Principal Program Lead

Overview:
Chick-fil-A is looking for a Principal Program Lead to ensure our restaurant designs support the technology infrastructure of the future.  This is a journey not only to revitalize its existing portfolio of restaurants but also to create a new and exciting portfolio of innovative and relevant restaurant designs with technology and digital as first-class considerations, that will help prepare Chick-fil-A for the future.

 

Over the last 3 years in the aftermath of the pandemic and amidst growing customer appetite for digital, there has been a marked change in how many restaurants operate in order to compete, which has heavily influenced the way these restaurants are designed; from dark kitchens and food trucks to roboticized kitchens and 100% digitally enabled experiences.

The Principal Program Lead will be the primary technology business partner from the Customer Technology Solutions (CTS) group within the Digital Transformation & Technology (DTT) department liaising with the domestic portion of our Restaurant Design (RD) sub-department—a group of 50 or so designers and architects that are tasked with designing more restaurants than ever before. Since the CTS team owns and controls all of the sales-taking and most of the fulfillment systems in the restaurant, changes here can have a significant impact on restaurant flow and design, underscoring the importance of this partnership. This role will contribute to two areas of disproportionate investment in the org's long-term plan—accelerating new restaurants and expanding customer digital and on-demand Platforms.

In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring our restaurant designs are optimized to accommodate and capitalize on our customer technology solutions across restaurant's design expanding portfolio and that new restaurant designs are informed by the same. As such you will need a broad depth of understanding of CTS to represent this area well. You will also develop the technology strategy as well a roadmap that is aligned both with RD's 3-year goals as well as with CTS. You will manage the workload and collaboration efforts for new feature requests and enhancements and champion them in our quarterly increment planning cycles. In some instances, you will be required to work outside of the CTS planning framework leveraging contractors and consultants to come up with solutions rapidly as a stopgap for fast-moving design projects. You will be required to coordinate and lead change management efforts across CTS and other areas of DTT, including collaboration with Digital Enablement (DE) and Operator Technology Solutions (OTS) and areas outside; our Chick-fil-A Helpdesk, Field Operations and Customer Digital Experience (CDX).

You will need to navigate the complexities of prioritizing customer technology for existing legacy design formats as well as new, experimental, efficient, and experiential ones including 7 proofs of concept. You will also need to manage sensitive and nuanced tradeoff decisions around technology outlay and physical restaurant space among multiple functional groups including

As the primary partner for Restaurant design, this role will operate with appreciable latitude for unreviewed decisions. You will be the decision-maker on many aspects of restaurant design as it relates to technology and will need to influence the Design Leadership Team (DLT), Customer Technology Solutions Leadership (CTSL), DTT as well your peers on the Customer Outcome Acceleration (COA) with your proposals and recommendations.

You will also be a key contributor, and accountable to, the Digital First Restaurant (DFR) team comprised of seasoned leaders and domain experts across DTT to help establish and manage standards for aspects of digital in our physical restaurants, including our flagship restaurant commerce ecosystem, CommercePoint. You will also influence strategy and roadmap with this group to represent both the CTS and Restaurant Design perspective.

You will have the responsibility of managing 3rd-party vendors and consulting partners. You will be expected to consistently deliver results by leading this team and leveraging Chick-fil-A’s innovation methodology within the Digital Transformation strategy.

 

Because of the innovation and future-focused nature of this work, you will be expected to travel quarterly at a minimum for benchmarking, building relationships and connecting with Operators and customers to supplement metrics, gather industry and competitive business data to increase the effectiveness and value of ideation and built of concepts.

 

This is a full-time role with full benefits for a 3-year period, during or after which candidates, should they choose, may apply for a full-time regular position, contingent on job qualifications/fit and availability.

 

Our Flexible Future model offers a healthy mix of working in person and virtually, strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community.

Responsibilities:
Define strategy and influence roadmap for the customer-facing technology portions of the Restaurant Design

Explore, propose, build and test ideas to help validate new restaurant design concepts & prototypes

Define and champion customer-facing, and in some cases, DTT-wide standards for technology design components of our restaurants

Develop against use-cases and bring about new technology capabilities, partnerships, and products & services to accelerate the deployment of new restaurant designs and formats

Incorporate technology best practices from new concepts as well insights as derived from Marketplace Relevance and Business Incubation verticals into existing restaurants

Manage several large portfolios of design projects including drive-thru, convenience and capacity, P14 (our newest restaurant prototype) and component design (Meal fulfillment, Site & drive-thru, Kitchen, etc).

Serve as primary contact for Customer Technology Solutions liaison for all Restaurant Design related requests in quarterly increment planning sessions

Collaborate with Field Operations liaison to co-design solutions that will meet both technology standards and operational design requirements to curate memorable restaurant experiences

Manage a growing customer technology budget to deliver on shared outcomes

Represent the Digital First Restaurant team, their strategy and goals cross-departmentally

Lead change management efforts across various areas touching customer technology including network room design, drive-thru call-box, interior and exterior camera vision, lidar and vending etc.

Manage support and maintenance of multiple concurrent projects in the customer technology portfolio

Build and manage in-restaurant customer technology hardware prototype deployments

Collaborate with Digital Enablement to design infrastructure (Network, Connectivity, IoT, etc.), manage physical space (Tech Closet & Cabinets) to support and provide resilience for CTS applications and capacity for the physical restaurant

Build a culture that promotes effective digital and technology-enabled restaurant design experiences

Develop and maintain relationships with technology vendors and negotiate and manage vendor contracts

Minimum Qualifications:
Experience with design thinking, space design, innovation tools, techniques, and best practices

Experience with vendor procurement and management

Experience with technical systems such as POS, mobile apps, and sensor tech (cameras, lidar, beacons, RFID/NFC, geolocation tech, etc.)

Experience in managing cross-functional teams, with strong collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications:
High level of initiative, creativity, and future-thinking

Excellent change management skills

Ability to prototype

Excellent organizational skills & attention to detail

Strong verbal, written and visual communication skills

Excellent personal and relational intelligence

Demonstration of leadership and strong collaboration at all levels

Ability to quickly learn and understand technical systems

Self-starter who completes responsibilities with minimal supervision

Demonstrated success in developing and implementing innovative technology solutions in the context of their use in physical spaces

Ability to negotiate effectively and objectively among a diverse set of stakeholders with varying interests

Ability to champion and manage change across a wide range of products at different points in their maturity cycle

Strong sense of budgetary and time stewardship

Ability to influence senior leaders, create consensus and navigate challenges with excellent judgement.

Strong decision-making skills when pressed for time or in the presence of incomplete, ambiguous, or changing information.

Strong problem-solving mindset with ability to turn ideas into recognizable value, often in new ways.

Thrives in a fast-paced environment working alongside multi-disciplinary teams

Anticipates and adjusts to problems and roadblocks; measures performance against goals and evaluates results.

Can pivot quickly and often; optimistic and resourceful; fast learner that can flex work and leadership style

Ability to build effective teams, relationships, and strategic alignment with internal and external stakeholders

Familiarity with network equipment and systems (e.g. routers, switches, firewalls, battery backups)

Experience with automation and robotics

Experience with user experience design

Chick-fil-A Restaurant experience, or a general familiarity with Restaurant operations

Minimum Years of Experience:
8

Travel Requirements:
10%

Required Level of Education:
Bachelor's Degree

Preferred Level of Education:
Masters Degree

Major/Concentration:
Technical Field of Study

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