[Hiring] Director of Franchise Operations @Smoothie King

Role Description

If you’re looking for a purpose and not just a job, join the Smoothie King team and turn your purpose into a fulfilling passion! We're not just the pioneers of the nutritional smoothie; we're the champions of inspiring people to live a healthy and active lifestyle. With over 1300 stores and counting, we’ve grown to become the largest nutritional smoothie bar in the nation, with a simple recipe for success: Hire the best people, use the best ingredients, and blend with a purpose.

At Smoothie King, we're serious about our clean ingredients and passionate about our guests' health and wellness journeys—but that doesn't mean we don't know how to have a good time. Here, you'll find work that's equal parts challenging and rewarding, all within a culture that's as amazing as our smoothies. We're committed to continuous improvement, achieving our goals, and fostering a supportive and collaborative environment where every team member can thrive.

We are currently searching for a Director of Franchise Operations to join our growing team. The Director of Franchise Operations is a key member of our leadership team, charged with providing leadership and direction to the franchise community on executing business strategic initiatives that drive brand awareness, growth, and excellence in operational initiatives within an assigned region. This role would also be responsible for providing leadership and support to our Franchise Operations team regarding Smoothie King’s systems and programs.

• Provide operational expertise and guidance to mentor and develop a team of 5-8 Operations Consultants in developing strategic plans to achieve corporate operational initiatives and ensure franchisees understand and uphold brand standards.
• Lead analysis discussions on financial and operational KPI’s (P&L, COGS, inventory management, labor productivity, etc.) within your assigned region to track and improve business performance; highlight potential opportunities and develop strategies to ensure resolution.
• Lead gap analysis strategy planning between desired and current state of expressed goals, based on business planning, knowledge of basic business operations, guest satisfaction, and marketing effectiveness; develop action plans on areas for improvement and lead through influence with your team and franchisees.
• Identify and eliminate obstacles impacting the guest experience, store performance, and profitability. Take charge of setting strategic goals and provide guidance in developing, implementing, and measuring the success of these strategies.
• Oversee the monitoring and analysis of guest surveys, feedback, review sites, and social media to identify strengths and opportunities within the territory. Spearhead the creation, implementation, and execution of action plans aimed at enhancing the overall guest experience.
• Manage and oversee the new store opening process within your designed region, ensuring operations occur with excellence and the store has been set up for success.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams such as R&D, field marketing, accounting, supply chain, training, and others to launch and achieve targeted results for operations programs and initiatives.
• Work closely with VP of Franchise Operations and Human Resources on development process to build pipeline of talent for Operations Consultants.
• Coordinate with the internal legal team and manage the default process for stores that are not upholding Smoothie King standards.
• Serve as an escalation point for your team to resolve key issues that may affect our brand, franchisees, or guests; alert Senior Management and the Legal Department of emerging issues and potential impacts to the brands and/or operations.
• Represent Smoothie King on various operations, franchise, R&D, training, or marketing committees, as needed.
• Champion the Smoothie King mission and vision for product, service, and guest satisfaction; ensure delivery and alignment among the Franchise system.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate and/or graduate degree, required.
• Ten (10) years of direct experience in a field operations-oriented leadership role within the food service industry or comparable multi-unit retail industry. Direct experience within branded franchising entity required.
• Advanced experience with P&L analysis, and inventory and operations management.
• Advanced computer experience including MS Office (Outlook, Teams, Excel, Word, PowerPoint). Familiarity with Restaurant Magic/Data Central or comparable store back office tool is required.
• Requires working under stressful conditions or working irregular hours.
• Frequent travel is required in this role (50-75%); must be able to travel via air and drive a vehicle for extended periods of time.
• Requires maintenance of a home office space. When not travelling to stores, work is conducted remotely with frequent video conferences.
• Personal passion for fitness is a plus.

Requirements

• Demonstrated ability and experience to consult with and influence business owners.
• Advanced knowledge of business operations and consultative approaches; experience guiding leaders to make better business decisions.
• Proven ability to deliver results, effectively influencing decisions through strong negotiation skills.
• Strong business acumen skills (financial review and assessment skills, use of competitive data, etc.).
• Inspirational and motivational leader who attracts best-in-class talent and has a passion for leading and inspiring a team for greatness in a remote coaching capacity.
• Portray a positive attitude under all circumstances, understand and represent the core values of Smoothie King and live the mission of inspiring people to live a healthy and active lifestyle.
• A bias towards actions – focus on getting results and do not hesitate to roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to get the job done.
• Ability to adapt behavior to others’ styles, interact with people who have different values, culture, or backgrounds, be of service to difficult people, optimize the benefits of having a diverse workforce, develop rapport with others and recognize their concerns and feelings to build and maintain long-term associations based on trust.
• Lead by example in all areas with enthusiastic dedication, professionalism, and positive leadership.
• Promote the culture, values, and mission of Smoothie King.

Benefits

• Join our team and enjoy an unusually fun work environment with an upbeat atmosphere and great team members.
• Great benefits package, free smoothies, flexible work schedules, office lunches and parties, monthly fitness challenges, free gym access, and more fun activities to make Smoothie King a happy and healthy place to work.