Sr. Director, Innovation

The Subway HR Team•Miami, FL

About The Position

The Senior Director, Innovation owns Subway’s innovation strategy and pipeline from ideation through commercialization. This role defines what Subway innovates, how ideas move through the system, and when they reach the market. Responsibilities include leading the stage-gate process, the ideation framework, and owning category strategy across sandwiches, sides and snacks, non-sandwich platforms, and value. Reporting to the SVP of Marketing, this position partners closely with Culinary, Consumer Insights, Operations, and Supply Chain to ensure innovation is consumer-led, operationally viable, and commercially sound.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree required (Marketing, Business, Food Science, or related field preferred). MBA strongly preferred.
10–15+ years of experience in innovation, product strategy, or category management within QSR, fast-casual, CPG, or food and beverage.
Demonstrated experience building and managing stage-gate or equivalent innovation pipeline processes.
Track record of commercializing new products that delivered measurable results in revenue, traffic, or market share.
Experience leading cross-functional teams across Culinary, Marketing, Operations, and Supply Chain in a matrixed environment.
Prior people leadership experience, including building and developing teams.
Strong strategic and systems thinking, with the ability to build innovation frameworks that connect consumer insights, category priorities, and business objectives.
Deep experience in category management, with an understanding of how to define category roles, assess portfolio health, and prioritize innovation investments.
Analytical rigor with the ability to evaluate pipeline performance, stage-gate metrics, and commercialization outcomes.
Excellent executive communication and storytelling skills, with experience influencing senior leadership decisions on innovation direction and resource allocation.
Strong project and process management capabilities, with experience standing up and operating structured innovation pipelines.
Working knowledge of QSR or restaurant operations, franchisee dynamics, and the constraints of executing innovation at scale.
Collaborative leadership style with the ability to drive alignment across functions without direct authority over all contributing teams.

Responsibilities

Develop and own Subway’s innovation strategy, defining the multi-year pipeline across menu categories: sandwiches, sides and snacks, non-sandwich platforms, and value.
Lead the ideation process end-to-end, building a structured framework for sourcing, screening, and prioritizing new product ideas from internal teams, consumer insights, trend data, and competitive intelligence.
Own and manage the stage-gate process, establishing clear criteria, tollgates, and decision points that govern how concepts move from idea through development, validation, and national launch.
Drive category management across menu platforms, defining the strategic role of each category, identifying growth opportunities, and setting innovation priorities based on consumer demand, competitive gaps, and business performance.
Lead the commercialization process, ensuring new products are fully developed, operationally validated, and positioned for successful integration into the marketing calendar and restaurant operations.
Partner with Culinary Innovation to align innovation strategy with product development capabilities, ensuring concepts are feasible and meet quality, cost, and complexity targets.
Collaborate with Consumer Insights to ground the innovation pipeline in research, identifying unmet consumer needs, testing concepts, and validating demand before committing development resources.
Work with Operations and Supply Chain to assess execution readiness, restaurant-level impact, and scalability for all innovation moving through the pipeline.
Monitor innovation trends across QSR, fast-casual, and adjacent food categories to identify whitespace and inform Subway’s competitive positioning.
Build and lead a high-performing innovation function, setting the operating rhythm, tools, and processes needed to consistently deliver a strong innovation pipeline.