Careers

The Office Manager role is integral to ensuring the office is running smoothly which includes employees feeling supported and cared for while they are working and Tovala’s culture is embedded and well represented the moment someone walks in the front door.  He or she is a positive, energetic, and organized person ready to meet the deadlines of fast paced business.

• Anticipate the needs of the team - coffee is ready as people start the day, the kitchen is clean and well stocked, meeting rooms are clean, organized, and stocked with supplies
• Lead the team on the “soft” needs of the team - birthdays are celebrated, sick people are comforted, new employees are welcomed, life events are toasted
• Organize meetings, offsites, happy hours, and events for both our employees and investors; all events are representative of the Tovala culture
• Explore and implement perks within the office that are thoughtful and showcase the culture of the company
• Onboard our new team members in a way which they feel welcomed, supported, special, and that they made the best decision in joining our team
• Book travel as needed for our leadership team
• Support the finance team by assisting with expense reporting and other more administrative tasks
• Be the eyes and ears of the pulse of our employees - you’re thinking about what people want and need before they even know it

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• You are a super organized person, detail oriented, and proactive…  People are constantly amazed by how much you are able to multitask and anticipate and address the needs of others
• You don’t wait for others to do something - you just jump right in!
• You are kind, empathetic, and enthusiastic - a people person who likes to work closely with people day in and day out
• You are a strong communicator - both verbal and written
• You’ve successfully run other offices, homes, companies and have a proven track record and you are excited to share your talents with our team

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The HR Business Partner role is integral to leading HR initiatives, employee relations, and engagement. As a leader in our quickly growing company, you need to be comfortable rolling up your sleeves and diving into the day-to-day as well as stepping out of the daily details to help drive more strategic projects like organization design, performance management, and compensation analyses. You know how to develop policies that meet regulatory requirements and create balanced incentives that bring out the best in people and encourage individuals to grow into better versions of themselves. The role provides an exciting opportunity to support Tovala’s transition from a start-up to a household brand and world-class manufacturing operation.

• Provide HR expertise in various areas such as recruiting, personality management, coaching, compensation, benefits and rewards, employee relations, learning and development, change management, etc.
• Develop a roadmap and communication plan for annual and routine programming, lead and monitor implementation across the company
• Ability to lead daily employee relations and provide coaching and counseling to managers on how to communicate effectively with their team
• Develop processes and manage staff recruiting and new employee orientation - someone’s first day with the company should feel GREAT!
• Ensure consistent administration of policies and practices - people should feel that the rules are being applied fairly and consistently.
• Develop programming and engage external resources to provide continued education and coaching for our team
• Manage individual(s) who are processing payroll, time and attendance records, compensation changes, and benefits programs
• Development and coaching of our HR Coordinator(s) 
• Maintain compliance with federal and state regulations concerning employment, compensation, etc. including OSHA

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• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resource or related field
• Minimum of 4 years of HR generalist experience in a manufacturing environment, preferably in food industry
• PHR/SPHR certification, preferred
• You are a super organized person, detail oriented, and proactive…  This role will require both strategic leadership and individual contribution so you willl need to know how to juggle many hats to support both Corporate and Operations teams and their needs
• You are kind, empathetic, and enthusiastic - our team should feel that you care for them as individuals even when a tough coaching conversation is required
• You communicate well, both verbally and in writing, and understand the importance of confidentiality when dealing with sensitive situations.

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As a full stack engineer at Tovala, you will be focused on building back-end and front-end tools that will help move our business forward. Specifically for the Operations Specialist roll, you will work in concert with other developers and the operations team to scope, prioritize, and build internal and external tools to aid our manufacturing operations. You will spend the majority of your time in our manufacturing facilities to understand first hand the environment in which your tools will be used, who will be using them, and how they will be used. The code you produce and support will be mission critical and the team will be looking to you for leadership and excellence in your roll.

