Senior Manager, IT Implementation

Dine Brands International; Pasadena (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Dine Brands Global, based in Pasadena, CA, seeks a Senior Manager, IT Implementation to lead franchisee-facing restaurant technology deployments across IHOP, Applebee’s, and Fuzzy’s. You’ll drive end-to-end POS, payments, and hardware initiatives, align vendor and franchisee planning, and ensure readiness and post-go-live stabilization.

You will embed ITIL/ITSM and Six Sigma into delivery, standardize processes, and report on portfolio health, risks, and improvements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required in IT, CS, business, engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years of IT implementation and program management experience.
• Experience with POS, payments, endpoint or hardware lifecycles.
• Proven leadership across coaching, performance, prioritization, and talent development.
• Experience managing concurrent programs across scope, schedule, budget, risk, dependencies, and quality.
• Working knowledge of ITSM practices including change, release, deployment, and continual improvement.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, analytical and financial decision-making skills.
• Willingness to travel and support after-hours implementations.
• Strong ownership, accountability, and execution discipline.
• Ability to coordinate cross-functional teams across technology and business.

Responsibilities

• Own the implementation portfolio for franchise-facing restaurant technology programs across IHOP, Applebee’s, and Fuzzy’s.
• Lead end-to-end deployments for POS, payments, hardware lifecycle, ownership changes.
• Coordinate cross-functional, vendor, and franchisee planning to resolve dependencies before deployment.
• Manage vendor performance, including SOWs, milestones, staffing, and service levels.
• Escalate and resolve high-risk issues and post-go-live stabilization needs.
• Deliver executive reporting on portfolio health, finances, quality, and actions.
• Standardize processes with playbooks, templates, RACI models, and governance routines.
• Embed ITIL/ITSM practices into delivery and continual improvement.
• Create closed-loop feedback connecting issues, vendors, and franchisee feedback to actions.
• Maintain version-controlled artifacts for franchisees and support teams.
• Establish governance and reporting providing visibility into demand, capacity, and performance.
• Identify opportunities for automation and self-service reporting.
• Lead, coach and develop a multidisciplinary implementation team.
• Translate strategy into clear goals and measurable outcomes.
• Foster transparency, customer focus, risk management, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure proper tracking, milestone management, and risk escalation.
• Strengthen cross-functional relationships and resolve conflicts.

Skills

IT program management

POS & payments tech

Leadership / people mgmt

Multi-site deployment

ITSM / ITIL

Stakeholder management

Analytical / problem solving

Operational readiness

Willingness to travel

Budget & financial mgmt

Education

Bachelor’s degree in IT/CS/Business/Engineering

Tools

Smartsheet

ServiceNow

Jira

Job description

Based in Pasadena, California, Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE: DIN), through its subsidiaries and franchisees, supports and operates restaurants under the Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill + Bar®, IHOP®, and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop® brands. As of December 28, 2025, these three brands consisted of over 3,500 restaurants across 20 international markets. Dine Brands is one of the largest full-service restaurant companies in the world and in 2022 expanded into the Fast Casual segment. For more information on Dine Brands, visit the Company’s website located at www.dinebrands.com.

Job Location Type Hybrid - The Role

The Senior Manager, IT Implementation leads franchisee-facing restaurant technology deployments across IHOP, Applebee’s, and Fuzzy’s. This role will oversee the delivery of POS, payment, endpoint, change-of-ownership, and other multi-location technology initiatives, ensuring each program is well-planned, scalable, and ready for successful restaurant adoption. The Senior Manager will lead a team responsible for implementation planning, operational readiness, vendor coordination, franchisee engagement, issue escalation, documentation, and post-go-live stabilization. This leader will also strengthen implementation processes using continuous improvement, Six Sigma, and ITIL/ITSM practices to improve consistency, reduce risk, and drive better outcomes across brands. This role partners closely with Restaurant Technology, Product, Engineering, Operations, Finance, Security, Legal, the service desk, brand teams, franchisees, and external technology providers.

