Sous Chef Pastry

About the Role

Hire Fellows is seeking an experienced and hands-on Sous Chef Pastry to join a fast-growing production team. This full-time role is based in Makkah, with operations spanning Jeddah and Makkah. The Sous Chef Pastry will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day kitchen operations, ensuring timely production, adherence to quality standards, and compliance with food safety requirements.

Role Overview

The successful candidate will have end-to-end responsibility for the kitchen floor, managing multiple production sections including cake artistry, decorating, baking, chocolate, and stewarding. This position involves leading and developing the kitchen team, managing daily production volumes, maintaining quality and food safety standards, and optimizing the use of personnel, ingredients, and resources.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee daily operations across all kitchen and production sections, including cake artistry, decorating, baking, chocolate, and stewarding.
• Manage daily production plans to ensure accurate and on-time order completion.
• Monitor recipe adherence and finished-product quality against established standards.
• Identify and resolve quality issues before products are dispatched.
• Coordinate with Procurement and Inventory teams to manage kitchen inventory, minimizing stockouts and waste.
• Develop and adjust staff schedules based on daily order volumes and production needs.
• Allocate workloads across sections to ensure efficient team utilization.
• Lead, coach, and hold section heads and their teams accountable for performance, quality, and productivity.
• Conduct daily production briefings to communicate order volumes, priorities, and operational requirements.
• Identify training and development needs within the kitchen team and collaborate with HR on onboarding and employee development.
• Enforce food safety, hygiene, sanitation, and HACCP standards throughout the facility.
• Work with the QC team to maintain consistent food safety and quality standards.
• Manage escalations related to design, product quality, rework, and delivery timelines.
• Make decisions regarding product rework, holding, or release.
• Monitor and report kitchen performance, including production output, quality, and on-time completion.
• Manage key kitchen cost drivers such as labor, ingredients, and wastage against the facility budget.
• Develop capacity plans for peak periods and ensure all sections are prepared for increased production volumes.
• Identify opportunities to improve kitchen workflows, layouts, processes, and overall productivity.
• Act as the senior decision-maker on kitchen equipment, workflow, and operational changes affecting production.
• Collaborate with Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing, and other teams on new launches, seasonal collections, and production planning.
• Maintain a clean, organized, safe, and efficient kitchen environment.

Qualifications and Requirements

• 7-10 years of professional kitchen, bakery, or food production experience.
• Previous experience managing a multi-section kitchen, bakery, or high-volume production facility.
• Strong knowledge of cake production and decoration, including expert-level fondant and cake-craft skills.
• Excellent attention to detail with a strong understanding of product quality and presentation.
• Proven experience managing and developing a multi-person kitchen team.
• Strong experience with staff scheduling, coaching, performance management, and team development.
• Working knowledge of inventory management, food cost, wastage, and production planning.
• Strong understanding of food safety, hygiene, sanitation, and HACCP principles.
• Ability to manage production efficiently against changing order volumes and tight deadlines.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills, with the ability to remain calm under pressure.
• Strong leadership and communication skills.
• Commercially aware with an understanding of kitchen budgets and cost control.
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail and operational follow-through.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-volume production environment.
• Hands-on leadership style with a willingness to be involved in day-to-day kitchen operations.