Senior Director, Growth Innovation

Wingstop•Dallas, TX

16h•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Director, Growth Innovation is responsible for defining and leading Wingstop's innovation strategy to drive sustainable, profitable growth while strengthening the brand's relevance with consumers. This role oversees a diversified portfolio of growth initiatives spanning menu innovation, national value strategy, guest occasions, packaging, and experience innovation, ensuring Wingstop continues to evolve in ways that are culturally relevant, operationally executable, financially impactful, and true to the brand. As the leader of Wingstop's growth innovation capability, this role will build and operate a high-performing innovation engine that transforms consumer insights, cultural trends, and business opportunities into scalable growth platforms. Working cross-functionally across Brand, Culinary, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Analytics, the Senior Director will establish the processes, governance, and strategic roadmap that accelerate innovation from idea to commercialization. Success in this role requires balancing long-term strategic thinking with disciplined execution—building a healthy pipeline of innovations that drive measurable business results, strengthen brand relevance, deepen guest engagement, and reinforce Wingstop's competitive advantage.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Innovation, or a related field required
12+ years of experience in marketing, brand strategy, innovation, or related fields
Experience within QSR, restaurant, retail, or consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries strongly preferred
Demonstrated track record of leading end-to-end initiatives—from insight generation through execution and scaling
Strong experience with marketing analytics and insights platforms (e.g., Tableau, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics)
Experience with test-and-learn frameworks, A/B testing tools, and experimentation platforms
Familiarity with CRM and digital marketing ecosystems (e.g., Braze, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, paid media platforms)
Comfort working with consumer research tools and methodologies (qualitative and quantitative)
Proficiency in Microsoft Office and presentation tools (PowerPoint) to synthesize and communicate ideas clearly
Strong strategic thinking with the ability to connect consumer insights to business outcomes
Highly collaborative with proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority
Excellent storytelling and communication skills—able to sell ideas and bring stakeholders along the journey
Comfortable operating in ambiguity and leading through change in a fast-paced environment
High level of curiosity, creativity, and willingness to challenge the status quo
Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree strongly preferred, especially with a focus on strategy, innovation, or consumer insights
Certifications in Design Thinking, Agile Marketing, or Innovation methodologies (e.g., IDEO, Scrum, Lean Startup)

Responsibilities

Develop and lead Wingstop's enterprise growth innovation strategy aligned to long-term business objectives.
Own a balanced innovation portfolio across menu, flavors, national value, guest occasions, packaging, and experience innovation.
Identify future growth opportunities through consumer insights, market trends, competitive intelligence, and cultural signals.
Prioritize investments across short-term wins, mid-term growth initiatives, and long-term innovation platforms.
Own the end-to-end innovation pipeline from opportunity identification through testing, commercialization, national launch, and post-launch optimization.
Establish a repeatable innovation operating model that enables speed, disciplined decision making, and cross-functional alignment.
Ensure every initiative has a clear business case, revenue hypothesis, and defined success metrics tied to traffic, sales, margin, and guest engagement.
Lead a structured test-and-learn agenda across products, value architecture, guest occasions, packaging, and experience innovations.
Define clear success criteria and decision frameworks to scale, iterate, or discontinue initiatives.
Translate insights into action by rapidly iterating based on guest feedback, operational feasibility, and business performance.
Partner across Brand Marketing, Partnerships, Culinary, Operations, Supply Chain, Digital, Finance, Consumer Insights, and Analytics to deliver innovation initiatives successfully.
Balance consumer desirability with operational feasibility and franchise profitability.
Influence senior leadership and build alignment around innovation priorities and investment decisions.
Measure innovation performance through portfolio scorecards and post-launch evaluations.
Optimize the innovation portfolio based on financial performance, guest adoption, operational execution, and strategic impact.
Continuously improve innovation processes, governance, and capabilities to strengthen Wingstop's long-term growth engine.
Build and develop a high-performing innovation team that fosters curiosity, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Champion a culture of consumer-centric thinking, disciplined experimentation, and data-driven decision making across the organization.

Benefits

Unlimited paid time off for exempt employees
One paid volunteer day of your choice
Competitive bonus structure for eligible roles
Team member stock purchase plan
Health savings or flexible spending account options
401k – (dollar for dollar on the first 3% and then 50 cents on the dollar for the next 2% for team member contributions up to 5% of eligible compensation)
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits
Basic life and AD&D insurance provided
Pet insurance
Education Assistance
Wellness reimbursement program
Paid maternity and paternity leave
Lunch provided every Tuesday and Thursday in office
Discount on Wingstop gift cards
Onsite game room