalent in production leadership) and genuinely understand food quality, technique and safety. No tweezers or foams, but we do need someone who knows what great looks like and how to train it.
- Have led teams of 15–20 in high-volume production, catering or similar environments for at least two years.
- Have coached and developed people who are not trained chefs and understand that this requires a completely different leadership style to running a brigade.
- Are competitive about the numbers. You get a kick out of seeing all green on the screen, hitting labour targets and watching quality metrics stay above 98%. You want to win, but you bring people with you.
- Understand that different people need different things. You can push one person hard and gently encourage the next, and you know which is which.
- Hold standards without drama. Bad lettuce gets rejected. Messy stations get called out. You work clean, cut precisely, and expect the same. But you do it calmly and with respect.
- Are motivated by this kind of business. You look at a growing, systems-driven operation and think: I want to be part of building that. Not: where is the specials board.
- Have HACCP food-safety expertise and are comfortable with digital tools (Google Sheets, rostering software, etc.).
- Are looking for a long-term home where consistency, accountability and team development are what matter.
Growth
This is a business that promotes from within. The natural progression is into a Kitchen Manager or Production Manager role overseeing broader operations, and from there into senior operations leadership. The business is scaling quickly, and those who prove themselves early will be well placed to lead the next phase.
In the shorter term, as your team matures and you build a strong 2IC, there is genuine possibility for shift flexibility including earlier finishes on select days and a broader scope that evolves with you. Nothing is promised on day one, but the pathway is real and the leadership team is actively building towards it. The hours and the role evolve with the team’s capability and your performance.
The Details
- Location: Sydney CBD
- Shift: Initially mainly PM production shift, Monday to Friday. No weekends. Moving to a more balanced mix once settled in.
- Salary: $90,000 – $120,000 + superannuation, commensurate with experience
- Employment: Full-time permanent
- Weekends: None
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