Senior Director, Restaurant Technology at Church's… · Sandy…

Church’s Texas Chicken

Employee Job Description

Job Title: Senior Director, Restaurant Technology

Reports To: Senior Vice President of Technology

Department: Technology and Digital Platforms

Location:

Revised: April 2026

Job Summary:

Responsible for the leadership and operational delivery of restaurant technology systems that enable efficient, high-quality restaurant operations across Church’s Texas Chicken Corporate and Franchise locations. Provides senior-level oversight of the full lifecycle of the restaurant’s point of sale (POS) platform and back of house (BOH) systems, including planning, upgrades, deployment, and ongoing support, while driving the adoption and performance of restaurant enhancement technologies and ensuring rigorous quality assurance across all store technology systems.

Leads cross-functional teams spanning product management, menu management and QA, and POS deployment, and manages relationships with key technology vendors to ensure service levels, contractual obligations, and delivery commitments are met. Oversees a product team responsible for defining product lifecycles, development requirements, feature roadmaps, and major system integrations across POS, BOH, and other in-store technology platforms. Serves as the senior technology leader for restaurant-facing systems including kitchen automation, self-service kiosks, and mobile drive-thru technologies, championing solutions that improve speed of service, order accuracy, and the overall guest experience. Brings deep, firsthand knowledge of restaurant operations and POS systems to every technology decision, serving as a credible bridge between technology capabilities and the realities of running high-volume QSR or fast casual locations.

Reports directly to the SVP of Technology and collaborates closely with Operations, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, and Franchise partners to align technology investments with business priorities. Manages a team of direct reports and oversees external vendors, consultants, and implementation partners to deliver against the restaurant technology roadmap.

Key Duties/Responsibilities:

POS & Back of House Systems Leadership

• Lead the strategy, planning, and execution of upgrades and new deployments of the enterprise point of sale (POS) system across Corporate and Franchise restaurant locations.
• Oversee the ongoing support, maintenance, and performance monitoring of POS and back of house (BOH) systems, ensuring high availability and minimal operational disruption across the restaurant portfolio.
• Manage the POS Deployment team, establishing deployment standards, timelines, and quality checkpoints for new installations and upgrades.
• Partner with Operations and Franchise teams to define requirements, validate solutions, and communicate change impacts ahead of system rollouts.
• Develop and maintain documentation for POS and BOH system configurations, integrations, and support procedures.
• Establish and track KPIs and SLAs for system uptime, incident resolution, and deployment success rates, reporting performance regularly to the SVP of Technology.

Product Team Supervision & Technology Product Management

• Lead and develop the restaurant technology product team, providing direction, mentorship, and performance management to product managers and product owners responsible for POS, BOH, and in-store technology platforms.
• Oversee the definition and ongoing management of product lifecycles for all major restaurant technology systems, ensuring that each platform has a clearly articulated roadmap covering current capabilities, planned enhancements, end-of-life timelines, and replacement strategies.
• Guide the product team in translating business requirements from Operations, Marketing, and Franchise partners into well-defined development needs, user stories, feature specifications, and acceptance criteria for vendor and internal development teams.
• Ensure the product team maintains a structured and prioritized feature backlog for each major system, balancing operational stability needs, enhancement requests, and strategic capability investments in collaboration with the SVP of Technology.
• Oversee the planning and execution of major system integrations across POS, BOH, and in-store technology platforms, ensuring that integration architectures are sound, dependencies are well-managed, and delivery commitments are met.
• Establish product governance standards and review cadences that ensure technology platform decisions are made with appropriate input from operations, franchise, technology, and vendor stakeholders before commitments are made.
• Partner with technology vendors on product roadmap alignment, ensuring that vendor development priorities reflect Church’s Texas Chicken’s operational needs and that upcoming platform changes are anticipated and planned for proactively.
• Track and communicate product team delivery performance, providing the SVP of Technology with regular visibility into roadmap progress, feature delivery status, and integration milestones.

Menu Management

• Provide senior leadership and oversight of the Menu Management team responsible for maintaining accurate, consistent menu data across POS, digital, and BOH platforms.
• Ensure that POS menu configurations are kept in precise alignment with online ordering menus managed through OLO and delivery service provider (DSP) platforms, eliminating pricing discrepancies, item availability mismatches, and modifier inconsistencies across all ordering channels.
• Oversee alignment of menu data with the company loyalty program, ensuring that product definitions, offer structures, and pricing configurations are consistent and correctly reflected across POS, digital, and loyalty platforms.
• Establish governance standards and workflows for menu updates, LTO launches, pricing changes, and regional menu variations, ensuring changes are coordinated and deployed accurately across all channels simultaneously.
• Ensure menu management processes support rapid, accurate deployment of changes across all restaurant technology touchpoints including POS, BOH, OLO, DSP integrations, and loyalty systems.
• Partner with Marketing, Operations, and Franchise teams to coordinate menu change calendars and minimize operational and guest experience risk during rollouts.

