Principal Program Lead - Test & Rollouts

Overview

The Test & Rollouts Principal Program Lead's primary responsibility is to lead, influence, consult, and direct various highly complex, time sensitive and business critical restaurant equipment programs and initiatives. Specifically, this role is designed to keep focus and momentum on business-critical strategic projects that affect all Operators and the overall organization. Additionally, they will partner with T&R Leadership team on developing strategic priorities and a multi-year team plan.

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

• Manages multiple critically important & strategic projects that are defined as having enterprise impact.
  
• Serves as a strategic thought partner on business initiatives and acts as the voice of RD with other CFA organizations
  
• Assesses impact of enterprise decisions and analyzes options to develop recommendations for how processes and workflows should change to account for enterprise shifts.
  
• Engages with cross-functional leaders to align expectations on decision-making and impacts to RD
  
• Independently lead and manage highly complex, time sensitive and business critical corporate Restaurant equipment rollouts and retrofits with specific responsibilities of developing project scope & plan, budget management, RFP's, vendor/contractor qualification and selection, and communication strategy development.
  
• Lead numerous, possibly concurrent, projects with significant business impact and act as a key representative on-behalf of Restaurant Development.
  
• Serve as a coach to Specialists, Project Leads, and Sr. Project Leads on the team due to SME knowledge of T&R strategy development and execution best practices
  
• Accountable for the execution success (timeline, budget, Operator experience) of projects
  
• Accountable to develop custom execution strategies for individual projects, working with stakeholders for alignment and support.
  
• Partner with various departments during the research and development phase of innovation projects.
  
• Forecast equipment procurement needs for chain-wide rollouts and communicate with appropriate vendors, manufacturers, and suppliers.
  
• Strong knowledge of restaurant equipment including how the various components function within the overall Restaurant environment and act as a resource to others
  
• Work alongside T&R leadership to build team strategy and pursue process enhancements when possible.
  
• Responsible to understand all projects on the T&R team and work to align when there are opportunities for combined execution or other deployment opportunities.
  

• 6+ years of experience
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Design, Construction Management or other technical field of study
• Strong project management & communication skills
• Strong computer skills (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint)
• Strong organizational skills; ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects
• Strong analytical & problem-solving skills
• Technical knowledge and experience in the area of equipment, construction, and/or facilities management (retail/restaurant environment preferred)
• Ability to take initiative, recognize needs, and act without prompting from supervisor
• Self-motivated for continuous improvement of personal skills and business systems