Director, Workforce Planning & Operations Analytics

Director Of Workforce Planning & Operations Analytics

The Director of Workforce Planning & Operations Analytics is responsible for architecting and operating the systems that drive labor performance and operational excellence across Infinite Kitchen Centers (IKCs) and production environments. This role owns labor as a core business lever, including forecasting, labor modeling, scheduling effectiveness, and ongoing optimization, ensuring the company consistently delivers against labor targets while maintaining quality, throughput, and guest experience.

This leader is accountable for both building the system and driving the outcome. They will translate complex operational data into scalable labor models, actionable insights, and simple tools that enable consistent execution in the field. Beyond analytics, this role actively shapes how work gets done by identifying opportunities to reduce complexity, eliminate waste, and improve productivity through smarter processes, better design, and cross-functional coordination.

As a highly cross-functional leader, this role partners with Operations, Ops Excellence, Product, Culinary, Finance, and M&A teams to ensure labor and operational performance are measurable, predictable, and continuously improving at scale. In the near term, this role will directly own workforce planning execution, with the expectation to build, stabilize, and scale the function over time.

Key Responsibilities

• Labor Strategy, System Ownership & Performance Delivery

  • Own the end-to-end labor system across IKCs and production environments (DISH, ProdCo, CK1), including demand forecasting, capacity planning, labor standards, and scheduling frameworks. Develop and continuously refine scalable labor models aligned to throughput, menu complexity, and quality expectations.

  • Drive accountability to labor performance by ensuring alignment between forecasted, scheduled, and actual labor, and by actively managing gaps to deliver against targets. Move beyond reporting to diagnosing and resolving labor inefficiencies in partnership with field and cross-functional teams.

  • Embed labor thinking upstream into process design, kitchen layouts, equipment decisions, and new initiatives so performance is engineered into the system rather than managed reactively.

• New Store Opening (NSO) Labor Readiness & Normalization

  • Own the labor approach for NSOs, including pre-opening labor models, ramp strategies, and post-opening stabilization. Define clear templates, assumptions, and success metrics to ensure consistency across openings.

  • Establish a structured normalization process that transitions locations from launch to steady-state performance, reducing variability and accelerating time to target labor and operational benchmarks. Continuously refine NSO labor strategies based on performance data and field feedback.

• Operational Efficiency & Labor Optimization

  • Continuously identify and unlock labor productivity opportunities by simplifying work, reducing unnecessary tasks, and improving process flow. Partner with Ops Excellence, Culinary, and Product to redesign workflows and eliminate inefficiencies.

  • Incorporate principles from industrial engineering and lean methodologies, including 5S and process optimization, to improve throughput and reduce labor demand without compromising quality. Act as a key driver of making operations simpler, faster, and more scalable.

• Operations Performance System & Business Insights

  • Own the system for measuring, diagnosing, and improving operational performance across IKCs, leveraging core metrics across sales, labor, waste, throughput, guest experience, and quality.

  • Define and standardize performance frameworks and business review outputs (weekly, monthly, quarterly), ensuring clear visibility into performance drivers and actionable priorities. Lead root cause analysis and ensure insights translate into tangible operational improvements, not just reporting.

• Reporting, Tools & Data Infrastructure

  • Design and evolve the reporting ecosystem, including dashboards, scorecards, and analytical tools that provide clear, real-time visibility into labor and operational performance.

  • Partner with Finance, Product, and Data teams to ensure data integrity, alignment, and scalability of systems. Prioritize automation, usability, and speed while maintaining simplicity and practicality for field teams.

• Cross-Functional Integration & Initiative Enablement

  • Partner with Product, Ops Excellence, Culinary, Training, and Finance to ensure all initiatives have clear labor expectations, performance targets, and measurement plans.

  • Support pilots, rollouts, and new initiatives by ensuring labor readiness and evaluating results to inform scaling decisions. Serve as a key partner in ensuring new concepts and operational changes are both executable and economically viable.

• Field Adoption & Continuous Improvement

  • Drive adoption of labor and performance systems through clear tools, training, and operating routines that enable field leaders to plan, execute, and manage effectively.

  • Establish feedback loops from the field to continuously refine labor models, tools, and reporting, ensuring systems remain practical, relevant, and easy to use. Reduce variability across locations by making the right behaviors and outcomes the default.

• Scalability, M&A Integration & Institutionalization

  • Lead the integration and standardization of labor models across acquired brands and new business lines, ensuring consistency while accounting for concept-specific nuances.

  • Institutionalize workforce planning and labor management practices so they scale across formats, geographies, and concepts. Build the foundation for a durable, company-wide labor system that supports rapid growth and operational complexity.

Experience & Skills Required

• Core Experience

  • 10+ years in workforce planning, operations analytics, business operations, or similar

  • Experience in high-volume, multi-unit environments (restaurant, retail, or service operations)

  • Proven ownership of labor systems with direct impact on financial and operational performance

  • Experience building and scaling workforce planning or analytics functions

  • Track record of driving measurable improvements in labor efficiency and operational outcomes

• Technical & Analytical Capability

  • Advanced proficiency in Excel / Google Sheets; working knowledge of SQL and BI tools (e.g., Looker, PowerBI)

  • Experience with workforce management platforms (e.g., Logile, Workday, or similar)

  • Strong foundation in forecasting, labor modeling, and performance analytics

  • Ability to translate complex datasets into clear, actionable insights

• Systems & Operator Mindset

  • Thinks in systems and designs for scale, repeatability, and simplicity

  • Balances analytical rigor with real-world operational execution

  • Focused on outcomes, not just analysis; able to drive behavior change through tools and processes

• Leadership & Influence

  • Strong cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management skills

  • Experience partnering with Operations, Finance, Product, Data, and HR

  • Executive presence with the ability to influence both field and corporate leaders

  • Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, high-growth environment

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