Store Technology Quality Assurance

• Provide oversight and direction for quality assurance activities across all store technology systems, ensuring that POS builds, BOH configurations, menu deployments, and technology updates are thoroughly tested and validated before reaching production environments.
• Establish and govern QA standards, testing frameworks, and acceptance criteria for store technology deployments, holding the QA function accountable to consistent, rigorous pre-deployment validation across all platforms and channels.
• Oversee QA processes for menu management activities specifically, including validation of POS menu configurations, OLO and DSP menu alignment, BOH recipe accuracy, and loyalty program integration testing prior to every deployment.
• Review QA performance metrics and post-deployment audit results, identifying patterns of recurring defects or configuration errors and driving process improvements that reduce error rates and increase first-time deployment accuracy.
• Ensure that defect management and issue resolution workflows are well-governed, with clear prioritization criteria, escalation paths, and resolution timelines that protect operational continuity and brand standards.
• Collaborate with the Director of Store Technology Support to ensure that QA findings and known issues are appropriately communicated to support teams ahead of system changes, enabling effective post-deployment support readiness.

Restaurant Enhancement Technologies

• Lead the evaluation, deployment, and ongoing management of restaurant enhancement technologies including kitchen automation systems, self-service kiosks, and mobile drive-thru solutions.
• Define the roadmap for restaurant technology enhancements, identifying and piloting solutions that drive operational efficiency and guest experience improvements in collaboration with the SVP of Technology.
• Collaborate with Operations, Marketing, and Digital teams to align enhancement technologies with brand standards, speed-of-service goals, and guest engagement strategies.
• Oversee integration of enhancement technologies with core POS and BOH platforms to ensure seamless data flow and operational continuity.
• Manage the full lifecycle of enhancement technology projects from business case development through deployment, training, and post-launch optimization.

Vendor Management

• Serve as the senior relationship owner for key restaurant technology vendors, including POS providers, BOH software vendors, OLO and DSP integration partners, and hardware suppliers.
• Lead contract negotiations, renewals, and procurement activities for restaurant technology systems, ensuring favorable terms and alignment with organizational standards.
• Establish and manage vendor performance frameworks including SLA monitoring, quarterly business reviews, and escalation processes.
• Evaluate new and emerging vendors and technologies, conducting due diligence and proof-of-concept engagements to inform investment decisions.
• Collaborate with Finance and Legal teams to manage vendor contracts, budgets, and risk mitigation strategies.

Team Leadership & Organizational Development

• Directly manage and develop team members across the product team, menu management and QA function, and POS deployment team, providing coaching, mentorship, and performance management with a focus on building long-term organizational capability.
• Build a high-performing restaurant technology organization by attracting, developing, and retaining talent with deep restaurant industry knowledge and strong technology product and delivery skills.
• Establish clear performance expectations, development plans, and succession strategies across the restaurant technology organization.
• Direct and coordinate external resources including implementation partners, consultants, and managed service providers to deliver project objectives on time and within budget.
• Establish and manage annual budgets for restaurant technology operations, projects, and vendor spend; track expenditures and ensure efficient resource allocation.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and operational excellence within the team.

Stakeholder Engagement & Governance

• Serve as the primary technology liaison for restaurant operations, presenting roadmaps, project status, and technology recommendations to the SVP of Technology, senior leadership, and Franchise partners.
• Develop and maintain a restaurant technology governance framework to ensure consistent standards, change control, and risk management across the portfolio.
• Facilitate cross-functional steering sessions and working groups to align priorities and resolve conflicts across technology, operations, and franchise stakeholders.
• Communicate proactively with Corporate and Franchise partners on upcoming system changes, maintenance windows, and new capability rollouts, representing the technology organization with credibility and professionalism.

