Job Description
Church's Texas Chicken
Employee Job Description
Job Title: Director, Menu Architecture and Innovation
Reports to: Global Chief Marketing Officer
Department: Marketing
Location: Atlanta, GA
Revised: April 17, 2023
Church's Texas Chicken (CTC) is looking for a Director, Menu Architecture and Innovation to join the marketing team based in Atlanta, GA. The Director, Menu Architecture and Innovation, primary responsibility is to lead, develop and refine our Menu strategy and Innovation. This includes the implementation of our menu innovation process including Stage Gate and product testing. The goal is to enable the creation of a pipeline of menu ideas, working in concert with the culinary team/R&D to innovate Church's offerings that align with our Brand Promise while balancing restaurant profitability with evolving consumer behavior. He/she will lead the work behind our menu architecture and our pricing strategy domestically and will provide guidance and assist the Global team when needed with their menu. They will help develop pricing strategies to offset inflation while enabling the innovation and value that CTC customers know and love. Key responsibilities include developing and maintaining menu architecture & pricing strategy and new product pricing recommendations. In addition, identifying new pricing opportunities through analysis and modeling of sales, profit, menu mix, and consumer insights data, working directly with our internal finance, IT & operations teams. Communicating the corporate pricing strategy, rationale, and guidelines to our franchise partners is also part of the role.
Key position requirements include strong restaurant experience, analytical, quantitative, data modeling, decision analysis, problem-solving, and presentation skills. The Incumbent will be instrumental in developing the underlying data structure to support pricing analysis. They will play a key role in designing tests and conducting analysis to understand product/offerings potential, brand fit and optimal pricing informed by product screening and consumer testing, pricing and in-restaurant testing.
Key Duties / Responsibilities
- Implementation of our Stage Gate process for product innovation leading the cross functional team in this endeavor.
- Develop overall menu architecture strategies for domestic markets based on customer needs, ease of use, and profitability, including how the menu is reflected on all menus, including interior and exterior menu boards, digital order-ahead, Catering, and Third-Party Delivery.
- Lead the consumer research cadence, required to best predict new offerings success in the marketplace including idea screening, concept testing, price recommendation and coordination of the In-restaurant testing; lead the cross-functional team in these efforts, working with R&D/culinary, operations and finance.
- Evaluate testing results against KPI's to determine GO/NO GO decisions.
- Assist and advise the Global team when needed with overall menu architecture strategies.
- Partner with IT to develop the underlying data structure and architecture to support the approved architecture.
- Utilize analytics and consumer insights to develop & implement an overall Church's Texas Chicken pricing strategy, including regional applications.
- Create models to measure pricing across CTC restaurants. Leverage competitive pricing data already sourced to distill insights for a comparable product and value competitiveness.
- Perform cluster analyses in assessing menu price architecture across geographies based on projected elasticities and competition.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of pricing actions by analyzing restaurant performance, flow-through, trading relationships, and impact to profit.
- Develop Power BI dashboards and reporting to support the broader business.
- Conduct analysis and testing to determine optimal product price points.
- Project-manage execution of pricing actions for the system and for Company-owned restaurants. Create pricing recommendations for all new products.
- Conduct ad-hoc analysis to distill insights and make actionable recommendations.
- Continuously analyze & assess the impact of current pricing, as it relates to changes in costs, competitive actions, and consumer behaviors to identify opportunities across all key metrics: topline (sales and traffic) and profit results across our restaurant base.
- Work directly with our finance and ops teams to make strategic pricing decisions to drive topline results & increased profitability.
- Support our field ops and marketing teams by addressing local pricing questions & supporting continued franchisee pricing education.
- The individual selected will be an innovative leader who consistently understands the future needs of the customer and the organization.
- This leader will need to be able to work in a complex franchise environment, demonstrate an agile approach to budget management, and have a strong passion for leadership and coaching.
- Demonstrate servant leadership with franchisees, employees, and partners.
- Convinces and persuades others in either positive or negative circumstances to accomplish goals and objectives; responds to objections successfully; uses tact when expressing ideas or opinions.
- Determine effective metrics to measure the impact of pricing and menu architecture actions on sales and profitability
- Develop and maintain an ongoing and iterative menu architecture that delivers healthy profits to the organization and good value to Church's Texas Chicken's guests
Position Requirements (Education, Qualifications, Experience):
- BA required. 5-7 years of relevant work experience with strong analytics.
- Must have restaurant experience. Track record of working with or leading product offering innovation.
- Ability to work well in a team environment and partner cross-functionally.
- The position is based in Atlanta for work in the Restaurant Support Center (RSC)
- STRONG analytical skills with demonstrated success analyzing data and models to solve menu architecture challenges.
- Strong Excel skills; ideally, familiar with SQL, PowerBI, and Python/R modeling & analysis.
- Strong internal motivation, intellectual curiosity, and logical thinking
- Desire to have a large impact on the organization with a can-do attitude
- Great organizational skills, with the ability to work independently and multi-task in a complex, fast-paced environment.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Restaurant experience. Familiar with the Stage Gate approach and with Revenue Management.
- Experience with Product innovation.
- Proven experience with analytics.
- Proven experience with forecasting and demand planning.
- Must love chicken!
Competencies:
- Critical Thinking - Defines and resolves a situation or problem by analyzing issues, weighing options, and evaluating alternatives; maintains objective attitude; systematically approaches situations and problems; uses observation, experience, reflection, and reasoning to drive the business forward.
- Initiative - Takes action proactively; addresses issues or opportunities without supervision; focuses on desired results and accomplishments; demonstrates clear purpose, enthusiasm, and a "can-do" attitude.
- Innovative and Creative - Looks for ways to improve oneself, the job, the project, the system, and the organization; challenges conventional practices and generates new ideas to create novel solutions to problems.
- Managing Execution - Manages multiple projects and effectively prioritizes tasks and goals; uses goals to guide actions and create detailed action plans; organizes and schedules people and tasks; utilizes resources effectively to meet goals.
- Negotiating - Presents issues or ideas clearly and effectively; maintains an open-minded and non-judgmental attitude; listens to others' views and empathizes.
- Relationship Management - Initiates and develops relationships with others; demonstrates credibility; confronts conflict quickly and professionally; inspires confidence in others.
Physical Requirements:
Employees must be able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.
Required Travel 15%
