Senior Director, Technology PMO

Church's Chicken•Atlanta, GA

About The Position

The Senior Director, Technology PMO provides strategic leadership and executive governance for the Technology Program Management Office, establishing how the IT organization prioritizes, resources, and delivers programs and projects across restaurant operations, infrastructure, and enterprise back-office portfolios. This is a hands-on player-coach position: the Senior Director personally plans and delivers the organization’s largest, most complex, and most critical initiatives while setting strategy and governance for the broader portfolio. The role includes autonomous authority to make portfolio, risk-tolerance, approval, and resourcing decisions on behalf of the CTO. As the organization’s senior-most PMO leader and primary interface between Technology and the business, the Senior Director builds relationships with senior executives and franchise leaders, represents the technology portfolio to executive leadership and the Board when called upon, and translates portfolio performance, risks, and investment trade-offs into decision-ready narratives. The role also mentors project and program managers, including outside the direct reporting line, and leads a team of PM professionals, including Senior Managers. The position reports to the SVP, Chief Technology Officer. Travel is up to 20%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Business, Hospitality Management, or a related field.
10+ years of combined restaurant business and technology experience, including significant executive- or senior-leadership experience in QSR or multi-unit retail/restaurant operations.
Demonstrated ability to independently set technology portfolio strategy and make high-stakes enterprise-wide resourcing and prioritization decisions.
Hands-on experience personally planning and leading large, complex, or high-risk technology programs and projects, in addition to portfolio-level strategic leadership.
Strong project-planning skills and experience conducting structured alternatives analysis, including build-versus-buy, vendor and solution options, sequencing, and resourcing trade-offs.
Experience and interest in mentoring and developing project and program managers in planning, estimation, risk management, alternatives analysis, and delivery execution, including beyond direct reports.
Experience building trusted relationships with C-suite executives and franchise leaders, and preparing and presenting to a Board of Directors or equivalent governing body when needed.
Deep fluency in waterfall and agile delivery methodologies, with the judgment to set organization-wide methodology and governance standards.
Extensive experience diagnosing and resolving enterprise-level program risk and making recovery and resourcing decisions under pressure.
Experience providing portfolio-level visibility across a large, complex program portfolio using Monday.com, Smartsheet, or equivalent enterprise PPM platforms, and delivering executive- and board-level status presentations.
Experience negotiating and governing vendor and strategic partner relationships at an executive level.
PMP certification or equivalent is required.

Nice To Haves

MBA or another advanced degree.
Direct experience in or extensive exposure to franchise business models and franchisee relationship dynamics.
Agile/Scrum certification such as CSM, SAFe, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

Personally plan and lead delivery of the organization’s largest, most complex, and most critical technology programs and projects, owning plans, schedules, scope, budgets, and stakeholder outcomes.
Conduct structured alternatives analysis for major initiatives, including build-versus-buy decisions, vendor and solution options, sequencing, and resourcing trade-offs.
Coach and mentor project and program managers in planning, estimation, risk management, alternatives analysis, and delivery execution, including employees outside the direct reporting line.
Set the strategic direction and executive governance of the technology PMO, including portfolio priorities, decision rights, risk-tolerance frameworks, and project approval and resourcing decisions on behalf of the CTO.
Build and manage executive-level relationships with franchise leaders and business-unit executives; represent Technology’s delivery commitments, negotiate priorities, and resolve conflicts.
Prepare and deliver decision-ready presentations to the Board of Directors and executive leadership on portfolio performance, risks, and investment trade-offs when called upon.
Act as the final escalation point for troubled or at-risk programs, determining recovery strategy, resourcing, and go/no-go decisions, and engaging senior stakeholders when needed.
Define and evolve enterprise PMO standards, governance frameworks, planning methodologies, and portfolio intake and prioritization models across waterfall and agile environments.
Partner with Operations, Finance, Marketing, Franchise, and Supply Chain executive leadership to shape cross-functional alignment on major initiatives.
Oversee vendor and strategic partner governance, including contract strategy input, executive relationship management, performance escalations, and remediation decisions.
Sponsor and govern enterprise-wide change management and technology adoption initiatives, securing executive and franchise buy-in and organizational readiness.
Lead and develop the PMO team, including Senior Managers, and make decisions about team structure, staffing, development investment, succession depth, and bench strength.