Director, Menu Strategy & Innovation

KFC•Woking, TX

About The Position

The Global Director, Menu Strategy & Innovation defines KFC’s global menu direction, portfolio priorities, and innovation roadmap to support growth across consumer occasions and markets. The role translates strategy into clear points of view, consumer-facing concepts, and innovation priorities, while connecting market learning and limited-time offers (LTOs) to future core menu development. It acts as a strategist and system connector, clarifying where to play, what success looks like, and how the global system can learn and scale faster, without replacing market ownership or Culinary Development. The role owns and evolves the global Menu Vision and long-term roadmap; defines portfolio and platform architecture; leads consumer-facing concepts for global propositions; and partners with Insights, Culinary Development, Retail, markets, and other functions to validate and develop opportunities. It guides global food innovation and LTO strategy, establishes pipeline governance, synthesizes market learning into global guidance, and develops strategic partnerships. It also leads the Menu Strategy & Innovation team and influences senior global and market stakeholders.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; Business, Marketing, Strategy, Innovation, or a related discipline preferred.
10+ years of experience across strategy, innovation, category management, menu innovation, or adjacent consumer-led growth roles within QSR, foodservice, FMCG, or scaled consumer brands.
Demonstrated ability to turn ambiguous consumer, market, and commercial inputs into clear business, portfolio, and innovation choices.
Strong experience translating consumer insight into compelling concepts, strategic platforms, and actionable innovation briefs.
Proven ability to manage an innovation portfolio across different time horizons, balancing near-term commercial opportunities with longer-term platform development.
Strong understanding of the innovation cycle from strategy and concept through validation, product development, market testing, and scale.
Proven ability to identify strategic learning from market tests and determine whether ideas should scale, adapt, or remain locally relevant.
Strong experience working across global, regional, and market organizations, balancing global consistency and local relevance.
Commercially astute, with a strong understanding of how menu choices drive transactions, frequency, mix, margin, and brand relevance.
Highly effective communicator with the presence to influence senior stakeholders, challenge constructively, and simplify complex strategic questions into clear choices.
Strong people leadership and collaboration skills, with demonstrated ability to mobilize cross-functional teams in a matrixed environment.
Curious, action-oriented, and deeply interested in consumers, food culture, category evolution, and emerging growth opportunities.
Able to handle confidential information with discretion.
Highly proficient in Microsoft Word, Teams, and PowerPoint.

Responsibilities

Own and continuously evolve KFC’s global Menu Vision and long-term menu roadmap, connecting brand strategy, Category Use Occasions, and business growth priorities.
Define KFC’s strategic point of view across priority menu layers, including Burgers, Flavor, and Modern Sharing.
Define portfolio and platform architecture, clarifying the roles of core, value, premium, LTO, and global menu platforms within the broader portfolio.
Identify future growth opportunities and translate them into choices and priorities for the global system.
Partner with the Kwench Platform Director to connect beverage strategy and growth plans to the broader Menu Vision and occasion strategy.
Lead development of consumer-facing menu concepts for Global-led propositions, defining consumer need, strategic role, food proposition, distinctive KFC expression, and intended business outcome.
Create concept briefs that enable Culinary Development, Insights, Retail, and markets to develop priority opportunities.
Partner with Insights to validate concepts before significant development or market investment, using approaches suited to speed and learning.
Partner with Culinary Development to translate concepts into food and beverage prototypes while maintaining clear ownership of concept strategy versus product and recipe development.
Act as a senior strategic partner to BMUs and markets as they translate the Menu Vision into local priorities, roadmaps, and business use cases.
Identify successful market innovation, understand its drivers, and assess its potential beyond the originating market.
Synthesize market best practice and consumer learning into global points of view, frameworks, and guidance.
Define efficient approaches for concept validation across markets and determine what should scale globally, adapt regionally, be further validated, or remain local.
Establish feedback loops among Global, lead markets, and the wider FIT community so market learning informs future menu choices.
Own the strategic direction of the global food innovation and LTO pipeline, connecting activity to Menu Vision priorities and future growth platforms.
Ensure upstream food innovation decisions behind LTOs—including concept, consumer proposition, strategic role, and connection to future platforms—are defined before commercialization.
Use LTOs to generate learning for future core menu development and create a pathway from LTO to core menu.
Partner with Retail on offer architecture, pricing, calendar integration, promotional mechanics, and commercial performance while Food Innovation leads the food proposition and learning agenda.
Establish pipeline governance, prioritization, and decision-making across global initiatives and market opportunities.
Build strategic relationships with insight partners, agencies, and external innovators to strengthen access to emerging consumer, category, and innovation thinking.
Create strategic briefs for partners and, with Culinary Development, suppliers, grounded in KFC opportunities and Menu Vision priorities.
Connect Menu Strategy with Culinary Development, Core Food Excellence, Kwench, Retail, Brand, Insights, Operations, and Supply Chain so strategic ideas can become viable solutions.
Lead and develop the Menu Strategy & Innovation team, establishing accountability across strategy, market engagement, concept development, and innovation pipeline management.
Influence senior global and market stakeholders through clear points of view, strategic storytelling, and fact-based recommendations.