Sr Mgr, Strategy & Market Planning

The Senior Manager, Franchise Performance plays a critical role in shaping the long-term health, profitability, and growth potential of the KFC U.S. franchise system. This role leads the development of strategies to optimize the franchisee network, strengthen franchisee performance, and position the system for sustainable growth, partnering with cross-functional teams to translate strategic priorities into action. The role also provides strategic oversight of market planning, ensuring development opportunities align with broader franchise portfolio objectives.

Responsibilities

Franchise Portfolio Strategy & Optimization

• Lead the development of KFC U.S.’s long-term franchise portfolio strategy, defining the optimal franchisee network structure to support system health, profitability, and sustainable growth.
• Assess the existing franchisee landscape, including portfolio composition, geographic concentration, operator capabilities, financial health, and growth potential, to identify opportunities to strengthen the system.
• Develop a long-term portfolio optimization roadmap, identifying priority markets, franchisee portfolios, and opportunities for consolidation, ownership transitions, and introduction of new capital.
• Establish strategic frameworks and criteria to evaluate franchisee portfolio opportunities, balancing operator capabilities, financial performance, market potential, and development objectives.
• Develop recommendations for distressed or underperforming portfolios and hand off prioritized opportunities to Franchise & Development Finance for transaction assessment, structuring, and execution.
• Collaborate with Finance and Development to inform incentive structures and investment strategies that encourage franchisee growth, portfolio transformation, and new restaurant development.
• Monitor the impact of portfolio initiatives on restaurant performance, franchisee profitability, royalty generation, and long-term growth capacity to refine the strategy.

Franchisee Performance & Profitability

• Lead strategies to improve franchisee profitability, financial health, and overall system performance.
• Establish a franchisee performance management framework, including KPIs, scorecards, and analytical tools to assess operator performance and identify improvement opportunities.
• Analyze financial and operational results to identify systemic challenges, performance gaps, and opportunities to strengthen restaurant-level economics.
• Partner with Franchise Operations, Finance, and other teams to develop targeted improvement strategies for underperforming franchisees.
• Support franchisee quarterly business reviews and senior leadership engagement forums with actionable performance insights.
• Develop reporting capabilities that give leadership a clear view of franchise system health, emerging risks, and performance opportunities.

Market Planning & Growth Strategy

• Provide strategic oversight of KFC U.S. market planning, ensuring market plans align with franchise portfolio objectives and system growth priorities.
• Guide market-level identification and prioritization of white-space opportunities, trade area optimization, and existing restaurant coverage improvements.
• Partner with Development and Franchise Operations to translate market planning insights into actionable franchisee growth strategies.
• Oversee market planning tools, analytical frameworks, and external vendor relationships to ensure high-quality, data-driven recommendations.
• Support key development decisions by evaluating growth opportunities in the context of franchisee portfolio health and market potential.

Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Lead, coach, and develop team members supporting franchise portfolio strategy, performance analysis, and market planning.
• Build cross-functional alignment with Finance, Development, Franchise Operations, Legal, and other stakeholders on strategic priorities.
• Translate complex financial, operational, and market analyses into clear recommendations for senior leadership.
• Lead high-priority strategic projects from problem definition through recommendation and implementation planning.

Qualifications

Education/Certifications

• University degree in Business, Finance, Economics, or a related discipline required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.

Experience

• 7+ years of relevant experience in corporate strategy, franchise strategy, business development, management consulting, finance, or related fields.
• Experience in the multi-unit restaurant, retail, or franchise industry strongly preferred.
• Strong strategic and analytical capabilities, with experience solving complex business problems and translating insights into actionable recommendations.
• Strong financial acumen, including unit-level economics, profitability drivers, capital investment decisions, and business performance metrics.
• Experience developing and executing strategic initiatives involving multiple cross-functional stakeholders.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and influencing skills, including the ability to engage and influence senior leadership.
• Ability to independently lead complex projects, manage competing priorities, and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience leading, coaching, and developing high-performing teams.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint; experience with business intelligence and analytical tools preferred.

Salary Range: $150,840 to $159,220 annually + bonus eligibility. This is the expected salary range for this position. Ultimately, in determining pay, we'll consider the successful candidate’s location, experience, and other job-related factors.