Baking Director

Baking Director

About Us

National Cortina has been a trusted source in the food industry, evolving from a specialty food distributor into a multi-faceted organization that supplies imported ingredients, private label solutions, frozen foods, and logistics expertise.

We hold fast to family values, knowing that genuine growth comes from how we treat those around us.

Position Overview

The Culinary Director, Baking, serves as National Cortina’s bakery innovation leader and technical baking expert. This role is responsible for driving bakery product development, strengthening customer partnerships through culinary expertise, and supporting the Commercial and R&D teams with strategic baking solutions. The Culinary Director transforms market trends and customer needs into commercially viable bakery concepts, leveraging deep technical baking knowledge, ingredient understanding, and hands-on product development experience. This individual plays a critical role in elevating National Cortina’s bakery capabilities, supporting growth across Industrial, Retail, and Foodservice channels.

Key Responsibilities

Bakery Innovation & Product Development

• Lead the creation, testing, and refinement of bakery products including breads, pastries, laminated doughs, sweets, and specialty items.
• Develop innovative concepts based on customer requests, culinary trends, and strategic initiatives.
• Conduct bench trials, sensory evaluations, and prototype development to ensure quality and feasibility.
• Evaluate ingredient functionality, performance, and cost structure to optimize formulations.
• Maintain strong understanding of baking science, raw materials, processing methods, and global bakery trends.

Customer-Facing Culinary Leadership

• Support the Sales Team by participating in customer presentations, baking demonstrations, and technical discussions.
• Create custom bakery solutions tailored to customer specifications and manufacturing capabilities.
• Visit customer facilities to provide hands-on baking expertise, troubleshooting, and training.
• Prepare samples, concepts, and technical documentation for customer engagement.

Technical Baking, Scale-Up & Commercialization

• Translate bench formulations into scalable commercial production recipes.
• Work with Operations, Quality, and R&D during factory trials and test runs.
• Validate product performance across varied production environments.
• Ensure all formulas, specifications, and SOPs meet company standards.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with Sales, R&D, Supply Chain, QA, and Operations to support successful product launches.
• Participate in development reviews, internal tastings, and cross-functional meetings.
• Provide internal training on bakery techniques and ingredient functionality.

Market Insight & Trend Analysis

• Monitor bakery market trends, ingredient innovations, and product advancements.
• Conduct competitive benchmarking and share insights with leadership.
• Identify strategic growth opportunities for National Cortina’s bakery portfolio.

Documentation & Administrative Responsibilities

• Maintain detailed documentation including formulations, SOPs, specifications, and development reports.
• Prepare customer-facing materials such as presentations and technical documents.
• Ensure accuracy and completeness of product information.

Additional Responsibilities

• Support National Cortina at industry events, tradeshows, and culinary demonstrations.
• Lead internal workshops or training sessions related to bakery innovation.
• Perform additional duties as required to support company objectives.

Required Education, Skills & Experience

• Degree in Baking & Pastry Arts, Culinary Arts, Food Science, or equivalent experience.
• 7 years of bakery product development or technical baking experience.
• Strong understanding of ingredient functionality, formulation science, and bakery processes.
• Experience with bench trials, scale-up, and manufacturing trials.
• Excellent communication and customer-facing presentation skills.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and project management abilities.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and R&D documentation systems.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally as required.

Working Conditions

• Work performed in test kitchens, labs, and occasionally in production environments.
• Frequent standing, lifting, bending, and hands-on baking activities.
• Occasional office-based work for documentation, meetings, and presentations.
• Ability to lift up to 50 lbs and work with commercial baking equipment.
• PPE required when visiting manufacturing sites.