Sr Manager, Culinary R&D Innovation

Job Summary

The Culinary R&D Innovation Sr. Manager is responsible for overseeing all culinary operations in the region, menu development with a primary focus on leading the development of all new product offerings for Papa Johns in LatAm and Canadian markets. Collaborating with the International Culinary R&D team, and regional leaders, the role will play a pivotal role in shaping the culinary direction of the company, ensuring that our food not only tastes great but also resonates with our target audience and market trends. The role will require a collaborative and “hands-on” leader that will inspire trust in others and will be a consensus builder with internal and external partners to accelerate growth quickly. As steward of the Brand internationally, this role is responsible for building brand equity and adoption of the brand, ensuring we achieve our short-term and long-term business objectives.

Duties and Responsibilities

Menu Development & Culinary Strategy

• Regional lead for Papa Johns international markets culinary innovation strategy, processes, and food standards, strategically directing the development of Papa Johns product portfolio.
• Establishes and drives new product development through an innovation stage gate process, and crafts a meaningful product pipeline.
• Offers revisions to existing menu products and ensures quality strategically aligns with the brand’s “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” positioning and responsible for customizing products for regional, cultural, and company needs.
• Leads the creation of regional menu items – designed to capture market culinary trends, consumer preferences, and dietary demands – that are operationally easy to roll out and execute at the restaurant level and drives comparable sales growth.
• Utilizes a background of technical expertise in food science, as well as a network of current and prospective regional suppliers, to provide recommendations on product development and keep others informed on business opportunities and issues.

Demand, Profitability, and Sell-in Strategies

• Drives menu insights and culinary trends to recommend launch plans in concert with marketing and commercial teams with honest and valuable interaction.

• Maximizes profitability of product offerings – strategically considering implications of new products on all business entities including operational execution and costs.

• Helps to support annual strategic planning, creating franchisee sell-in strategies and generating consumer traffic to restaurants by possessing an expert understanding of the LatAm region/market dynamics, consumers, and the franchisees’ business.
• Contributes culinary expertise to marketing campaigns, including food photography, videos, and social media content.
• Conducts extensive market research and gathers customer feedback to identify opportunities for innovation and demand generation.

Leadership & Cross-functional Collaboration

• Works cross-functionally with Marketing, Restaurant Operations, Supply Chain Management and Franchisees to align culinary initiatives.
• Participates in planning and budgeting processes and key liaison and technical expert with suppliers.

Execute Effectively & Optimize

• Seamlessly implement culinary plans and ensure adherence to international, national and local laws and guidelines.
• Monitor performance measurements to ensure the brand is tracking against goals; recommend and implement corrective actions.
• Assist in concept and product development, including quantitative concept screeners and consumer taste tests, qualitative focus groups and operations/market tests.
• Create best practices and case studies from proven growth drivers and programs that can be replicated across international markets.