Food has lost its soul to modern convenience. And with it, has lost the power to nourish, inspire, and connect us. So in 2018, CookUnity was founded as the first-of-its-kind platform that connects the world with the source of truly great food: chefs. Today, CookUnity delivers 35 million meals a year from the industry’s best chefs to homes all over the country. Fresh. Ready-to-eat. And crafted with the passion that nourishes body and soul.
Unwilling to stop there, CookUnity is expanding beyond delivery to become an ever-innovating marketplace focused on our singular mission: empower Chefs to nourish the world.
If that mission has you hungry in more ways than one, you’ve found the right job posting.
If you have already applied for the Chief People Officer role in a previous posting, no need to reapply! We have your information on file and will be reviewing all applications.
We are seeking a strategic, business-minded leader to drive the transformation of CookUnity’s People Success function. Going beyond traditional HR, this role leverages AI, technology, and forward-thinking strategies to build a high-performance, scalable organization where team performance, business health, and employee experience are deeply interconnected.
The Role:
As Head of People Success, you will be a key member of the Executive Team, reporting directly to our Founder & CEO. You will be responsible for designing and executing a People strategy that integrates automation, fosters a connected hybrid workforce, optimizes team performance through incentives, and directly impacts business outcomes.
The ideal candidate brings more than just HR experience—we are looking for an expert in organizational design, business growth, and transformation who can help CookUnity scale strategically and sustainably.
Key Responsibilities:
- Reimagine People Strategy: Design and implement a business-driven People strategy that leverages innovation, AI, and organizational design to optimize culture, talent, and business performance.
- Optimize Performance & Incentive Design: Define what success looks like at CookUnity, establishing performance frameworks and incentive models that align compensation, rewards, and recognition with business impact and team contributions.
- Strategic Business Partner: Align the People strategy with business growth objectives, working closely with executive leaders to drive cross-functional collaboration, operational efficiency, and market expansion while keeping operational alignment across North America and our globally distributed workforce.
- Lead Cultural Evolution: Champion and evolve CookUnity’s culture, ensuring it scales effectively while staying true to our core values of creativity, authenticity, and excellence. Foster a sense of belonging and shared purpose across our hybrid workforce by creating meaningful experiences that reflect our principle: Create moments that matter for every guest
- Strategic Business Partner: Align the People strategy with business growth objectives, working closely with executive leaders to drive cross-functional collaboration, operational efficiency, and market expansion.
- Leverage AI to Redesign Organizational Structure: Reimagine our organizational design to integrate AI, positioning CookUnity at the forefront of the future of work, where human talent and AI-powered tools collaborate to automate tasks and amplify impact.
- Develop Leadership Excellence: Build scalable systems and programs that empower all leaders to to drive growth and enhance their coaching and mentoring capabilities, fostering a culture of authentic, drama-free relationships and strong performance across all levels.
- Elevate Talent Management: Oversee talent acquisition, development, and retention strategies, ensuring alignment with business priorities and a world-class employee experience.
- Optimize People Operations: Drive operational excellence in People functions, including compensation, benefits, policies, and HR systems, with a focus on designing compensation strategies for high-performance organizations and addressing the unique needs of remote and distributed teams. Balance simplicity with scalability to support CookUnity’s growth.
- Drive Data-Driven Decisions: Develop and leverage people analytics to measure, forecast, and optimize business and workforce performance.
Qualifications:
- Proven track record of driving business transformation, growth, and operational excellence through People strategies in fast-growing, consumer-centric environments.
- **Background beyond traditional HR—**strong exposure to business operations, growth, finance, or product-oriented companies.
- Strong experience designing, and executing transformative People strategies in fast-growing, innovative environments, with expertise in spanning organizational design, business strategy, and operational excellence.
- Demonstrated success leading cultural transformation and scaling organizations in hyper-growth consumer companies.
- Proven experience working with globally distributed, multicultural teams, with the ability to foster inclusivity and alignment across diverse regions.
- Passion and curiosity for AI, automation, and emerging technologies, with a vision for how they shape the future of work.
- Exceptional interpersonal and coaching skills, with a focus on building authentic, drama-free relationships.
- Strong analytical and operational acumen, capable of leveraging data to inform People strategies.
- Innovative approach to leadership development, talent acquisition, and retention.
- Exceptional communication, coaching, and leadership skills, with the ability to influence executive teams and drive cultural transformation.
- Fluency in Spanish is a plus.
- Preferably based in New York, with a track record of leading globally distributed, multicultural teams.
Ideal Candidate Traits:
- Business-Minded Leadership: You think beyond HR—you see People as a business function that fuels growth, transformation, and innovation.
- Operational & Analytical Thinking: You are data-driven and process-oriented, always focused on scalability and efficiency.
- Visionary & Forward-Thinking: You challenge the status quo and embrace AI, automation, and innovation in workplace design.
- Strategic & Growth-Oriented: You thrive in hypergrowth environments and understand what it takes to scale an organization.
- Culture-Builder & Change Agent: You have the ability to drive cultural transformation while staying true to CookUnity’s values.
If you are ready to redefine what People leadership looks like and are passionate about shaping the future of work at CookUnity, we want to hear from you.
Learn More About CookUnity
We believe great leadership starts with alignment on vision, values, and ways of working. To give you deeper insight into who we are and what we’re looking for, we invite you to explore our CookUnity’s Leadership Principles – The values and behaviors that guide how we operate, collaborate, and scale.
Benefits
🩺 Health Insurance coverage
🌅 401k Plan
📈 We grow, you grow: Stock Options Plan granted on Day 1
🌟 Eligible for a bi-annual performance bonus
⛱ Unlimited PTO
🗓️ 5-year Sabbatical: After 5 years with CookUnity, you get a 4-week paid sabbatical
🐣 Paid Family leave
🕯 Compassionate Leave: 3-5 days each time the need arises
🥘 A generous amount of CookUnity credits to enjoy our amazing meals, added to your account, monthly
🧘🏽♀️ Wellness perks: access to fitness subsidies to build a healthy lifestyle
👩🏾🏫 Personalized Spanish coach
CompensationAll final pay rates will be determined by candidates experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.
Pay Range for this position
$350,000—$400,000 USD
If you’re interested in this role, please submit your application and if we think you might be a fit, we'll get in touch with you. Thank you for your time!
CookUnity is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are dedicated to creating a community of inclusion and an environment free from discrimination or harassment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship status, protected veteran status, genetic information, or physical or mental disability.
Top Skills
What We Do
CookUnity is the first Chef-Direct Subscription service—a chef-to-food lover marketplace connecting the country's most talented chefs with eaters (consumers). We’re changing meal delivery by bringing small-batch, restaurant-quality meals to eaters across the country. Every week, a diverse collective of all-star chefs craft their signature, ready-to-eat dishes for an elevated at-home dining experience.
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