Program Manager, Value & Digital Enterprise

KFC•Irvine, CA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Program Manager, Value & Digital Enterprise is a strategic leadership role within Taco Bell’s Enterprise Operations & Program Management team. This role leads the integrated Value, Digital Integration, and Loyalty portfolios, translating business strategy into coordinated cross-functional plans that deliver current-year commitments while building the future pipeline. The Program Manager provides senior program leadership across multiple interconnected portfolios, leading through ambiguity, aligning priorities across functions, surfacing risks and trade-offs early, and ensuring leaders have the visibility and recommendations required to make timely decisions. The role partners closely with category and enterprise Team Leads and works across Marketing, Digital & Technology, Product, FIT, Operations, Finance, Insights, and other cross-functional teams to connect strategy, planning, and execution through Taco Bell’s 3Ds Enterprise System. This role also leads and develops two L8 Associate Program Managers, allocating program-management capacity based on business complexity, risk, and priority while building a high-performing program-management capability. Success requires a leader who can operate at both Speed 1, delivering today’s commitments, and Speed 2, planning and enabling tomorrow’s growth.

Requirements

7–10+ years of progressive program/project management, business operations, marketing operations, digital, loyalty, or comparable cross-functional leadership experience.
BA/BS degree or equivalent relevant experience.
Demonstrated experience leading multiple complex programs or portfolios with significant cross-functional dependencies and executive visibility.
People leadership experience, including coaching, delegation, performance management, and development of program/project management talent.
Strong program-management expertise across integrated planning, risk management, governance, prioritization, issue resolution, and executive communication.
Experience with Monday.com and other portfolio management solutions.
Demonstrated ability to influence decisions, resolve ambiguity, and drive alignment across senior cross-functional stakeholders.
Strong business acumen and ability to connect program decisions to customer, operational, financial, and strategic outcomes.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to synthesize complex information into clear decisions and recommendations.
Experience within Marketing, Digital, Loyalty, consumer products, QSR, restaurant, retail, or similarly complex matrixed environments.
Experience with enterprise operating models, portfolio management, change management, or organizational effectiveness methodologies.
Experience leading work through stage-gate, product-development, test-and-learn, commercialization, or national launch processes.

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree a plus.

Responsibilities

Partner with the Value Team Lead to translate Value strategy into an integrated current- and future-year roadmap across testing, national launches, and pipeline development.
Lead program management across the Value portfolio, connecting initiatives through Discover, Design, and Deploy and ensuring cross-functional readiness for key business milestones.
Identify sequencing, resource, timing, and cross-functional dependencies early; develop scenarios and recommended paths when priorities, scope, or capacity conflict.
Provide leadership visibility into portfolio health, critical milestones, decisions, risks, and readiness, ensuring issues are surfaced at the right time and level.
Lead integrated planning across Digital Integration and Loyalty, connecting initiatives to the broader Marketing calendar, enterprise priorities, and enabling technology and operational roadmaps.
Align business objectives and cross-functional roadmaps across Marketing, Digital & Technology, Operations, FIT, Finance, Product, and other partners to ensure coordinated delivery.
Anticipate enterprise dependencies and readiness risks that could impact customer experience, launch timing, or business outcomes and establish mitigation plans before issues become execution barriers.
Create clear governance and leadership visibility for complex initiatives requiring sustained cross-functional coordination and decision support.
Set the program-management approach, governance, and operating rhythm across the assigned portfolio, ensuring consistency in planning, risk management, escalation, and decision-making.
Recommend sequencing, resource, timeline, and scope trade-offs to Team Leads and senior leadership based on business impact, risk, dependencies, and capacity.
Determine which issues should be resolved within the working team versus escalated to enterprise leadership, bringing forward clear recommendations and decision options.
Use portfolio insights to identify recurring risks, bottlenecks, or capacity constraints and partner with Enterprise Operations and Portfolio Management to improve how the work is planned and governed.
Lead, coach, and develop two L8 Associate Program Managers, establishing clear ownership, performance expectations, and development priorities.
Allocate program-management capacity across the portfolio based on complexity, risk, business priority, and developmental opportunity.
Review program and portfolio health across direct reports, redirecting resources and escalating trade-offs when capacity or complexity exceeds the support model.
Build strategic program-management capability across the team by strengthening judgment, executive communication, enterprise thinking, risk management, and influence without authority.
Serve as a strategic thought partner to Value, Digital Integration, and Loyalty leaders, helping translate strategy into executable plans and surfacing decisions needed to maintain momentum.
Lead high-stakes cross-functional discussions where ambiguity, competing priorities, or dependencies require alignment across teams and functions.
Create concise, decision-oriented leadership communications that provide a clear view of portfolio health, risks, trade-offs, and recommended actions.
Champion Taco Bell’s enterprise ways of working and 3Ds disciplines within the portfolio while partnering with Enterprise Operations on broader process and operating-model improvements.

Benefits

Hybrid work schedule (onsite expectation Tues, Wed, Thurs) and year-round flex day Friday
Onsite childcare through Bright Horizons
Onsite dining center and game room (yes, there is a Taco Bell inside the building)
Onsite dry cleaning, laundry services, and carwash
Onsite gym with fitness classes and personal trainer sessions
Up to 4 weeks of vacation per year plus holidays and time off for volunteering
Generous parental leave for all new parents and adoption assistance program
401(k) with a 6% matching contribution from Yum! Brands with immediate vesting
Comprehensive medical & dental including prescription drug benefits and 100% preventive care
Discounts, free food, swag