Senior Manager, Food Safety

About CookUnity:

Food has lost its soul to modern convenience. And with it, it has lost the power to nourish, inspire, and connect us. So in 2018, CookUnity was founded as the first-of-its-kind platform that connects the world with the source of truly great food: chefs. Today, CookUnity delivers 50 million meals a year from the industry’s best chefs to homes all over the country. Fresh. Ready-to-eat. And crafted with the passion that nourishes body and soul.

Unwilling to stop there, CookUnity is expanding beyond delivery to become an ever-innovating marketplace focused on our singular mission: empower Chefs to nourish the world.

If that mission has you hungry in more ways than one, you’ve found the right job posting.

The Role

CookUnity is seeking an experienced and highly motivated Senior Manager, Food Safety to lead and scale food safety excellence across our NYC operations. This role is central to enabling CookUnity’s rapid growth and marketplace expansion by building robust, data-driven food safety systems that protect customers, strengthen brand trust, and support operational innovation.

Reporting into senior Quality & Food Safety leadership, this role partners closely with Operations, Culinary, Supply Chain, and Regulatory teams to embed preventive controls, regulatory readiness, and continuous improvement into daily execution. The ideal candidate is both strategic and hands-on—equally comfortable setting enterprise standards and working directly on the production floor.

Responsibilities

Lead site-level food safety strategy for high-volume, ready-to-eat meal production, ensuring alignment with CookUnity’s growth, retention, and marketplace objectives
Serve as the primary food safety authority for regulatory agencies, third-party audits, and inspections; own inspection readiness, execution, and corrective action management
Oversee preventive control programs and critical limits, including cold-chain management, sanitation systems, chemical controls, and cook-chill processes
Analyze, trend, and interpret food safety and environmental monitoring data to proactively identify risk and drive continuous improvement
Design, implement, and scale food safety programs, including internal and Chef audits, shelf-life validation, environmental monitoring, and risk assessments
Partner with Operations and Culinary leaders to integrate food safety into production planning, new menu launches, and process innovation
Lead food safety investigations, root cause analysis, and CAPA programs to prevent recurrence and strengthen systems
Develop and deliver engaging training programs for GMPs, sanitation, allergen control, and safe food handling for employees and Chef partners
Build and mentor high-performing food safety team members, fostering technical excellence and leadership capability
Translate evolving federal, state, and local regulations into clear, practical standards that support speed, consistency, and compliance
Champion a strong, proactive food safety culture across multiple shifts and teams in a fast-paced environment

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Food Safety, or a related discipline; advanced degree preferred
HACCP, PCQI, and/or Certified Food Safety Manager credentials
7+ years of progressive experience in food safety, quality, or regulatory leadership within ready-to-eat, fresh, or high-compliance food production environments
Demonstrated success leading food safety programs at scale in complex, high-growth operations
Strong working knowledge of FDA, USDA, and local regulatory requirements, preventive controls, and HACCP systems
Proven ability to influence cross-functional leaders and drive change without direct authority
Excellent communication, training, and stakeholder engagement skills
Highly analytical, detail-oriented, and comfortable working with performance data and risk metrics
Growth mindset with a passion for continuous improvement and operational excellence

Learn More About CookUnity

We believe great leadership starts with alignment on vision, values, and ways of working. To give you deeper insight into who we are and what we’re looking for, we invite you to explore CookUnity's Leadership Principles – the values and behaviors that guide how we operate, collaborate, and scale.

Benefits

🩺 Health Insurance coverage

🌅 401k Plan

📈 We grow, you grow: Stock Options Plan granted on Day 1

🌟 Eligible for a bi-annual performance bonus

⛱ Unlimited PTO

🗓️ 5-year Sabbatical: After 5 years with CookUnity, you get a 4-week paid sabbatical

🐣 Paid Family Leave

🕯 Compassionate Leave: 3–5 days each time the need arises

🥘 Monthly CookUnity credits to enjoy our meals

🧘🏽‍♀️ Wellness perks: nutritional coach access and fitness subsidies

👩🏾‍🏫 Personalized Spanish coach

🌟 Opportunity to join a company that’s redefining how we eat and how chefs work

Compensation

All final pay rates will be determined by candidates experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.

Pay Range for this position

$140,000—$160,000 USD

If you’re interested in this role, please submit your application, and if we think you might be a fit, we'll get in touch with you. Thank you for your time!

CookUnity is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are dedicated to creating a community of inclusion and an environment free from discrimination or harassment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship status, protected veteran status, genetic information, or physical or mental disability.

A quick note for all candidates
We’ve recently seen an increase in recruitment scams across the industry, and we want to make sure you (and your data) stay safe while applying to CookUnity. We also want you to know that we take this seriously — sometimes, as part of our process, we may ask for a brief “proof of humanity” to confirm that we’re connecting with a real person, not an impersonator. Here are a few tips to help you protect yourself and know what to expect from us:

Apply only through our official channels. All open roles are listed on our official careers page: careers.cookunity.com
Our recruiters are real people — and easy to verify. You can always find them on LinkedIn with verified profiles. If you’re unsure, feel free to reach out to us on our official LinkedIn Company Page.
We only communicate through official CookUnity channels. That means emails ending in @cookunity.com and interviews held through official company platforms (Google Meet or Zoom) — never WhatsApp, Telegram, or SMS.
We’ll never ask for payment or personal financial details. If anyone does, please don’t share any information and let us know right away.

If something ever feels off or you’re unsure about a message, we’d much rather you double-check with us. You can always contact us directly through any of our social media channels. We appreciate your interest in joining CookUnity — and we care about keeping your experience (and safety) as genuine as possible.