Sous Chef ( 3D Cake Artist)

Role overview

Kitchen production and quality

• Oversee daily kitchen and production-section operations; manage production plans and complete orders accurately and on time.
• Monitor recipe adherence and finished-product quality, resolve quality issues before dispatch, and own design, quality, rework, and delivery escalations.
• Decide whether products need rework, should be held, or are ready for release.
• Manage inventory with Procurement and Inventory teams, minimizing stockouts and waste.

Team and production planning

• Schedule staff according to order volumes and production needs, allocate workloads, and lead section heads and teams to meet performance and quality goals.
• Run daily briefings on volumes, priorities, special requests, and operational needs; identify training needs and coordinate onboarding and development with HR.
• Plan capacity for peak periods and monitor and report production output, quality, and on-time completion.

Safety, costs, and improvement

• Enforce food safety, hygiene, sanitation, and HACCP; work with Quality Control on consistent standards.
• Manage labor, ingredient, and wastage costs against the facility budget.
• Improve workflows, layouts, processes, and productivity; make senior decisions on kitchen equipment and operational changes.
• Coordinate with Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing, and other teams on launches, seasonal collections, and production planning.
• Maintain a clean, organized, safe, and efficient kitchen.

Experience and technical expertise

• 7–10 years of professional kitchen, bakery, or food-production experience and prior management of a multi-section kitchen, bakery, or high-volume facility.
• Strong cake-production and decoration knowledge, including expert-level fondant and cake-craft skills.
• Strong understanding of food safety, hygiene, sanitation, and HACCP principles.
• Working knowledge of inventory, food cost, wastage, and production planning.

Leadership and working style

• Proven experience managing and developing a multi-person kitchen team, including scheduling, coaching, performance management, and team development.
• Able to manage changing order volumes and tight deadlines, solve problems, make decisions, and remain calm under pressure.
• Strong leadership and communication skills; commercial awareness and understanding of kitchen budgets and cost control.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, comfortable in fast-paced high-volume production, and willing to participate in daily kitchen operations.