Kitchen Lead (Irvine)

As a Kitchen Lead you will be an ambassador for our mission : building healthier communities by connecting people to real food. The Kitchen Lead position serves as the backbone of our restaurant's hot food preparation, ensuring every guest receives high-quality, properly cooked, and well-presented food. This role requires exceptional culinary skills, leadership abilities, and operational awareness to manage the full cycle of kitchen operations throughout different service periods.

When you join Sweetgreen, you are joining our movement of rewriting the future of fast food. And you won't just grow the planet's futureyou grow your own. Were passionate about growing our teams internally - our top-performing team members can reach General Manager in 36 months!

What Youll Do :

These responsibilities highlight some of the key functions a Kitchen Lead will perform. They include but are not limited to :

• Ensure kitchen is clean, organized, and well-stocked throughout service
• Cook and prep hot food items according to recipes and quality standards
• Maintain food safety protocols including proper FIFO rotation
• Conduct regular taste tests to validate food quality
• Manage oven capacity and maintenance for optimal food production
• Coordinate with MOD, Cold Prep, and Service teams throughout shifts
• Support seamless transitions between AM and PM operations
• Record waste due to quality or expiration issues- Run hot food during off-peak periods and support other stations as needed
• Lead food tastings and midday quality checks- Assist with new menu training and implementation
• Process receiving orders and report shortages or quality issues
• Physical Requirements : Lift up to 25 lbs, stand for extended periods.

You must be able to perform all of the above essential job duties satisfactorily, with or without a reasonable accommodation

Minimum Requirements :

What Youll Bring :

Essential Skills & Experience

What Makes You Stand Out

What Perks Youll Get :

Join our team and become the backbone of our hot food preparation, ensuring every guest receives high-quality, properly cooked, and consistently delicious food throughout the day.

Who We Are :

sweetgreen is on a mission to build healthier communities by connecting people to real food. We passionately believe that real food should be convenient and accessible to everyone. Every day in each sweetgreen, our 5,000 team members make food from scratch, using fresh ingredients and produce delivered that morning. And in our local communities, were committed to leaving people better than we found them. Were in the business of feeding people, and were out to change what that means. Our teams are our most valuable ingredient - the heart of our company, the face of our brand, and what truly makes the sweetgreen experience special and unique.

Sweetgreen provides equal opportunities for everyone that works for us and everyone that applies to join our team, without regard to sex or gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, race (including traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and protective hairstyles), religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, any service, past, present, or future, in the uniformed services of the United States (military or veteran status), or any other consideration protected by federal, state, or local law.

California residents : Review our applicant privacy notice HERE.

Sweetgreen participates in the federal government's E-Verify program to determine employment eligibility. To learn more about the E-Verify program, please CLICK HERE.