Head of Food in London

The Head of Food is a strategic and hands-on leader who holds the end-to-end accountability for the WatchHouse food proposition; from long-term vision, innovation and strategy through to daily operational excellence and launch execution. This role brings together the leadership of Bakery and Kitchen teams with ownership of product development and launch pipeline across food at WatchHouse.

With a roughly 50/50 split between food leadership and product launch delivery, the role is central to driving growth, consistency, and quality as WatchHouse scales across the UK, US, and franchise markets. You will establish robust systems, lead high-performing teams, and ensure every product launched is operationally sound, commercially successful, and unmistakably WatchHouse.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop UK & US Bakery and Kitchen teams (around 50 people), fostering a high-performance, people-first culture.
• Line manage the UK Kitchen Manager, UK Bakery Manager, and US Executive Head Baker, providing clear leadership, support, and accountability to ensure a high-performing, aligned team.
• Enable and inspire your team to achieve their best, while aligning them toward a shared vision.
• Set clear direction, responsibilities, and performance expectations, ensuring strong follow-through and accountability, holding your team to the highest of standards.
• Act as a visible, on-the-ground leader across Kitchen, Bakery and House kitchen teams.
• Coach and support managers on team development, succession planning, and continuous improvement.
• Champion WatchHouse values of Passion, Drive, Diligence and Empathy in all leadership behaviours.
• Own and evolve the WatchHouse food vision, ensuring alignment with brand, guest expectations, and commercial strategy.
• Lead the end-to-end NPD lifecycle across food, from research, ideation through to validation, launch and review.
• Build and manage a structured innovation pipeline that feeds seasonal menus and long-term global hero products.
• Chair and run all food and launch meetings, aligning key stakeholders across Food, Coffee, Marketing and Operations.
• Ensure all new products are scalable, operationally robust, and consistent across multiple territories.
• Oversee central food operations, including bakery and kitchen production, ensuring consistency, efficiency and scalability.
• Own food sales performance across the business, ensuring the food proposition drives strong commercial results, margin performance, and guest satisfaction.
• Own standards for food quality, taste, presentation and portion control across all food operations.
• Partner closely with the Procurement Manager to shape supplier strategy, support supplier selection and negotiation, and manage supplier performance and risk across the food supply chain.
• Manage food cost control, margin performance and waste reduction in partnership with Finance and Operations.
• Embed food operational excellence in our Houses through a centralised Food Audit.
• Ensure seamless delivery of food and coffee from central production into WatchHouses, maintaining quality and freshness.
• Support operational readiness for new openings and expansions, working closely with central operations teams.
• Ensure all production sites operate to the highest standards, aligned with certifications such as SALSA or equivalent.
• Co-ordinate monthly Head Chef meetings to ensure communication and alignment across all Houses.
• Track and analyse post-launch product performance, including sales, margin, guest feedback and operational impact.
• Use data-driven insights to inform iteration, optimisation and future NPD decisions.
• Build clear reporting frameworks to support commercial reviews and strategic planning.
• Partner with Commercial, Finance and Operations teams to ensure visibility of performance and risks.
• Translate data into clear actions for teams on the ground.

What Success Looks Like:

• Teams are engaged, developed, accountable and clear on expectations.
• Food launches land on time, on brand, and perform commercially.
• Central food operations run smoothly, safely and cost-effectively.
• Quality and consistency are uncompromising across all WatchHouses.
• Data is used proactively to drive better decisions and continuous improvement.

Key to this Role:

• Experience within food production or hospitality at scale.
• Strong background in certified food production environments and food safety frameworks.
• Highly process-driven, with the ability to design, implement and improve systems.
• Outstanding team leadership, clear, inspiring, consistent.
• Strategic thinking, balancing creativity and commerciality.
• Operational excellence mindset, scalable systems and smooth execution.
• Commercially astute, with experience managing food costs and margins.
• Confident cross-functional leader with excellent stakeholder management skills.
• Genuine passion for food, coffee and the WatchHouse brand.

Role Details:

• Full time (40 hours per week), with flexibility across WatchHouse kitchen, Bakery and Houses in London and Bath.
• Occasional weekend work required to support operational needs.
• Frequent UK & International travel required.

WatchHouse was born from a passion to do better. Diligence and attention to detail are paramount to what we do, we focus on the detail. We strive for perfection. We really care.

We are a people first business, curious and interested in those around us. We treat everyone with respect. We pride ourselves on creating an environment where diversity is celebrated, equality is insisted and inclusion expected.

A company where we believe in having the right person in the role; personality and individuality at the top of the list of what we are looking for in applications and throughout our hiring process.

We also know that everyone is different, and we value and respect diversity, standing up for equality and standing against any form of discrimination.

Decisions about and the treatment of people at work should be based on the individual's abilities, skills, performance and behaviour- these should be assessed against the WatchHouse job description requirements for each individual role.

We are always patient and considerate towards others. Encouraging, approachable and communicating brilliantly. We strive to be the best we can be, by giving and receiving regular and honest feedback in a professional manner.

We plan ahead, prioritise and are mindful and respect the time of others. We complete every task to the best of our ability. Always happy to ask for help, work in cohesion with other people/departments and share successes.

We work to make WatchHouse an environment of trust and comradery, where others are inspired to play their part in working effectively together. Building strong relationships with others and demonstrating positive energy. We recognise and value the contribution of others across the business, working together to deliver the Modern Coffee experience to each and every person touched by our business.

Our four core values - passion, drive, diligence and empathy - are what makes WatchHouse who we are. Our decisions are made based on these principles. To grow and succeed at WatchHouse, it is imperative that these values also resonate strongly with you, and can drive your ambition in the same way they do ours.