Happy Ice is Los Angeles' leading premium Philadelphia water ice brand, founded in 2017 by Philadelphia native Lemeir Mitchell. What began as a single food truck on the streets of LA has grown into a cultural phenomenon, with storefronts, a growing fleet of trucks, a thriving catering business, and a devoted fanbase drawn to its colorful, feel good vibe. In 2026, that following carried the brand into its next chapter with the opening of a Happy Ice location in the Downtown Disney District at the Disneyland Resort.

Happy Ice reimagines the classic Philadelphia water ice, a dairy free, egg free treat with the light fruitiness of sorbet and the creamy texture of ice cream, through a distinctly LA lens, offering bold, colorful flavors and an all natural menu that has earned a devoted following across the city.

Mission: What we want to achieve
To be the happiest and most craved frozen dessert brand on earth.

Purpose: Why we exist
Bring our community together to create happy memories through craveable desserts.

We will accomplish our mission and deliver on our purpose through warm hospitality and innovative desserts created with real ingredients.

Director of Culinary Operations & Product Innovation

Position Summary

Happy Ice is already one of the most recognized and loved frozen dessert brands in Los Angeles — built by a community that keeps coming back, and coming back with friends. That love recently opened a new door: a Happy Ice location inside Disneyland. This role exists to take that momentum to the next level — built on the two things that will determine whether Happy Ice becomes the largest and most beloved frozen dessert brand in the nation.

First: the menu.

The menu is already a strength of the brand. This role will sharpen it further — refining what makes Happy Ice unmistakably unique in the marketplace and elevating the menu to compete head-to-head with the best in the category, in any market in the United States.

Second: the operating model.

This is where the greatest opportunity for impact lies. As Happy Ice looks toward national scale, we need to build and define an operating model equal to that ambition — one engineered around labor efficiency, staff productivity, and a fast, consistent guest experience in every location.

Bringing these two efforts together — elevating an already-strong menu and building the operating model to match our ambitions — is the core mandate of this role. Get both right, and Happy Ice will be positioned to franchise nationally and become the biggest and most beloved frozen dessert brand in the country.

This is a rare ground-floor opportunity to partner directly with the Founder & CEO and shape the operational and culinary DNA of a brand built for aggressive multi-unit growth.

Core Responsibilities

Menu Strategy & Product Innovation

• Develop craveable, high-margin menu offerings with broad consumer appeal and strong brand differentiation
• Lead R&D for new product development, from concept ideation through menu launch
• Design standardized recipes and plating specifications (SOPs) that ensure consistency and replicability across all locations
• Build comprehensive training curricula and certification programs for all menu items, ensuring execution fidelity at scale

Operational Systems & Scalability

• Design and implement a standardized new-product rollout process, including pilot testing, feedback loops, and phased national deployment
• Define optimal kitchen layout and workflow design to maximize throughput, labor efficiency, and guest experience
• Evaluate and specify back-of-house equipment to optimize execution speed, consistency, and unit economics
• Build forecasting and financial modeling tools to stress-test operational decisions, staffing models, and new concepts prior to implementation

Food Safety & Quality Assurance

• Elevate and standardize food safety protocols in alignment with HACCP principles and local health code requirements
• Develop and enforce quality assurance standards across all locations

Inventory & Supply Chain Management

• Design and implement a centralized inventory management system, including FIFO controls, par levels, and waste tracking
• Streamline procurement and vendor management processes to drive cost savings, improve supply chain reliability, and strengthen vendor partnerships
• Establish cost tracking systems to monitor food cost percentage and identify margin-improvement opportunities

Team Leadership, Culture & Performance Management

• Inspire, motivate, and align kitchen and field teams around a shared vision and standard of excellence
• Build a culture of accountability, pride, and continuous improvement across all locations
• Serve as a visible, hands-on leader who sets the tone for how the brand operates day to day
• Develop KPI dashboards for real-time visibility into unit-level and company-wide profitability, labor cost, and food cost metrics
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives against defined performance benchmarks
• Establish structured communication systems and reporting cadences to ensure accountability across all locations and levels of the organization
• Design and implement an employee recognition and rewards program to strengthen culture, retention, and engagement

Facilities, Fleet & Catering Operations

• Establish preventive maintenance schedules across all locations to ensure equipment readiness and facility cleanliness standards
• Develop policies and systems governing staff use of company vehicles, including safety protocols and accountability measures
• Optimize catering operations and execution standards to support off-premise revenue growth

Executive Support & Communication

• Develop and deliver executive-level presentations to align leadership and field teams around strategic priorities
• Serve as a key operational partner to the CEO, enabling executive bandwidth to focus on enterprise-level growth and expansion strategy

Qualifications & Requirements

• Deep pastry and frozen dessert product knowledge, paired with the creativity to turn concepts into scalable, replicable recipes
• 7+ years of progressive culinary and operations leadership experience, including multi-unit or multi-location oversight
• Experience operating in a founder-led, high-growth, fast-paced environment
• ServSafe Manager certification (or equivalent food safety certification)
• Bachelor's degree in Culinary Arts, Hospitality Management, or related field preferred
• Entrepreneurial mindset and comfort building systems and processes from the ground up
• High attention to detail balanced with strong creative instincts
• Willingness to travel across current and future locations as the brand scales

A Note From the Founder and CEO

Hello, and thank you for considering the opportunity to become part of Happy Ice.

I am not simply looking to fill a position. I am looking for an experienced culinary leader who wants to help build something extraordinary.

This person must know how to take bold ideas and turn them into exceptional products, disciplined systems, strong teams, and consistent execution. I am looking for a builder, an operator, and an innovator who believes good is only the starting point and who is committed to pursuing excellence with focus, humility, and determination.

I did not come from the restaurant industry or a traditional professional background. What I had was grit, faith, creativity, and an unwavering belief that Happy Ice could become the greatest frozen dessert brand in the world.

With those things, and with the support of an incredible team and community, we have grown Happy Ice into a recognized and loved Los Angeles brand. However, I believe we are still only at the beginning.

I have a clear vision for where this company can go, but I also understand that reaching that vision requires experience beyond my own. I am looking for a Director of Culinary Operations and Product Innovation who can work closely with me, strengthen the vision, challenge my thinking, and help turn our ideas into products, systems, standards, and teams that can scale. I am looking for a trusted leader whose expertise will meaningfully shape the future of Happy Ice.

If this message stirs something in you, and you feel excited by the opportunity to help build a category defining brand from the inside, I would be honored to speak with you about where Happy Ice is going and the role you could play in shaping its future.

-Lemeir Mitchell Founder and CEO Happy Ice