Director of Risk and Insurance

Multi-Brand QSR Franchisee (200+ Locations)

Position Summary

The Director of Risk and Insurance leads enterprise-wide risk management and insurance strategy for a multi-brand quick service restaurant portfolio of more than 200 locations. Reporting directly to the Owner, this role has ownership of risk and insurance strategy across all brands and store formats. The role balances consistent enterprise-wide standards with the operational realities of managing distinct brand agreements, franchisor requirements, and local risk profiles.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Risk Strategy
• Own the enterprise risk management framework across all brands, standardizing risk practices while accommodating brand-specific franchisor requirements
• Present risk exposure, loss trends, and program performance directly to the Owner and executive team on a regular cadence
• Identify and prioritize the organization's top risk exposures at scale: workers' compensation frequency/severity, slip-and-fall, food safety/product liability, third-party delivery exposure, robbery/violence, and multi-state regulatory compliance
• Lead risk due diligence for acquisitions of additional stores or brands, including insurance program integration for newly acquired units
• Lead a risk management team to support a 200+ unit footprint
• Develop crisis management protocols for major incidents (serious injury, fatality, foodborne illness outbreak, active threat, fire/catastrophic property loss) with clear escalation to ownership and legal counsel

Insurance Program Management
• Design and manage a large, multi-brand commercial insurance program: general liability, property, workers' compensation, commercial auto/fleet, umbrella/excess, and cyber
• Evaluate and manage retention structures
• Lead broker selection, RFP processes, and annual renewal strategy across the full portfolio
• Ensure each brand's program independently satisfies its specific franchisor insurance requirements (minimum limits, additional insured status, notice provisions) while managing overall program efficiency
• Own the workers' compensation program enterprise-wide: TPA relationship management, reserve accuracy, return-to-work programs, and experience modification rate management across all entities/states
• Oversee claims strategy and outcomes across all lines, working with TPAs, adjusters, and outside counsel; escalate high-exposure claims and litigation to ownership
• Manage certificate of insurance compliance for landlords, vendors, delivery/aggregator platforms, and contractors across all locations

Data, Budget & Reporting
• Own the risk and insurance budget across all brands and forecast costs by brand and region
• Implement and manage a Risk Management Information System (RMIS) to track claims, incidents, and loss trends
• Benchmark loss performance by brand, region, and store to identify systemic issues vs. isolated incidents
• Report key risk indicators, loss ratios, and program cost trends to the Owner, with recommendations tied to bottom-line impact

Leadership & Culture
• Build scalable safety training programs deployable across multiple brands and hundreds of hourly managers/shift leads
• Partner with HR, Operations leadership, Legal, and franchisor risk/compliance contacts
• Drive a consistent safety culture across brands

Qualifications

Required
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Risk Management, or related field
• 8-10+ years in risk management/commercial insurance, including experience managing programs across multiple entities, brands, or a large multi-unit footprint (100+ locations)
• Demonstrated experience managing workers' compensation at scale, including e-mod management and TPA oversight
• Experience with self-insured retention, large-deductible programs, or captive structures
• Track record building or leading a risk management team
• Experience negotiating large commercial insurance programs with brokers/carriers
• Willingness to travel regularly across brands/regions

Preferred
• Multi-brand restaurant or retail franchise experience specifically
• Experience integrating risk/insurance programs following acquisitions
• Experience presenting directly to ownership/board-level stakeholders

Competencies
• Comfortable operating as a strategic advisor to the Owner while staying close enough to the field to catch real problems
• Strong at building scalable systems and processes
• Skilled at managing complexity across multiple franchisor relationships and requirements simultaneously
• Financially fluent regarding loss ratios, e-mod trends, and premium forecasting in business terms
• Team-builder

Base Salary

$95,000 to $150,000