• 4 year degree in computer science or engineering
• You’ve had several years experience building and leading deployment of production software critical to specific aspects of a business’s operations
• You have outstanding engineering talent, shown by great results, cool side projects, or open source contributions
• You enjoy working in non-office environments and engaging with a broad range of different professions and skillsets
• You are an expert in Python or Golang
• You are familiar with HTML/CSS and AWS infrastructure.
• You are familiar with SQL and JavaScript
• You have a favorite backend language
• You are able to work independently and with others.
• You enjoy deep technical challenges and defining your own work
• You want to work in an environment that takes a people-first approach; values humility, integrity and ambition; and is focused on creating a culture that keeps people happy and challenged
• Food has played (or continues to play) an important role in your life
• Our production facility runs 7 days a week so depending on the portions of the operations you are working on improving, you may need to work weekends, early mornings, or evenings for short periods of time.
• As you will be working in a food production facility, you are required to follow food safety requirements - don’t worry, we will train you!
• Able to stand, bend, lift and move intermittently during shifts of 8+ hours
• Comfortable working in hot and cold temperature environments in kitchen, warehouse and walk-in cooler for sufficient periods of time to observe processes and support technology deployments.
• If you are out or unable to complete your duties, your manager will perform them or assign them to the appropriate back-up

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The Strategic Sourcing Manager is an integral role for Tovala’s production team responsible for securing the best quality products (raw, prepared, and packaging goods) for our production facility at the most competitive price points allowing us to continue exceeding customer expectations. This person will plan, develop, and execute the procurement of food and packaging ingredients on a company scale coordinating between locations as we grow using effective negotiation, networking, and market trend research.

• 3+ years in a food procurement role, experience in production environment preferred 
• Bachelor’s degree in Logistics, Supply Chain, Industrial or Mechanical Engineering, Business or related field preferred
• Excellent time management skills and strong follow-through and follow-up skills, supported by professional references
• Ability to think and act critically about processes and supply chain systems with a focus on continuous improvement and staying ahead of market trends
• Strong project management, problem solving and planning skills
• Strong verbal and written communication skills

• Lead purchasing process and inventory management from end to end - create and refine tools that align demand for materials and packaging with production and sales forecasts
• Lead negotiations for ingredient, component, and packaging contracts
• Implement and execute a vendor onboarding process, ongoing approval process reviews to ensure product specifications, terminate and change vendors as needed
• Implement and execute a vendor performance rating system - Create metrics as required to monitor and evaluate vendor performance. to key attributes (on-time/ complete delivery, adherence to specifications, accurate pricing, etc)
• Partner with Finance to ensure material costs (food, non-food) are within goal and report and explain variances as needed, lead the annual planning process on these components and reforecast as needed
• Maintain a log of purchase orders, reconciling receivables, and invoice payments to ensure accuracy
• Develop a plan to mitigate interruptions of ingredient and material consumption by securing secondary and in some cases tertiary suppliers as needed based on risk
• Coordinate receiving, delivery, and storage of materials with the production team
• Collaborate with R&D team on menu costing; once agreed to, ensuring that timeline deliverables for sourcing products can be met
• Follows Safety/GMP/Food Safety/Quality policies

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As Tovala’s Finance and Accounting Analyst, you will be working directly with the Director of Finance and CFO/COO to provide financial reporting and analysis that help guide Tovala’s strategy.

• You have 2+ years of experience working in a financial analysis and/or an accounting capacity. CPA and/or public accounting experience preferred but not required
• You have strong analytical skills and are obsessed with numbers and data… You dream in spreadsheets
• You can adapt to change quickly, tackle unfamiliar tasks and requests with resourcefulness and minimal guidance
• You want to work in an environment that takes a people-first approach; values humility, integrity and ambition; and is focused on creating a culture that keeps people happy and challenged
• You're interested in startups and excited to work in a fast-paced environment
• Food has played (or continues to play) an important role in your life

• Leading the month-end closing activities: reconciling revenue, cash, and expense details, preparing month-end adjusting entries
• Preparing accurate financial statements
• Leading the post-close activities: variance analysis, account reconciliations
• Providing analytics and reports for our team and investors which includes (but not limited to) LTV and CAC analysis, reporting by customer and channel, other sales driving reporting
• Preparing input materials for monthly investor updates, bi-monthly board meetings
• Leading ad hoc financial support for decision making
• Owning the P&L and cash flow forecast to support business decisions and long-term capital raises
• LTV and CAC analysis by customer type and channel, to help business focus on best customers
• Recommending process improvements in all aspects of the monthly close cycle (pre, post, reporting, etc.)

As a Lead Process Engineer on the Tovala team, you will be charged with scaling operations as well as finding and implementing efficiencies and optimizations across our entire operation. You’ll be responsible for designing and executing food manufacturing processes that will allow our facility to produce more efficiently, while enabling product variants, higher quality and lower costs. You will focus on our food operations team’s process and plans in order to ensure our facility has the correct layout and the labor is performing the correct tasks and the correct time.

