Process Development Chef

The Role

Fuel Hub is a fast-growing premium prepared food and nutrition brand operating across D2C and B2B channels, supplying customers nationwide and partnering with elite sports teams, professional athletes and high-performance organisations. As we enter a major phase of scale-up, including a future factory move and increased manufacturing capacity, we are seeking a Process Development Chef.

The Process Development Chef will work within the Product Team, reporting to the Product Manager, and is responsible for the hands-on creation and development of FuelHub products across monthly menu development, NPD and EPD.

Based within the production kitchen and factory environment, the role combines culinary expertise with food manufacturing, technical awareness and process development knowledge. It is responsible for developing premium, great-tasting products in line with FuelHub’s nutritional, macro and commercial targets, and ensuring they can be successfully translated from development into scalable, technically safe, efficient and repeatable production.

The Process Development Chef will be an integral link between Product, Technical and Production, working closely with the Product Manager, Technical Manager and Production team throughout recipe and process development, validation, factory trials and first production.

What You’ll Bring

• Strong culinary expertise, with a passion for food, nutrition and health.
• Product development experience within food manufacturing, across NPD and EPD.
• Good technical and food safety awareness.
• Strong understanding of factory processes, production and scale-up.
• Excellent attention to detail, initiative and a hands-on approach.
• A proactive, energetic self-starter and team player.

Key Responsibilities

1. Culinary Expertise, Recipe Development & Nutritional Targets

• Hands-on NPD and EPD recipe development and creation, delivering premium, great-tasting products that meet agreed nutritional, macro and commercial targets, in line with FuelHub product briefs and brand standards.
• Apply strong culinary and nutritional expertise across ingredients, flavour profiles, recipe formulation and cooking processes.
• Maintain awareness of food trends, seasonality, emerging and functional ingredients, identifying relevant opportunities for NPD and EPD.
• Continuously review and improve existing products, balancing taste, nutrition, quality, cost and production efficiency.

2. Manufacturing & Process Development

• Translate recipes and concepts into scalable, efficient and repeatable manufacturing processes.
• Work directly with the Production team through scale-up trials and first production runs, ensuring successful transition into routine production.
• Apply strong food manufacturing and process knowledge to optimise product quality, consistency and efficiency.
• Establish and monitor yields, cook losses and process performance across new and existing products, identifying opportunities for improvement.
• Troubleshoot manufacturing challenges and implement practical solutions while maintaining agreed product standards.

3. Technical Awareness & Validation

• Work closely with the Product Manager and Technical Manager to ensure food safety, quality and technical requirements are considered throughout product and process development.
• Apply an understanding of CCPs and key process controls, ensuring products and processes are developed to be safe, compliant and repeatable.
• Support and document cook validation of raw materials and product components to ensure food safety and product quality.
• Validate finished-product cooking instructions to ensure food safety and eating quality.
• Provide product and process information to support HACCP, specifications, allergen controls and technical documentation.

4. Product & Production Documentation

• Create clear and accurate production recipes and specifications, enabling consistent and repeatable production.
• Accurately scale recipes from development to production, defining ingredient quantities, methods, cooking processes and portioning requirements.
• Work with the Product Manager to create and maintain factory documentation and process instructions to support successful production.
• Review and update documentation following trials, process changes and EPD activity.