Director, Portfolio Delivery & PMO

KFC Corporation; Irvine (CA); Hybrid; USD 203,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

The Director, Portfolio Delivery & PMO at Taco Bell leads global program governance and end-to-end deployment orchestration across products, brands, markets, and partners, establishing reusable frameworks and stage gates. This role aligns priorities, manages risks, and ensures readiness criteria are met before milestones, while driving consistent execution across markets and enabling scalable delivery.

You will partner with Product, Engineering, Customer Success, and Market teams to balance

Qualifications

• Experience leading PMO in global or multi-market environments.
• Proven track record establishing governance frameworks and operating models.
• Strong ability to manage cross-functional portfolios involving Product, Engineering, Markets, and external partners.
• Experience coordinating delivery across teams without direct reporting authority.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Byte Global PMO and Deployment function, establishing governance structures that enable scalable deployment across markets and products.
• Define and implement deployment frameworks, stage gates, RACIs, and decision forums to bring structure and discipline to execution.
• Ensure initiatives progress through a consistent lifecycle from market alignment through deployment and handoff.
• Establish clear ownership, accountability, and decision rights across cross-functional teams.
• Drive adoption of standardized ways of working, governance rhythms, and operating cadences across Byte (incl. Brands, and Markets).
• Own and maintain the global Byte deployment roadmap across all products, brands, and markets.
• Align deployment timelines with product strategy, engineering capacity, and market readiness.
• Coordinate prioritization across Product, Engineering, Customer Success, and Market stakeholders.
• Balance deployment demand with available capacity, ensuring realistic sequencing and delivery commitments.
• Provide portfolio-level visibility into progress, dependencies, and trade-offs to support strategic decision-making.
• Establish and manage program-level RAID tracking across all Byte initiatives.
• Define escalation paths and ensure risks are surfaced early to the appropriate decision-making forums.
• Facilitate governance forums such as Steering Committees, Architecture Review Boards, and Market governance reviews.
• Drive timely resolution of cross-functional blockers impacting delivery timelines or quality.
• Ensure decisions are made at the right level with clear documentation and follow-through.

Skills

PMO Leadership

Governance

Stakeholder Management

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Risk & Dependency Management

Program Management

Deployment Orchestration

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

The Director, Portfolio Delivery & PMO is responsible for the governance, operating model, and portfolio coordination required to scale Byte’s revenue-impacting initiatives globally from approval through deployment.

This role leads program governance and end-to-end deployment orchestration across products, brands, markets, and delivery partners, ensuring complex cross-functional initiatives are executed with clarity, accountability, and predictability. The Director establishes the frameworks, stage gates, decision forums, and portfolio processes that enable scalable delivery, while overseeing the Global Portfolio Delivery and PMO to drive consistent execution across markets.

The role is accountable for aligning priorities, sequencing work across markets, managing program-level risks and dependencies, and ensuring initiatives meet defined readiness criteria before progressing through key milestones.

The Director, Portfolio Delivery & PMO is accountable for ensuring that:

• Governance frameworks and stage gates are defined, adopted, and followed
• Ownership and decision rights are clear across all delivery participants
• Program-level risks and dependencies are identified and escalated early
• Deployments follow consistent, predictable operating standards
• Initiatives are not advanced or closed without meeting defined governance criteria

Responsibilities

PMO & Governance Leadership

• Lead the Byte Global PMO and Deployment function, establishing governance structures that enable scalable deployment across markets and products
• Define and implement deployment frameworks, stage gates, RACIs, and decision forums to bring structure and discipline to execution
• Ensure initiatives progress through a consistent lifecycle from market alignment through deployment and handoff
• Establish clear ownership, accountability, and decision rights across cross-functional teams
• Drive adoption of standardized ways of working, governance rhythms, and operating cadences across Byte (incl. Brands, and Markets), while ensuring alignment with enabling functions including Data & AI and Enterprise Technology & Cyber
• Own and maintain the global Byte deployment roadmap across all products, brands, and markets
• Align deployment timelines with product strategy, engineering capacity, and market readiness
• Coordinate prioritization across Product, Engineering, Customer Success, and Market stakeholders
• Balance deployment demand with available capacity, ensuring realistic sequencing and delivery commitments
• Provide portfolio-level visibility into progress, dependencies, and trade-offs to support strategic decision-making
• Establish and manage program-level RAID tracking across all Byte initiatives
• Define escalation paths and ensure risks are surfaced early to the appropriate decision-making forums
• Facilitate governance forums such as Steering Committees, Architecture Review Boards, and Market governance reviews
• Drive timely resolution of cross-functional blockers impacting delivery timelines or quality
• Ensure decisions are made at the right level with clear documentation and follow-through

Deployment Governance

• Define and enforce entry and exit criteria across each phase of the deployment lifecycle
• Coordinate stage gate reviews to ensure readiness before progression to subsequent deployment phases
• Ensure deployment plans, training, communications, and operational readiness activities are aligned prior to go-live
• Drive consistency and repeatability in deployment execution across markets
• Partner with Market PMOs, Customer Success, and Delivery teams to ensure successful handoffs and market activation
• Maintain clear executive-level visibility into portfolio health, deployment status, and key risks
• Deliver regular reporting on deployment timelines, capacity, adoption metrics, and value realization
• Use reporting to drive action, accountability, and informed decision-making across leadership teams
• Capture deployment learnings and continuously refine governance frameworks, tools, and playbooks
• Drive ongoing improvement in deployment predictability, speed, and scalability as Byte expands globally

Leadership, Team Building & Culture

• Act as a key member of the Product & Growth leadership team, contributing to broader strategy and organizational design
• Foster a culture of accountability, customer-centricity, systems thinking, problem framing and commercial excellence
• Influence senior stakeholders across Product teams, Finance and Brand leadership
• Act as a change agent during uncertainty and with ambiguity to drive agile solutions to evolve the team in embedding technology and new ways of working
• Foster a customer-obsessed, data-informed culture anchored in Yum!’s Smart, Heart & Courage leadership behaviors.
• Role-model collaboration, empathy and executional excellence — building strong alignment across markets, brands, and functions.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience leading PMO, program governance, or portfolio management in global or multi-market environments
• Proven track record establishing governance frameworks and operating models that enable scalable delivery of complex initiatives
• Demonstrated ability to manage cross-functional portfolios involving Product, Engineering, Markets, and external partners
• Experience coordinating delivery across teams without direct reporting authority, using influence and governance structures
• Strong experience managing program-level risks, dependencies, and escalations in fast-moving environments
• Experience in platform, SaaS, or large-scale technology deployments
• Exposure to franchise, multi-brand, or multi-market operating models
• Experience working with system integrators or deployment partners
• Background in environments undergoing scale, transformation, or operating model change
• Experience leading PMO, program, or deployment teams in matrixed environments
• Deep program governance mindset with the ability to create structure, clarity, and accountability across diverse teams
• Skilled at operating within and establishing stage-gate frameworks, RACIs, and decision forums
• Comfortable managing ambiguity and turning incomplete inputs into structured program plans
• Able to balance speed and rigor while maintaining governance discipline and delivery quality
• Proven ability to lead through influence rather than hierarchy
• Strong stakeholder management skills with experience engaging senior leaders, market teams, and partners
• Clear, confident communicator who can surface risks early and drive decisions to resolution

Salary Range: $202,500 to $238,200 annually + bonus eligibility + benefits

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we'll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.

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Job Info

• Job Identification 5129
• Posting Date 08/12/2026, 03:45 PM
• Degree Level Bachelor's Degree
• Job Schedule Full time
• Locations Irvine, CA, United States (Hybrid)