---
title: 'Food Safety and Thermal Processing Consultant at Chefman'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/food-safety-and-thermal-processing-consultant-chefman-remote-9xv4s3pbqgzm'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Food Safety and Thermal Processing Consultant at Chefman

- **Company:** Chefman
- **Location:** Remote
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-09-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/chefman/jobs/4394629009

## Job description

🔥 Food Safety Meets Smart Kitchen Tech — Short-Term Consulting Opportunity 🔥

Food Safety & Thermal Processing Consultant (Contract) Remote | Flexible Schedule | 10–40 Hours | Potential for Ongoing Advisory Work

CHEF iQ (the connected kitchen brand from Chefman) is building something genuinely new: a smart cooking feature that uses real-time temperature data and cumulative lethality modeling to tell home cooks, with real science behind it, when their chicken, beef, or pork has actually hit safe-to-eat targets. Not a single magic number. Real time-temperature science, done right.

We've got the product vision. What we need now is you: a food scientist or food microbiologist who can look at our math and tell us where we're right, where we're wrong, and where we need a disclaimer before this ever reaches a customer's kitchen.

What you'd actually be doing:

- Sanity-checking our cumulative lethality and time-temperature models against real science
- Telling us what log reduction targets actually make sense for poultry, beef, and pork (ground and intact)
- Digging into our D-values, z-values, and whether carryover cooking can legitimately count toward safety
- Reviewing the exact words we want to put in front of customers ("Safe to Eat," "Pasteurized," etc.) and making sure we're not writing checks the science can't cash
- Helping us figure out what's ready for launch, and what needs more work first

You'd be a great fit if you:

- Have an advanced degree in Food Science, Food Microbiology, Meat Science, or Thermal Processing
- Know USDA-FSIS Appendix A and FDA Food Code like the back of your hand
- Can talk Salmonella and E. coli lethality kinetics without blinking
- Have real HACCP experience and understand meat/poultry manufacturing
- Can translate dense food science into language a home cook (and our legal team) will actually understand
- Have done consulting or product advisory work before, and know how to give a straight, evidence-based recommendation

The deal: Short-term, remote, flexible. We're talking 10 to 40 hours total, on your schedule, with real potential to keep working together if it's a good fit on both sides.

If you've ever wanted to help make sure "done" and "actually safe" mean the same thing on a home cook's dinner table, we'd love to hear from you.

📩 Interested? Reach out to [contact info] with your background and availability.

## About Chefman

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Chefman is a leading North American brand of small kitchen appliances, designing and distributing products like air fryers, toaster ovens, and electric kettles, alongside its digitally connected smart appliance brand, CHEF iQ.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Privately Held)
- **Headquarters**: Mahwah, New Jersey, United States
- **Founded**: 2011
- **Founders**: Not publicly available (entity is RJ Brands, LLC)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Manufacturing, Consumer Electronics, Smart Home Appliances
- Target customers: B2C (home cooks and families), B2B (retailers and distributors)
- Mission or purpose statement: "To provide the world with innovative products that make everyday cooking a better experience." Vision: "To have every kitchen cooking with Chefman products."

## Products & Services
- **[Chefman Core Line]**: A full range of premium small kitchen appliances including electric kettles, air fryers, toaster ovens, cookware, and food processors. The company claims to be "America’s #1 brand of electric kettles."
- **[CHEF iQ Brand]**: Launched in 2020, an ecosystem of digitally connected kitchen appliances (smart cookers, probes) that use guided cooking experiences and an app to streamline food preparation. This represents a pivot toward IoT and smart home technology.
- **[Product Development Services]**: The company has an in-house engineering and design team that handles everything from firmware (Embedded Linux, BSP) to industrial design (SolidWorks, PTC Creo).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (Privately Held)
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue of **$59.1 million** (as of 2026)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: No public funding rounds reported (likely bootstrapped or funded via private debt/equity).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of 110 employees, up **12.5% year-over-year** (+18 people). Operating in 6 countries (US, Mexico, UK, China, Brazil, Finland). Recent opening of a manufacturing facility in Hangzhou, China. Strong online presence with 6,735 LinkedIn followers (+10.3% yearly growth).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Brand Dominance in a Niche**: Clear market leadership in electric kettles, providing a strong baseline for cross-selling other appliances.
- **In-House Technical Depth**: Unlike many consumer appliance brands that outsource everything, Chefman maintains a significant in-house engineering team (firmware, software, IoT) and a design department, allowing for rapid product iteration and smart product integration.
- **Dual-Brand Strategy**: The established "Chefman" brand for traditional appliances and the "CHEF iQ" brand for premium, connected smart appliances allow the company to target both value-conscious and tech-forward segments without diluting the core brand.

## Strategic Focus
- **Smart Appliance Ecosystem**: Heavy investment in the CHEF iQ brand and its connected cooking experience (app, guided recipes, IoT hardware).
- **Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Growth**: Active management of its website (Shopify) and digital marketing (TikTok, influencer/affiliate programs) suggests a push to reduce reliance on third-party retailers.
- **Global Manufacturing & Supply Chain**: The new factory in China indicates a focus on vertical integration and controlling the supply chain for cost and quality.
- **Engineering-Driven Innovation**: Hiring for roles like Senior Embedded Linux/BSP Engineer and Senior Firmware Engineer signals a commitment to building complex software-defined hardware.

## Why Work Here
- **Hands-On Engineering Culture**: For engineers, the role involves deep work on embedded systems, IoT, and firmware for physical products—offering a tangible sense of creation (e.g., testing a "Volcano Waffle Maker").
- **Rapid Innovation Cycle**: The company moves at the pace of a startup (small teams, 110 employees) but operates in the high-volume manufacturing world.
- **Hybrid/In-Office Policy**: Roles are explicitly "In-Office" in Mahwah, NJ, with "Typical time on-site: None" listed for some roles on Built In, indicating flexibility but a preference for in-person collaboration.
- **Perks & Benefits**: Offers healthcare (dental, vision, life insurance), 401(K), generous PTO, employee discounts on products, free snacks, and "customized development tracks" for promotion.
- **Employee Rating Caveat**: The company has a low employer rating (2.7/5.0 on LinkedIn from 82 reviews), with specific weaknesses noted in Compensation (2.6) and Culture (2.7). This is a significant caveat for prospective employees.

## Sources
1. [LinkedIn - Chefman & CHEF iQ](https://www.linkedin.com/company/chefman)
2. [Chefman Official Website - About Us](https://chefman.com/pages/about-us)
3. [Built In - Chefman Careers](https://builtin.com/company/chefman)
4. [Greenhouse - Jobs at Chefman](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/chefman)

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