The Role
The Senior Manager, IT Implementation leads franchisee-facing restaurant technology deployments across IHOP, Applebee's, and Fuzzy's. This role will oversee the delivery of POS, payment, endpoint, change-of-ownership, and other multi-location technology initiatives, ensuring each program is well-planned, scalable, and ready for successful restaurant adoption.

The Senior Manager will lead a team responsible for implementation planning, operational readiness, vendor coordination, franchisee engagement, issue escalation, documentation, and post-go-live stabilization. This leader will also strengthen implementation processes using continuous improvement, Six Sigma, and ITIL/ITSM practices to improve consistency, reduce risk, and drive better outcomes across brands.

This role partners closely with Restaurant Technology, Product, Engineering, Operations, Finance, Security, Legal, the service desk, brand teams, franchisees, and external technology providers.

Key Responsibilities
Technology Delivery and Program Execution
• Own the implementation portfolio for franchise facing restaurant technology programs across IHOP, Applebee's, and Fuzzy's, including priorities, capacity, schedules, dependencies, budgets, risks, reporting, and follow-up.
• Lead end-to-end deployments for POS, payments, hardware lifecycle, ownership changes, and related restaurant technology initiatives.
• Coordinate cross-functional, vendor, and franchisee planning to resolve dependencies before deployment.
• Manage vendor and partner performance, including SOWs, milestones, staffing, service levels, issues, change control, and commercial accountability.
• Escalate and resolve high-risk implementation issues, franchisee impacts, vendor concerns, and post-go-live stabilization needs.
• Deliver executive reporting on portfolio health, risks, finances, quality, and follow-up actions.

Process Excellence and Operational Maturity
• Standardize implementation processes, playbooks, templates, RACI models, readiness gates, handoffs, and governance routines.
• Embed ITIL/ITSM practices into delivery, including change, service transition, knowledge, incident, problem, request, and continual-improvement processes.
• Create closed-loop feedback processes that connect deployment issues, incidents, vendor performance, franchisee feedback, and post-implementation reviews to corrective action.
• Maintain current, accessible, version-controlled implementation artifacts for franchisees, vendors, deployment teams, service desk, and support functions.
• Establish governance and reporting that provide visibility into demand, capacity, deployment status, exceptions, quality trends, process performance, vendor performance, and improvement benefits.
• Identify opportunities for automation, self-service, standardized intake, notifications and integrated reporting.

People Leadership Responsibilities
• Lead, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary implementation team accountable for delivery, readiness, vendor coordination, documentation, reporting, and transition to support.
• Translate strategy into clear goals, priorities, accountabilities, service expectations, and measurable outcomes.
• Foster a culture of transparency, customer focus, disciplined execution, risk management, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure accurate tracking, documentation, milestone management, dependency coordination, early risk escalation, and timely issue resolution.
• Strengthen cross-functional relationships, clarify ownership, and resolve conflicts across technology, operations, franchise, vendor, and support teams.

Skills & Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in IT, computer science, business, engineering, operations, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in IT implementation, technology program management, service delivery, restaurant or retail technology, or multi-site deployment.
• Experience with POS, payments, endpoint or hardware lifecycle programs, or comparable store-technology deployments.
• People-leadership experience across coaching, performance, prioritization, and talent development.
• Experience managing concurrent programs across scope, schedule, budget, risk, dependencies, quality, communications, vendors, and operational readiness.
• Working knowledge of ITSM practices, including change, release, deployment, service transition, incident, problem, knowledge, and continual improvement.
• Strong stakeholder-management, communication, analytical, problem-solving, financial, and decision-making skills.
• Strong ownership, follow-up, escalation, and execution discipline.
• Practical problem-solver with the technology fluency to diagnose issues, identify root causes, and coordinate technical and business teams effectively.
• Support implementations outside normal business hours and travel as needed.
• Target Base Salary $140k-$160k depending on experience.

Preferred Qualifications
• Experience in franchise, restaurant, hospitality, retail, or multi-brand environments.
• PMP, PgMP, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt/Black Belt, or comparable certification.
• Experience with payment standards, processors, gateways, P2PE, or payment-device implementations.
• Experience with Smartsheet, ServiceNow, Jira, or similar tools.
• Experience managing budgets, SOWs, vendor invoices, franchisee charges, and financial performance.