Vice President of Marketing - Restaurant

leapbrands; Omaha (NE); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job description

Position Summary

Our client is seeking a Vice President of Marketing to lead all aspects of brand strategy, customer acquisition, digital marketing, local store marketing, loyalty, communications, and marketing operations for a rapidly growing restaurant company.

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, the Vice President of Marketing will be responsible for developing and executing the company's overall marketing strategy while building the infrastructure necessary to support continued unit growth, same-store sales increases, and long-term brand awareness.

This executive will partner closely with Operations, Franchise Development, Finance, Culinary, Technology, and Human Resources to ensure marketing initiatives deliver measurable business results across both corporate and franchise locations.

The ideal candidate is a strategic leader who is equally comfortable developing long-term brand strategy and rolling up their sleeves to optimize customer acquisition, improve guest frequency, and drive restaurant-level profitability.

Key Responsibilities

Brand Strategy

• Develop and execute the company's overall marketing vision and brand strategy.
• Strengthen brand awareness, market positioning, and customer loyalty.
• Ensure consistent messaging across all customer touchpoints.
• Lead menu launch strategies, promotional calendars, and seasonal campaigns.
• Oversee public relations, community engagement, and brand partnerships.

Digital Marketing & Customer Acquisition

• Own all digital marketing channels including paid search, paid social, SEO, display, streaming, CRM, email, SMS, loyalty, and mobile.
• Optimize marketing investments to maximize guest acquisition, frequency, and lifetime value.
• Improve customer acquisition costs and return on marketing investment.
• Develop omnichannel marketing strategies that connect digital engagement with restaurant traffic.

Restaurant Marketing

• Build scalable local restaurant marketing programs that drive traffic at the unit level.
• Partner with Operations to execute successful grand openings, remodel campaigns, and local activations.
• Develop marketing playbooks and toolkits for field leadership and franchisees.
• Support franchise operators with localized marketing initiatives while maintaining brand consistency.

Customer Insights & Analytics

• Establish executive dashboards measuring sales performance, traffic, guest frequency, loyalty engagement, media effectiveness, and marketing ROI.
• Leverage customer insights, analytics, and attribution modeling to guide investment decisions.
• Continuously evaluate campaign performance and optimize spend across all channels.

Loyalty & Guest Experience

• Lead customer retention initiatives including loyalty, CRM, lifecycle marketing, and guest engagement.
• Partner with Operations to improve the guest experience and increase repeat visits.
• Develop personalized marketing strategies utilizing customer data and behavioral insights.

Team Leadership

• Recruit, develop, and mentor a high-performing marketing organization.
• Lead internal marketing, creative, communications, digital, CRM, analytics, and local marketing teams.
• Manage external agencies, media partners, and technology vendors.
• Build a culture centered around accountability, collaboration, speed, and measurable performance.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Work closely with Operations to ensure marketing strategies support restaurant execution.
• Partner with Finance on budgeting, forecasting, and ROI analysis.
• Collaborate with Franchise Development to support new unit growth and franchise sales.
• Support Technology initiatives related to digital ordering, loyalty, customer data, and marketing automation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field; MBA preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive marketing leadership experience.
• 5+ years leading marketing for a multi-unit restaurant, retail, hospitality, or consumer brand.
• Demonstrated success leading high-performing marketing organizations.
• Experience managing marketing budgets of $10M+.
• Strong understanding of restaurant operations, consumer behavior, and guest acquisition.
• Proven experience with loyalty programs, CRM, digital ordering, and customer lifecycle marketing.
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing marketing ROI and P&L impact.

Leadership Profile

We are not looking for a traditional brand marketer whose success is measured by creative campaigns or advertising awards.

We are seeking a commercially minded executive who understands how marketing drives restaurant performance. This leader should be equally comfortable discussing media attribution, loyalty strategy, guest frequency, menu innovation, local restaurant marketing, franchise support, and financial performance.

Success in this role will be measured by the organization's ability to grow sales, improve guest engagement, strengthen franchisee performance, and build a scalable marketing organization capable of supporting aggressive expansion.