VP, Information Technology

POSITION SUMMARY:

Reporting to the CFO, the Vice President of Information Technology will be a critical leader on the Checkers & Rally's leadership team to ensure the practical and innovative application of technology to enable and support business strategies.  The role is responsible for driving the company's short-term strategies to deliver quick wins and gain alignment.  This individual will partner with operations, marketing and other business leaders to create the long-term strategic vision for the brand comprised on business process re-engineering, technical architecture, and integrated digital platforms to accelerate brand growth.  This leader will be responsible for all corporate, franchise, restaurant, and digital technology systems with prior experience building and leading a growing technology organization, strategic vendor partnerships, internal alignment, and best practices across the business and technical platforms.  They need a strong background in strategic planning, organizational development, and leading a multi-unit restaurant/hospitality/retail organization through a digital transformation.  Data architecture and experience improving data connectivity/organization and streamlining data is a must.  

POSITION ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Provide focused, business-minded IT leadership, strategic planning and organizational development, emphasizing a measurable contribution to business success and performance metrics (revenue growth, profitability, market share, customer service, margin improvements). Expertise with IT planning and budget management is required.
• Lead the technology architecture to ensure security and scalability as well as full integration across the technology stack to create an automated framework that ensures data integrity, bullet-proof ordering, accurate and reliable reporting, and system availability. 
• Responsible for enterprise platforms (ERP, BI, reporting, networks), operating platforms (POS, KDS, Back Office), digital platforms (website, online / mobile ordering, integrations to POS, Customer Data Platform (CDP)), security compliance (PCI), and both capital budgets and G&A expense budgets.
• Oversee the deployment of company-wide technology standards spanning both applications and infrastructure and ensure compliance with company policies and standards aimed at maximizing effectiveness and minimizing costs related to the acquisition, implementation and operation of IT systems.
• Oversee the company’s network infrastructure and provide security, regulatory compliance and provision for disaster recovery. Maintain security of all data and information proprietary to the company as well as confidential to customers and employees and provide for the backup of all computer systems in case of system failure or disaster as well as automatic failover for operations revenue generating systems.
• Evaluate, select, and implement new technology (hardware, software and services) needed to support the company, adopt restaurant industry standard best-in-class strategies, and position the brand for growth.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes including menu, price, and recipe changes that impact the POS and all integrated systems, upgrades to existing technology, and rollout of new solutions to create a culture of process-oriented change management. 
• Partner with leadership team to identify opportunities to increase revenue, control costs, and improve restaurant operating margins through tighter system integrations, real-time visibility to performance metrics by ops and business leaders, tools to communicate and course correct timely, and consistent reliable data and reporting across all platforms.
• Participate and lead in the development of corporate strategies, translation of the corporate strategy into a technology vision, and clearly communicate the vision to executives, business leaders, and teams.
• Responsible for technical operations, direction and execution of strategic technology initiatives, and financial planning and management of those operations and activities.
• Talent management should be a core competency including the proven ability to recruit and develop talent, set expectations and manage performance, and set the training agenda for the technology team.
• Must lead with integrity and be able to build partnerships throughout the organization.  
• Proven success as a change agent and passionate champion that has led technology and business transformations.
• Proven success implementing SaaS (software as a service), PaaS (platform as a service), out-of-the-box technology solutions with speed to market, low internal overhead, and best-of-breed solutions as the preferred strategy with internal hosting and custom development where it adds strategic advantage.
• Experience overseeing and improving database management.

SECONDARY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Participates in a wide variety of project-related activities and initiatives.
• Serves on cross-functional projects and teams as needed.

EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Advanced business degree a plus.

Experience

• 15 years in a technology leadership role required with at least 5 years in multi-unit restaurant, hospitality or retail businesses.
• Significant recent relevant digital technology experience.
• Strong process reengineering experience.
• Prior management of mission-critical vendor relationships.
• Responsibility for building, managing, and championing the ROI of a technology budget.
• Proven success leading and developing IT teams and building strong vendor partnerships.
• Proven success building relationships and alignment with executives, leaders, peers, and IT teams.
• Prior experience planning and executing successful strategic initiatives.

Essential Physical Requirements

• Individual must live in the Tampa area and is required to be in the Restaurant Support Center 3 days per week, at a minimum.
• Ability to read, analyze and interpret written information such as procedure manuals, Company communications or governmental regulations.
• Ability to Travel may be required to attend off-site training, meetings and seminars.
• Ability to sit for prolonged periods in one location which may be restricted to the employee’s workstation.
• Ability to lift and/or move up to 20 pounds

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

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