Chief Marketing Officer

Denny's•Spartanburg, SC

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Help Lead the Next Chapter of America’s Diner. For generations, Denny’s has been part of American culture. But iconic brands don’t stay relevant by standing still. At Denny’s, we are building what’s next—and we are searching for a bold, strategic, growth-minded Chief Marketing Officer to help lead that transformation. This is not a campaign management role. This is a business leadership role for an executive who knows how to turn brand equity into guest traffic, consumer connection, franchise confidence, and measurable growth. Reporting directly to the CEO and serving on the Denny’s Inc. Leadership Team, the CMO will lead enterprise marketing strategy across brand, digital, media, loyalty, consumer insights, menu commercialization, and franchise marketing.

Requirements

Significant senior marketing leadership experience
Deep experience in franchised, multi-unit restaurant, hospitality, or consumer-facing brands
Proven success driving traffic, guest frequency, brand relevance, and profitable growth
Strong expertise across brand, digital, loyalty, CRM, media, analytics, and franchise marketing
The executive presence to influence CEOs, boards, franchise owners, operators, and cross-functional leadership teams

Responsibilities

Lead the marketing strategy for Denny's with accountability for brand relevance, profitable guest traffic, frequency, marketing effectiveness, and franchisee confidence.
Partner with executive leadership to ensure marketing directly supports enterprise growth priorities and restaurant-level performance.
Strengthen Denny’s position as America’s Diner while building greater relevance with today’s guests.
Own media, digital, loyalty, CRM, guest insights, social, creative, partnerships, and guest-facing communications to drive traffic, engagement, and long-term brand value.
Partner cross-functionally with Product Development, Operations, Finance, and franchise leadership to build a commercial calendar that creates compelling reasons for guests to visit and return.
Ensure menu innovation, promotional strategy, and value positioning support both guest demand and franchisee economics.
Lead marketing in a fully franchised environment by building trust with owners, strengthening local market activation, and ensuring marketing initiatives are operationally executable across the system.
Translate enterprise strategy into clear field-ready action.
Advance CRM, loyalty, digital engagement, first-party data, and performance analytics.
Establish KPIs tied to guest acquisition, retention, traffic, sales, and return on marketing investment.
Lead a high-performing marketing organization.
Assess agency partnerships, operating rhythm, and capabilities to ensure Marketing is positioned to deliver measurable business impact.