Key Responsibilities

Technology Delivery and Program Execution

• Own the implementation portfolio for franchise facing restaurant technology programs across IHOP, Applebee’s, and Fuzzy’s, including priorities, capacity, schedules, dependencies, budgets, risks, reporting, and follow-up.
• Lead end-to-end deployments for POS, payments, hardware lifecycle, ownership changes, and related restaurant technology initiatives.
• Coordinate cross-functional, vendor, and franchisee planning to resolve dependencies before deployment.
• Manage vendor and partner performance, including SOWs, milestones, staffing, service levels, issues, change control, and commercial accountability.
• Escalate and resolve high-risk implementation issues, franchisee impacts, vendor concerns, and post-go-live stabilization needs.
• Deliver executive reporting on portfolio health, risks, finances, quality, and follow-up actions.

Process Excellence and Operational Maturity

• Standardize implementation processes, playbooks, templates, RACI models, readiness gates, handoffs, and governance routines.
• Embed ITIL/ITSM practices into delivery, including change, service transition, knowledge, incident, problem, request, and continual-improvement processes.
• Create closed-loop feedback processes that connect deployment issues, incidents, vendor performance, franchisee feedback, and post-implementation reviews to corrective action.
• Maintain current, accessible, version-controlled implementation artifacts for franchisees, vendors, deployment teams, service desk, and support functions.
• Establish governance and reporting that provide visibility into demand, capacity, deployment status, exceptions, quality trends, process performance, vendor performance, and improvement benefits.
• Identify opportunities for automation, self-service, standardized intake, notifications and integrated reporting.

People Leadership Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary implementation team accountable for delivery, readiness, vendor coordination, documentation, reporting, and transition to support.
• Translate strategy into clear goals, priorities, accountabilities, service expectations, and measurable outcomes.
• Foster a culture of transparency, customer focus, disciplined execution, risk management, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure accurate tracking, documentation, milestone management, dependency coordination, early risk escalation, and timely issue resolution.
• Strengthen cross-functional relationships, clarify ownership, and resolve conflicts across technology, operations, franchise, vendor, and support teams.

Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, computer science, business, engineering, operations, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in IT implementation, technology program management, service delivery, restaurant or retail technology, or multi-site deployment.
• Experience with POS, payments, endpoint or hardware lifecycle programs, or comparable store-technology deployments.
• People-leadership experience across coaching, performance, prioritization, and talent development.
• Experience managing concurrent programs across scope, schedule, budget, risk, dependencies, quality, communications, vendors, and operational readiness.
• Working knowledge of ITSM practices, including change, release, deployment, service transition, incident, problem, knowledge, and continual improvement.
• Strong stakeholder-management, communication, analytical, problem-solving, financial, and decision-making skills.
• Strong ownership, follow-up, escalation, and execution discipline.
• Practical problem-solver with the technology fluency to diagnose issues, identify root causes, and coordinate technical and business teams effectively.
• Support implementations outside normal business hours and travel as needed.
• Target Base Salary $140k-$160k depending on experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in franchise, restaurant, hospitality, retail, or multi-brand environments.
• PMP, PgMP, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt/Black Belt, or comparable certification.
• Experience with payment standards, processors, gateways, P2PE, or payment-device implementations.
• Experience with Smartsheet, ServiceNow, Jira, or similar tools.
• Experience managing budgets, SOWs, vendor invoices, franchisee charges, and financial performance.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Dine Brands Global strongly supports equal employment opportunity for all applicants regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, veteran status, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act and/or other applicable laws and regulations in other jurisdictions. Dine Brands reviews criminal history in connection with a conditional offer of employment. The following is a list of all material job duties which Dine Brands reasonably believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: provide effective solutions for company technology and information management; maintain cybersecurity systems that protect confidential, proprietary, and trade secret information belonging to the company; and prevent unauthorized disclosure of personal, financial, and medical information belonging to employees and third parties. For information on how we collect and use your personal information, please visit our Applicant & Employee Privacy Notice.

Based in Pasadena, California, Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE: DIN), through its subsidiaries and franchisees, supports and operates restaurants under the Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill + Bar®, IHOP®, and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop® brands. As of December 28, 2025, these three brands consisted of over 3,500 restaurants across 20 international markets. Dine Brands is one of the largest full-service restaurant companies in the world and in 2022 expanded into the Fast Casual segment. For more information on Dine Brands, visit the Company’s website located at www.dinebrands.com.