Manager Onboard Culinary Programs

Manager Onboard Culinary Programs

Position Summary:

The Manager Onboard Culinary Programs serves as JetBlue’s strategic culinary lead and primary point of contact for all catering business partners across the system, ensuring food quality, operational consistency, and brand alignment across onboard dining programs. This role combines strategic program leadership with hands-on culinary oversight to drive menu specification accuracy, food safety compliance, pricing alignment, and partner performance across JetBlue’s global catering network.

Reporting to the Senior Manager Onboard Experience Product Development, the Manager owns the end-to-end lifecycle of culinary programs, from menu specification and business partner onboarding through compliance monitoring and performance optimization. The role establishes scalable processes and project management systems that enable the team to work efficiently, supporting JetBlue’s growth while protecting the high-quality dining experience that sets the brand apart.

The Manager also acts as JetBlue’s culinary subject matter expert in RFP processes, cross-functional initiatives, and new business partner negotiations, ensuring requirements are clearly defined and successfully executed. This position requires strong culinary literacy, operational discipline, and the ability to build sustainable systems that balance food quality, cost, and crew execution, with a leadership style that demonstrates JetBlue’s values of Safety, Caring, Integrity, Passion, and Fun.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Lead the Onboard Culinary Programs team, setting clear priorities, workflows, and expectations to deliver safe, reliable, and brand-aligned Onboard dining programs
• Own menu specifications and recipes within Product Development, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and timely release to Catering Standards, Catering Operations, Catering Business Partners and all other stakeholders as required
• Create and maintain crew guides that outline plating, portioning, and service procedures. Partner with Inflight Service Delivery to confirm guides can be executed inflight, and with Catering Standards to ensure pack plans align with galley realities
• Serve as JetBlue’s primary culinary point of contact for all catering partners across the system, managing relationships across menu specifications, food quality, food safety, pricing, and performance
• Oversee JetBlue’s onboard food safety and compliance framework
• Own audit cadence, corrective actions, incident response, and Audit program maintenance, ensuring standards are met across the network
• Create and manage high-level dashboards, so crewleader and leadership can quickly ascertain the health and performance of our fresh food catering network
• Ensure proposed dish pricing from caterers are within budget, and manage accordingly to deliver financial goals
• Act as culinary and food safety subject matter expert for RFPs and SLAs, ensuring all culinary and food safety requirements are captured, clearly defined, and executable
• Lead onboarding of new culinary partners with the Onboard Experience Product Development team, translating concepts into workable onboard culinary programs
• Align menu changes with budget targets and collaborate with Finance and catering partners to ensure accurate pricing and cost control
• Build scalable systems, calendars, and change-control routines to improve accuracy, communication, and visibility across teams
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Catering Standards, Catering Ops, Service Delivery, Compliance, Finance, and, as needed, Brand, Marketing, Social, and Corporate Communications to deliver programs that work end-to-end
• Represent the Culinary Programs team in cross-functional meetings, ensuring culinary requirements are embedded into decisions and outcomes
• Provide leadership, guidance, and development for a team of analysts, fostering accountability, process discipline, and continuous improvement
• Other duties as assigned

Minimum Experience and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Culinary Arts, Food Science, Hospitality Management, or related discipline; OR demonstrated capability to perform job responsibilities with a combination of a High School Diploma/GED and at least four (4) years of previous relevant work experience
• Five (5) years of experience in culinary operations, food service management, or hospitality program management with demonstrated leadership responsibilities
• Three (3) years of experience managing vendor or partner relationships in a regulated or operationally complex environment
• Strong knowledge of food safety and compliance standards (HACCP or equivalent)
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement processes, systems, or programs that scale across multiple locations
• Experience building and maintaining partner relationships, with proven ability to influence without direct authority
• Available for domestic and international overnight travel, with frequency to be determined (70%)
• Must pass a pre-employment drug test
• Must be legally eligible to work in the country in which the position is located
• Authorization to work in the US is required. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship

Preferred Experience and Qualifications:

• Culinary degree from an accredited institution or advanced professional culinary training
• Experience in airline food & beverage, contract catering, or multi-unit hospitality operations with a focus on branded or differentiated dining programs
• Familiarity with RFP processes, vendor negotiations, and service-level agreements
• Strong financial acumen, including menu pricing alignment, cost analysis, and budget management
• ServSafe Manager certification or equivalent food safety credential
• Project management certification (e.g., PMP or equivalent)
• Experience building or scaling culinary programs that balance brand vision, operational feasibility, and cost control
• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred; additional languages such as French or Dutch are a plus to support JetBlue’s European catering partners

Crewmember Expectations:

• Regular attendance and punctuality
• Potential need to work flexible hours and be available to respond on short notice
• Able to maintain a professional appearance
• When working or traveling on JetBlue flights, and if time permits, all capable crewmembers are asked to assist with light cleaning of the aircraft
• Must be an appropriate organizational fit for the JetBlue culture, that is, exhibit the JetBlue values of Safety, Caring, Integrity, Passion, and Fun
• Must fulfill safety accountabilities as prescribed by JetBlue’s Safety Management System (SMS)
• Promote JetBlue’s #1 value of Safety as a Safety Ambassador, supporting JetBlue’s SMS components, Safety Policy, and behavioral standards
• Identify safety concerns, issues, incidents, or hazards that should be reported and report them whenever possible and by any means necessary, including JetBlue’s confidential reporting systems (Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) or Safety Action Report (SAR))
• Responsible for adhering to all applicable laws, regulations (FAA, OSHA, DOT, etc.) and Company policies, procedures, and risk controls
• Uphold JetBlue’s safety performance metric goals and understand how they relate to duties and responsibilities.
• The use of ChatGPT or any other automated tool during the interview process will disqualify a candidate from being considered for the position.

Equipment:

• Computer and other office equipment

Work Environment

• Primary office environment with frequent travel to airport facilities and catering kitchens
• Regular exposure to commercial kitchen settings, including hot and cold storage areas, food preparation spaces, and equipment environments
• Airport and aircraft settings with associated noise levels, movement, and operational activity
• Flexibility to work extended hours during menu changeovers, program launches, and operational disruptions

Physical Effort

• Generally not required, or up to 10 pounds occasionally, 0 pounds frequently (Sedentary)

Compensation

• The base pay range for this position is between $81,000.00 and $136,200.00 per year. Base pay is one component of JetBlue’s total compensation package, which may also include performance bonuses, restricted stock units, as well as access to healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan and company match, crewmember stock purchase plan, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, free space available travel on JetBlue, and more

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