Position Requirements (Education, Qualifications, Experience):

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, Business, Hospitality Management, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 7–10 years of progressive experience in restaurant or retail technology, with a demonstrated track record of leading technology delivery in a multi-unit environment.
• Minimum of 5 years of direct restaurant industry experience, with a strong working knowledge of QSR or fast casual restaurant operations, including front of house and back of house workflows.
• Hands-on experience with two or more restaurant point of sale systems such as NCR Aloha, PAR Brink, Qu POS, or equivalent enterprise QSR POS platforms, including deployment, configuration, and upgrade management.
• Demonstrated experience managing POS menu configurations across multiple ordering channels, including OLO or equivalent online ordering platforms, delivery service provider (DSP) integrations, and loyalty program systems.
• Demonstrated experience leading or supervising a technology product management function, including product lifecycle management, feature roadmap development, and major system integration planning.
• Demonstrated experience leading POS platform upgrades and multi-site technology deployments in a restaurant or retail environment at a senior level.
• Proven experience with back of house systems, kitchen automation, self-service kiosks, and/or drive-thru technology platforms.
• Experience overseeing quality assurance activities for restaurant technology systems, including structured testing processes, defect management, and pre-deployment validation.
• Experience managing vendor relationships at a senior level, including contract negotiation, SLA oversight, and strategic performance management.
• Track record of leading and developing cross-functional teams in a technology delivery environment, with demonstrated success building organizational capability over time.
• Experience managing technology budgets and capital projects in a multi-unit restaurant or franchise environment.
• Direct front of house or back of house restaurant operational experience is strongly preferred and will be a meaningful differentiator among candidates.

Competencies:

People Leadership – Provides senior-level guidance and direction across a multi-functional team spanning product management, menu systems, QA, and deployment. Sets clear expectations, develops talent, and builds organizational capability over time. Serves as a role model for creating a high-performing, respectful work environment and advocates for both employees and the business.

Restaurant Operations Credibility – Brings firsthand knowledge of restaurant operations — including the day-to-day realities of QSR or fast casual front of house and back of house environments — to every technology decision. Earns the trust of operations and franchise partners by demonstrating genuine understanding of the business context in which technology must perform.

Product Vision & Oversight – Provides clear direction and governance to the restaurant technology product team, ensuring that product lifecycles are well-managed, feature priorities are aligned with business needs, and major system integrations are planned and executed with rigor. Translates operational requirements into actionable product development objectives for vendor and internal teams.

Critical Thinking – Defines and resolves complex operational and technology challenges by analyzing issues, weighing options, and evaluating alternatives. Approaches problems systematically and uses experience and reasoning to drive decisions that balance short-term operational needs with longer-term platform direction.

Influencing Others – Convinces and persuades stakeholders across operations, franchise, finance, and technology functions to align on priorities, investments, and solutions. Responds to objections constructively, builds consensus across diverse groups, and navigates complex organizational dynamics with professionalism.

Initiative – Takes action proactively; identifies and pursues opportunities to advance the restaurant technology agenda without waiting for direction; demonstrates clear purpose and a “can-do” attitude at both the strategic and execution level.

Managing Execution – Manages a broad portfolio of technology initiatives across product, deployment, menu systems, and QA functions; effectively prioritizes across competing demands; develops detailed action plans; organizes and allocates people and resources; delivers consistently against roadmap commitments and operational expectations.

Vendor & Partner Management – Builds and sustains productive, strategically valuable relationships with technology vendors and implementation partners. Manages performance rigorously while fostering collaborative partnerships that support long-term product roadmap alignment and value delivery for the organization.

Quality Orientation – Establishes and upholds high standards for technology deployment quality across POS, BOH, menu management, and digital channel systems. Ensures that QA processes are rigorous, consistent, and embedded in every aspect of restaurant technology delivery, from initial configuration through post-deployment audit.

Technical Acumen – Demonstrates deep knowledge of restaurant technology systems including POS platforms, BOH systems, kitchen automation, kiosk, drive-thru, OLO, DSP integrations, and loyalty platforms. Makes sound technical and product decisions and provides credible guidance to internal teams and external partners.

Stakeholder Management – Effectively engages with stakeholders at all levels of the organization, from in-store operations teams to senior leadership. Manages expectations, communicates decisions clearly, and facilitates collaboration across functional and franchise boundaries with confidence and credibility.

Relationship Management – Initiates and develops strong, trust-based relationships with operations, franchise, vendor, and technology stakeholders. Demonstrates credibility, addresses conflict directly and professionally, and builds the partnerships necessary to align and deliver across a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.

Physical Requirements: Employees must be able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.

Travel: Up to 25%

1. If you’re hungry for a career that’s fun, fast-paced and loaded with opportunity, then you’ve come to the right place. At Church's®, we’re not your typical quick service restaurant. We make real comfort food that makes a difference in peoples’ lives. And for over 60 years, our restaurant has been a place where hard-working people can get ahead and go on to do amazing things by serving others.

2. Church’s Chicken is an equal employment opportunity employer and makes hiring and employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information or any other factor prohibited by applicable law.