Operating Partner, Franchise Development

Blue Rock Search, LLC; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Rock Search, LLC is seeking an Operating Partner focused on franchise development: a senior executive who has built and led development functions inside franchisor organizations and can stand up that function inside a portfolio company.

The role is hands-on and strategic: embed in a portfolio company as interim head, design the department, hire the team, and transition out once it runs independently. Expect travel and equity participation.

Qualifications

• Has held senior development roles inside franchisor organizations.
• Built or stood up at least one franchise development function with measurable output.
• Existing relationships with multi-unit operators and institutional franchisee groups.

Responsibilities

• Embed in a portfolio company as interim head of franchise development and build the function from the ground up (strategy, profile, docs, territory, CRM, process, KPIs).
• Personally carry the pipeline and close awards while the function is young.
• Recruit and train the permanent leader and team, then transition out.

Skills

Franchise development

Franchisor experience

Industry network

Job description

The Role:

We are hiring an Operating Partner focused on franchise development: a franchise development executive who has built and led development functions inside franchisor organizations, and who can stand up that function inside a portfolio company, run it in an interim capacity, and then hand it off to a permanent team you have helped hire. You will deploy where the company needs franchise development horsepower most, standardize how we build these functions across the portfolio, and mentor the leaders of our more mature systems. This position is expected to have the necessary existing relationships to quickly establish a franchisee pipeline comprised of institutional owners and owner/operators.

Your first and primary assignment will likely be one of the fastest-growing brands in our portfolio. You will lean heavily into the portfolio company while building the standard that every other portfolio company will use.

This is a player-coach role. You are hands-on enough to build and sell franchises from the front, and senior enough to design the department, hire the team, and step back once it runs without you.

What You Will Own:

Interim Franchise Development Leadership (Stand Up, Then Step Back)

• Embed in a portfolio company as interim head of franchise development.
• Build the function from the ground up: strategy, ideal franchisee profile, franchise disclosure document, territory plan, CRM and technology stack, sales process, lead generation, pipeline, and KPIs.
• Personally carry the pipeline and close awards while the function is young.
• Recruit and train the permanent franchise development leader and team, then transition out on a defined timeline, leaving a running, measurable engine behind.

Standardization and Playbooks Across the Portfolio

• Build the franchise development playbook: a repeatable blueprint for department structure, technology, process, metrics, and compensation that any portfolio company can adopt.
• Set standards for CRM selection, funnel design, broker and referral strategy, franchisee evaluation, and franchise-sales reporting.
• Shorten the time and cut the cost it takes any portfolio company to go from no function to a productive one.
• Advise and coach the franchise development leaders of their more established systems.
• Diagnose underperforming funnels, upgrade process and talent, and raise the ceiling on award quality and velocity.
• Serve as the internal expert and sounding board on franchise development.

Talent and Institutional Relationships

• Bring and expand relationships across both institutional multi-unit operators and traditional single-unit owner-operators to accelerate quality unit growth across the portfolio.
• Maintain a bench of franchise development talent you can recruit into portfolio companies as roles open.

Who You Are:

• A franchise development leader who has held senior development roles inside franchisor organizations and personally sold and awarded franchises. You develop franchisees; you do not need to have been one.
• Have built or stood up at least one franchise development function and taken it to repeatable, measurable output.
• Existing relationships with multi-unit, multi-brand operators and institutional franchisee groups, and the credibility to attract them to a brand.
• Equally able to pursue traditional owner-operators, not only large operators, and to run the broker and referral channel.
• Comfortable as both builder and mentor: you can sell franchises personally today and coach someone else to do it tomorrow.
• A network of franchise development talent you can bring into portfolio company roles (a strong plus).
• Willing to embed on-site with portfolio companies and travel accordingly.
• Bias toward franchisee quality and unit economics over raw unit count.

Success in the First 12 Months:

• Portfolio company franchise development function is stood up and producing qualified pipeline and awards against plan.
• A permanent Portfolio company franchise development leader is hired and ramping.
• Version 1 of the franchise development playbook is documented and in use.
• A clear transition plan is in place to step back from the portfolio company and redeploy to the next portfolio company.

Location:

Flexible; significant travel to portfolio companies expected

Compensation:

Competitive base, performance bonus, and equity or carry participation (range to be finalized)