Director, Strategic Initiatives - Arby's

The Director, Strategic Initiatives & Performance serves as a strategic partner to Arby’s Chief Operating Officer and Arby’s Senior Leadership Team, setting the operations agenda, translating performance into action, and connecting the organization to deliver measurable business results. This role is responsible for converting the Operations Strategy and brand priorities into a focused portfolio of work with clear accountabilities, milestones, and outcomes.

 

The Director owns the operations performance fact base, integrating restaurant operations, guest, sales, and financial data to identify performance gaps, opportunities, trends, and root causes. The role advances restaurant economics, establishes performance measures and operating cadences, governs the operations portfolio, and coordinates cross-functional execution and change across Franchise Operations, Restaurant Experience, Development, Finance, Data & Analytics, Technology, Marketing, Supply Chain, and other shared-service partners.

 

The ideal candidate combines strategic thinking, strong business and financial acumen, analytical rigor, operational understanding, cross-functional leadership, and executive communication skills to improve restaurant economics, accelerate decision-making, and ensure Arby's Operations priorities deliver their intended business outcomes.

 

Operations Strategy & Performance Management

• Translate Arby's Operations Strategy and brand priorities into a focused portfolio of initiatives, clear accountabilities, milestones, and measurable outcomes
• Establish and monitor KPIs, scorecards, targets, and success measures that connect restaurant execution, guest experience, and business performance
• Lead Operations strategic planning, annual planning, leadership reviews, and operating cadences that focus the organization on the highest-value opportunities
• Identify performance gaps, emerging opportunities, and root causes using operational, guest, sales, and financial insights
• Translate performance insights and strategic priorities into actionable plans and clear recommendations for Operations leadership
• Drive accountability against commitments, outcomes, and the business case for strategic priorities
• Support emerging business priorities and strategic decisions as directed by the COO

 

Restaurant Economics & Performance Analytics

• Own the Operations performance fact base by integrating restaurant operations, guest, sales, and financial data into a clear view of business performance
• Develop actionable insights into sales, traffic, labor productivity, COGS, controllables, capital investment, four-wall profitability, and franchisee returns
• Partner with Finance and Data & Analytics to develop reliable scorecards, dashboards, analyses, and decision-support tools
• Identify performance trends, outliers, and root causes and translate findings into targeted actions for Franchise Operations and Restaurant Experience
• Develop business cases and economic assessments that inform prioritization, investment decisions, and strategic initiatives
• Measure initiative performance and determine whether intended operational and financial outcomes are being achieved
• Continuously improve the quality, accessibility, and actionability of Operations performance insights 

 

Portfolio Governance & Change Management

• Own governance for the Operations portfolio, including prioritization, StageGate, key milestones, decisions, risks, dependencies, and outcomes
• Establish clear operating rhythms that provide leadership visibility to strategic priorities, performance, and required decisions
• Ensure resources and organizational capacity are focused on the highest-impact work and recommend tradeoffs when priorities compete
• Coordinate cross-functional execution of major Operations initiatives from concept through implementation and measurement
• Lead change planning with field and support teams to drive effective implementation, adoption, and sustained execution
• Measure post-launch results and use learnings to improve future priorities and implementation approaches

 

Executive Decision Support & Organizational Alignment 

• Serve as a strategic advisor and business-performance thought partner to the COO and Operations leadership team
• Provide concise insights, recommendations, business cases, executive presentations, and visibility to progress against strategic priorities
• Connect performance data and field insights to leadership decisions, resource allocation, and Operations priorities
• Create mechanisms for tracking key commitments, risks, decisions, and business outcomes
• Ensure alignment across Franchise Operations, Restaurant Experience, and critical shared-service partners

 

Development Integration & Franchisee Services

• Lead the Operations integration with Development to connect restaurant performance, franchisee health, asset strategy, and growth decisions
• Coordinate Operations input into new restaurant development, remodels, portfolio optimization, ownership transitions, and other development priorities
• Provide centralized coordination for franchisee services and recurring system-level issues that require cross-functional resolution
• Capture franchisee and field learnings and translate them into broader Operations priorities, solutions, and process improvements

 

Change Management & Continuous Improvement 

• Build change management and adoption plans into strategic initiatives from the beginning rather than treating implementation as a final step
• Partner with Franchise Operations and Restaurant Experience to ensure solutions are effectively translated into field execution
• Establish feedback loops that measure adoption, effectiveness, business impact, and opportunities for improvement
• Use performance results and field feedback to continuously refine the Operations portfolio and inform the next priority
• Help foster a culture of accountability, fact-based decision-making, continuous improvement, and operational excellence

 

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Collaborate closely with Franchise Operations, Restaurant Experience, Finance, Data & Analytics, Development, Technology, Marketing, Supply Chain, Communications, People, Training, and other shared-service teams
• Build strong relationships across Arby’s, Inspire shared services, and the franchise system
• Influence decisions and drive measurable outcomes across functions without direct authority
• Serve as the connector between strategy, restaurant performance, solution development, and field execution
• Facilitate alignment across stakeholders to accelerate decisions, resolve barriers, and deliver successful implementation

 

Education Qualifications

• Minimum: Bachelor’s degree in business, Operations, Finance, Management, Strategy, or related field required
• Preferred: MBA or advanced Degree 

 

Experience Qualifications

10+ years of experience in strategy, operations, business transformation, consulting, project management, or related fields

 

Required Knowledge, Skills, or Abilities

• Proven ability to translate strategy and complex performance data into clear priorities, recommendations, and action
• Strong business and financial acumen, including experience with restaurant or unit-level economics, profitability, and investment decisions
• Demonstrated experience developing KPIs, scorecards, dashboards, business cases, and executive-level performance insights
• Proven success leading complex cross-functional initiatives, governance processes, and organizational change
• Ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders and drive results without direct authority
• Exceptional analytical thinking, executive communication, prioritization, and problem-solving skills; experience in a franchise or multi-unit operating environment preferred

 

Direct Reports

This role will have the opportunity to establish and develop a team as needed to support strategic initiatives, accelerate execution, and achieve business goals.

 

Travel Required

Yes. This role requires balancing office-based work and field visits to various restaurant locations. Travel may be required to ensure consistent implementation of programs and initiatives across Abry’s restaurants. 

 

Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 33,300 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide. We’re made up of some of the world’s most iconic restaurant brands, but we’re much more than just a restaurant company. We’re a team of hundreds of thousands who individually and collectively are changing the way people eat, drink, and gather around the table. We know that food is much more than a staple—it’s an experience. At Inspire, that’s our purpose: to ignite and nourish flavorful experiences.