• You have a BS degree in Engineering or a related field.
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience managing process improvement teams in a food manufacturing environment.  Added bonus if it is in an environment with diverse products and rapid changes to the end product.
• You have experience devising and implementing strategies that yield efficiencies and optimize processes.
• You have experience managing people.
• You believe in taking a data-centric approach to decision making.
• You’re a team player willing to wear multiple hats and get your hands dirty.
• You’ve worked at a small-to-medium sized company or in a small-group work environment.
• You want to work in an environment that takes a people-first approach; values humility, integrity and ambition; and is focused on creating a culture that keeps people happy and challenged.
• You live in Chicago or are willing to move.

As a member of our operations team, you will help build a world-class, state of the art food operation that delivers convenient, delicious and healthy food to our customers nationwide.  You would report to our VP of Hardware and Operations and work with him to devise projects to make our process better, cheaper and faster.  You would spearhead those projects, manage the people involved, and ensure that we are constantly measuring and tracking the effectiveness of each project. You’d work with industry leaders that have already figured a lot of this out to see what we can learn from others.
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Our ultimate goal for our food operation is to have one of the most streamlined, automated processes in the world. We believe we can achieve that because we are as much a technology company as we are a food company – and we plan to use our engineers to bring a unique perspective to our food operation.
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You would be tasked with working with our engineers to leverage their skills and expertise to help us build tools (both digital and physical) and create processes to make everything work better. This will run the gamut from how/where we source our products to leveraging different shipping methods/technologies to replicating processes across multiple, nationwide production facilities.

You will be responsible for managing the Quality Assurance function by working with our Production Manager to ensure highly disciplined compliance with all product quality parameters and standards. You will ensure highly disciplined compliance with all regulatory and company defined food safety and sanitation standards, systems, procedures and practices in order to guarantee absolute quality and consistency of product. You will be responsible for monitoring FDA/HACCP/FSMA plans and SSOP’s as the process and/or regulations change and initiate improvements and upgrades at co-pack partners.

• Three to five years of experience in food production
• Two years of supervisory experience
• Experienced with and capable of demonstrating strong understanding of HACCP or related food safety protocol
• Strong working knowledge of food safety, food regulations and basic food technology
• Fluent in English, strong Spanish language skills a plus
• Comfortable with Microsoft Word and Excel; willing to learn new online tools and communication channels
• A self-starter with effective leadership, interpersonal, and verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to excel in a fast-paced work environment with a growing start-up company
• Ability to work off-shifts (evening, weekend) as needed

We've developed healthy and delicious meals that are being shipped to customers across the country. We have already doubled our volume of food production since opening to public sales. As one of our frontline staff members on food production, you will help us grow our business even further.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Oversee all food safety procedures and operations for Tovala in our food production facility. Develop and implement SOP’s, FDA/HACCP/FSMA, GMP’s, pest control, allergen control, QA documentation, and other food safety and quality elements required. Responsible for evaluation and resolution of vendor/ customer product quality issues
• Assist with managing and directing food production staff in collaboration with Production Manager and team, including hiring, training, and monitoring performance standards
• Monitor performance of kitchen equipment and machinery in collaboration with food production and engineering teams; communicates equipment malfunction to engineering team
• Support procurement and shipping operations in collaboration with operations and culinary teams
• Develop and maintain performance standards for all aspects of food production

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As the lead IoT engineer at Tovala, you will work across the software and hardware teams to manage the connected features of our ovens. New initiatives include adding metrics to cook cycles to improve efficiency and reliability, better user notifications and interaction, and a new system to manage the fleet of connected ovens from one location. You'll be building tools to make our customers' experience better, to provide customer service with the data they need to help diagnose issue, and for the engineering team to improve the product.

Our ovens are based on the ElectricImp IoT platform.

• You've worked with IoT electronics at the hobby level or higher
• You know how to read MCU datasheets to find that one register you need to set
• You've worked with digital on-board protocols like SPI and i2c
• You can write software that runs on servers to help manage IoT devices
• You have some familiarity with structuring a RESTful API
• You want to work in an environment that takes a people-first approach; values humility, integrity and ambition; and is focused on creating a culture that keeps people happy and challenged
• You understand and believe in the importance of delicious, healthy food