Senior Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection

Overview

The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection is responsible for making franchisee selections for Chick-fil-A Restaurant franchise opportunities while honoring Truett Cathy’s legacy. The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection discerns if the candidate is prepared to lead a world class profitable restaurant according to the values and purpose of CFA, deliver Remarkable guest experiences, and positively influence others.

The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection is responsible for an average of 25 selections of New Operator candidates and the selection of Relocating and Multi-Restaurant Operators that generate and average of $250M in sales each year.

The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection leads and/or co-leads the selection process for a specified region and partners with Field Operations Region leaders to make all selection recommendations. They also lead the communication strategy and initiatives to senior leaders and the Operator Selection team.

The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection is an active member of an Area Support Team, a regional team, and a Regional Leadership team to help think strategically about the current and future impact of selection decisions. They have strong partnership and influences decision making with the Field Operations Region Team Directors and/or Regional Leaders.

The Sr. Principal Operations Lead/Franchisee Selection has market insights that allows for a strong understanding of how decisions and selections impact the overall business and shares this insight with Regional Leadership. The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection is often sought after for knowledge beyond selections.

The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection represents the Franchisee Selection team as a subject matter expert/liaison with cross functional teams (formal, informal, working team, project team) throughout the organization.

The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection perspective is considered crucial when stakeholders are making decisions. The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection is experienced in selection and business challenges and partners with leaders across the organization to offer solutions based on knowledge and experience.

The Sr. Principal Lead, Franchisee Selection brings a partnership mindset to the Operator Selection Team, developing relationships, rapport, and trust. They play and active role on the team to influence department and team initiatives. He/she partners with Operator Selection leadership to influence strategy and direction for the department.

Our Flexible Future model offers a healthy mix of working in person and virtually, strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community. 

Responsibilities

Selection Process Lead

• Utilizes parameters of organizational processes, systems, and policies to influence and make decisions
• Creates an effective workflow that coordinates tasks and functions within a selection timeline toselect the best Operator for each Restaurant
• Consistently monitors and evaluates selection process and implements changes as needed
• Drives and contributes to initiatives and processes within CFA and Operator Selection• Develops solutions to overcome potential obstacles to successful implementation of initiatives
• Leads the team (functional & regional) through challenges with adaptability, resilience and expertise while encouraging healthy tension
• Exhibits transformational leadership by identifying the needed change, creating a vision, and executing the change in tandem with committed members.
• Gets results by crystalizing the goal and vision and aligning members
• Develops contingency plans to deal with unexpected situations in the selection process
• Conducts benchmarking and best practices to support continuous improvement
• Recognizes emerging patterns, makes connections among data and issues, and appropriately reacts
• Communicates strategy and initiatives to senior leaders and staff

Regional Selection Influencer

• Has a strong understanding of Regional strategic needs and how they can provide support and add value
• Is fully prepared and participates in all Region meetings and provides input on selection and business topics
• Understands all organizational, Region initiatives, and roll outs and attends appropriate training to ensure understanding and knowledge of subjects
• Proactively analyzes specific selection and business challenges and offers solutions based on best practice and business knowledge
• Has market insights that allows for a strong understanding of how decisions and selections impact the overall business
• Is engaged in and sought out for knowledge beyond selections
• Partners with and influences decision making with Field Ops Regions Team Directors
• Lead special teams, projects, and task forces that have Selection/Region implications
• Helps Regional leadership think strategically about the current and future impact of selections on an assigned market/team

CFA Knowledge and Restaurant Acumen

• Has a deep understanding of Operator selection strategies, CFA business framework and CFA strategies
• Identifies and protects the confidentiality of the Franchisee Disclosure Document, Deal Package, Candidate pools, etc.
• Assess Restaurants based on Quality and In-Restaurant Experiences
• Has strong CFA Restaurant acumen and understanding the CFA business model to make Multi-Restaurant and Relocation Decisions
• Understands how the Operator selection process relates to the ever-changing QSR industry andcandidate pools

Overall understanding of the business in addition to the deep expertise in selections

• Identifies and assesses the risks, opportunities, and threats of business initiatives and influence actions with stakeholders
• Identifies the alignment/necessary partnership with Real Estate timing of construction start dates and Opening dates to drive timeliness and decision making
• Influences interdependence on stakeholders for selection work and decision making
• Understands the strategic relationships between effective Operator selections and core business Functions

Operator Selection Partnership

• Responsible for leading a project or team liaison role
• Consults to stakeholders, candidates, and staff to provide guidance and insights to the overall selection process
• Fosters effective team building and builds consensus among stakeholder by establishing credibility and trust
• Demonstrates approachability and openness to opinions and ideas
• Initiates and sustains transparency, calibration, and collaboration
• Generates and executes specific departmental and process changes to support selection objectives
• Sets clear expectations and provides constructive feedback effectively with franchisee candidates and CFA stakeholders
• Courageously and appropriately challenges concerns about Operator selections
• Influences and negotiates with leaders to reach the best possible outcome
• Perspective is considered crucial when Operator Selection Leadership is making decisions
• Proactively analyzes specific selection and business challenges and offers solutions based on best practice and business knowledge to include data and analytics.
• Serves as a peer coach or expert without formal people leadership responsibility.

Interviewing and Selection

• Evaluates current Franchisees by in-restaurant visits for MR and Relocations documents by thoroughly by completing the Candidate Framework
• Prepares for interviews by reviewing previous interview notes while aligning future interview questions to the Operator competency model
• Influences partners on casting a wide net of candidates for each location while understanding the unique aspects of the community and/or concept type
• Conducts focused interviews and responsible for lead candidate recommendation for New Operator candidates to select the best Operator for each Restaurant
• Understands and discerns the unique profile and attributes of the Operator make selection decisions
• Takes additional steps and initiative to connect with Regional Operations Leads, SME's, Real Estate or others to make the best decision
• Responsibly takes calculated risks on candidates and decisions for the future organizational benefit
• Proactively engages in development opportunities to hone interview skills and bias identification
• Researches and understands the unique dynamics of specific Restaurant opportunities for an assigned market prior to Restaurant activation for selection
• Balances intuition and fact-based knowledge
• Fully understands and can articulate the "why" behind both good and bad decisions and applies learnings to current and future decisions

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree or the equivalent combination of education, training and experience from which comparable skills can be acquired
• 8 years professional business environment
• Significant experience selecting business leaders
• Proven track-record and passion for identifying talent and strengths in others
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
• Strong communication (verbal and written) skills
• Adaptability and flexibility
• Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information in appropriate manner
• Foundational business acumen
• Ability to build relationships and communicate effectively to positively influence
• Strong emotional intelligence
• Ability to balance multiple, sometimes conflicting stakeholder interests
• Ability to distill complex, disparate data into actionable insights

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree

Minimum Years of Experience

Travel Requirements

Required Level of Education

Preferred Level of Education