Principal Program Lead, Restaurant Excellence Strategy and Planning

Chick-fil-A Supply; Atlanta (GA); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Chick-fil-A, Inc. is seeking a Principal Program Lead for Strategy & Planning to synthesize operational performance insights across Restaurant Excellence teams and shape a data-informed strategic roadmap.

This role will drive cross-functional alignment, lead strategic initiatives, and partner with Field Effectiveness to influence senior leaders. You will manage multi-year plans, ensure accountability, and collaborate with internal and external partners to advance Restaurant excellence and

Qualifications

• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience in developing multi-year strategic plans and leading execution.
• Proven project management experience.
• Strong proficiency in quantitative analysis and data-driven decision-making.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity and remain agile.
• Deep knowledge of Chick-fil-A restaurant operations.
• Experience in product development and research/experimental design.
• Experience leveraging external research partners (Forrester, Gartner).

Responsibilities

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Facilitate touch-points and ensure alignment across teams to support Restaurant excellence across the business.
• Operational Intelligence Leadership: Recommend visibility into performance and develop tools or reporting to influence changes in the Restaurant.
• Strategic Initiatives and R&D: Develop or execute high-impact strategies and build business cases for early-stage R&D of future capabilities.
• Field Strategy Alignment: Partner with Field Effectiveness to align the Roadmap with priorities and maximize value for Operators.
• Strategic Planning & Prioritization: Drive annual and multi-year plans and roadmaps with data-driven recommendations.
• Performance Stewardship & Accountability: Establish criteria and reviews to measure ROI of initiatives.
• External Benchmarking & Innovation: Engage with external research and monitor industry trends to bring best practices back inside.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Communication

Project management

Quantitative analysis

Adaptability

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Master's degree

Job description

How We Work At Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A, Inc. ('Chick-fil-A' or 'the Company') Staff members play a vital role in achieving our strategic goals by developing their skills, fostering inclusive teamwork, and embracing innovation. All Staff are expected to contribute to a compelling future by inspiring and motivating those around them. Growth and development are essential at Chick-fil-A. We want Staff to seek new perspectives and adopt new methods to drive continuous improvement and adaptation to evolving business needs. Lastly, we ask Staff to seek wisdom, expect the best, accept responsibility, respond with courage, and think others first.

Our Flexible Futures Model offers a healthy mix of working in person (currently a minimum of 8-10 days per month) and virtually, strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community.

Overview

The Principal Program Lead, Strategy & Planning (S&P) role serves as a strategic leader for the Restaurant Excellence Team, responsible for the cross-functional collection, synthesis, and coordination of operational performance insights across various teams supporting Restaurant excellence (e.g., Food Safety, Quality, Hospitality, Customer Experience) to identify critical connections and their implications. This role will be responsible for developing a collective “one voice” perspective from these operational performance insights and then taking them to and influencing key groups responsible for impacting in-Restaurant execution (e.g., RE Consulting, Regions, Launch Support, etc.). By pulling up to a holistic view, this role architects and maintains a data-informed strategic roadmap and portfolio of initiatives which provides recommendations on operational improvements needed to fuel performance. The S&P role will work collaboratively within our team and with partners outside our team to influence the business on strategic decisions as well as manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring that milestones and deliverables are met.

Responsibilities

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Facilitate the necessary touch-points and establish the linkages and processes needed between various cross-functional teams to ensure there is clarity and alignment on how to support and achieve the collective desired outcomes of Restaurant excellence across the business.
• Operational Intelligence Leadership: Make recommendations for where additional visibility into operational performance is needed, partnering with various groups to develop the appropriate technology or tools, and then partnering to create the appropriate engagement mechanism (e.g., reporting, scorecards, gamification, etc.) to influence changes in the Restaurant.
• Strategic Initiatives and R&D: Develop, support, recommend or execute high-impact strategies and initiatives (e.g., Restaurant Excellence award) that benefit Restaurant excellence and ensure a remarkable Customer Experience. This includes building business cases to lead early-stage research and development (R&D) of future operational capabilities to understand readiness, value, and potential impact. Use learnings and insights from R&D to build advocacy and organizational support to pursue further in-field testing led by other project teams (e.g., Field Insights & Technology, Quality & Customer Care, Digital Technology & Transformation, Hospitality).
• Field Strategy Alignment: Build and maintain partnership with the Field Effectiveness team to provide a data-informed perspective on the most critical Restaurant excellence opportunities. Ensure that the Restaurant Excellence Roadmap is aligned with Field Consulting priorities to maximize the value provided to Operators.
• Strategic Planning & Prioritization: Drive the focus of the Restaurant Excellence Team by facilitating the development of annual and multi-year strategic plans and roadmaps (1, 3, and 5-year). This role is responsible for providing data-driven and informed recommendations for priority setting to leadership, ensuring that the team’s strategic direction is grounded in operational reality and aligned with the broader goals for Field Operations Services.
• Performance Stewardship & Accountability: Establish and lead a comprehensive framework to evaluate the effectiveness and return on investment (ROI) of Restaurant Excellence initiatives. This includes defining standardized evaluation criteria, facilitating regular business reviews, and establishing feedback loops to ensure objective accountability. This role will serve as a consultant to other leaders across the broader Restaurant Excellence Team to ensure all programs and initiatives are measured against consistent standards of stewardship and impact.
• External Benchmarking & Innovation: Foster external partnerships and relationships valuable to Restaurant Excellence, such as benchmarking with other organizations and leveraging resources like Forrester or Gartner. This role will actively participate in industry conferences, monitor industry trends, channel evolution, and disruptive trends to bring innovative best practices back to the organization and proactively identify issues that could potentially impact the competitive position of the Brand.

Required Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities)

• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex data into clear narratives and influence senior-level stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience in both developing multi-year strategic plans and leading the execution of those plans across a department or organization.
• Proven experience in project management, specifically in driving the adoption of new capabilities within a complex business environment.
• Strong proficiency in quantitative analysis and data-driven decision-making; ability to recommend priorities based on rigorous insights.
• Proven ability to lead through ambiguity and remain agile in response to changing organizational priorities and emerging technologies.

Preferred Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities)

• Deep working knowledge of Chick-fil-A Restaurant operations
• Experience in product development and research/experimental design, specifically in R&D or innovation context
• Experience leveraging external research partners (e.g. Forrester, Gartner) networks to drive internal innovation.

Required Years of Experience

6

Preferred Years of Experience

8

Travel Requirements

20%

Required Level of Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Preferred Level of Education

Master's Degree

Required Major/Concentration

Business, Operations, Strategy or related field

Preferred Major/Concentration

Master in Business Administration

Relocation Assistance Provided

No