Director, Social & Creator Strategy

Job Summary GoTo Foods operates seven brands — Moe’s, McAlister’s, Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon, Jamba, Schlotzsky’s, and Carvel — across approximately 6,000 franchise locations. The company is backed by Roark Capital. The Growth organization is being rebuilt around a functional Head plus brand-pod model, and this is one of the foundational hires in that new structure. The Director, Social & Creator Strategy owns the organic social and creator economy playbook across all seven brands, manages the pod‑seated Social Managers, and stands up GoTo Foods’ first affiliate marketing program. This role partners closely with Creative Enablement, Marketing Science & VOC, and each brand pod. You set the strategy, the standards, and the talent bar; the pod Social Managers execute inside their brands. Essential Functions Own the organic social playbook for all seven brands across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, and emerging platforms. Each brand gets a differentiated, platform‑native approach — not one template with a logo swap. Brand voice, content standards, and the quality bar are set at this level and carried by the pod Social Managers into the brands. Build and manage the creator and influencer program end‑to‑end: identify, recruit, brief, and manage creators across the subcultures, demographics, and geographies relevant to each brand. Start with pilot brands, prove the model, then scale systematically across the portfolio. Stand up GoTo Foods’ first affiliate marketing program. Build the transition pathway from influencer (awareness, engagement) to affiliate (commission‑based, promo-code‑attributed, direct sales). Define commission structures, exclusivity terms, performance thresholds, and the measurement framework in partnership with Marketing Science & VOC. Content strategy and creative direction for social. Partner with Creative Enablement and the brand pods to produce platform‑native content at speed and scale. You set the brief, the format, and the voice; Creative Enablement produces through a combination of AI‑assisted tooling, vendors, and pod Creative Leads. You do not create content yourself at this level. Define and operate the community management framework across all brand handles: response protocols, engagement standards, escalation paths, and crisis playbooks. Partner with Communications on issues that cross into brand reputation or franchisee impact. Social and creator measurement. Partner with Marketing Science & VOC to set the standards for follower growth, engagement quality, creator content reach, earned media value, and — critically — attribution to enterprise outcomes: store traffic, same‑store sales, 1P digital orders, and active loyalty members. Paid social partnership. Work inside the Paid Media & Social function to ensure organic and creator insights inform paid targeting, creative, and bidding strategy, and that paid amplification is deployed behind high‑performing organic and creator content. This role owns the organic and creator side of the house; paid social buying sits with the broader paid media team. Education Bachelor’s degree in marketing, journalism, communications or related field, Required Work Experience A social‑native leader with 8+ years of experience, including hands‑on creator and influencer program management at scale and experience leading social teams across multiple brands or business units. Deep platform expertise across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and emerging platforms. You understand algorithms, content formats, and what actually performs — not what looks good in a deck. You can tell a pod Social Manager why a piece of content will or will not work before it ships. Creator economy fluency. You have recruited, briefed, and managed creators at scale. You understand the difference between awareness influencers and performance affiliates and have personally built the commercial framework to transition between the two. Affiliate program stand‑up experience is a strong plus. Multi‑brand experience and matrix leadership. You have managed social strategy across distinct brands or consumer segments with different voices and communities, and you have led teams in a matrix model where your reports sit embedded inside business units or brand teams. Content instincts and taste. You know what platform‑native content looks like and can brief Creative Enablement, vendors, and pod Creative Leads to produce it at speed. You are not creating content yourself at this level — you are setting the strategy, the standard, and the quality bar. Analytics and attribution mindset. You measure reach, engagement, and earned media value, but you lead with the hard outcomes: traffic, same‑store sales, 1P digital orders, and active loyalty members. You partner with analytics teams to tighten attribution rather than hiding behind vanity metrics. Build‑role energy. This is a zero‑to‑one mandate inside a portfolio that has been operating without a dedicated social leader. You are standing up the playbook, the creator program, the affiliate engine, and the team at the same time. You will work in a new org that is itself still being built. Operators who need a mature function, clean handoffs, and established processes will struggle here. Executive presence and franchisee fluency. You can present social and creator strategy to non‑social‑native executives, brand Chief Brand Officers, and franchisees in business‑relevant terms — traffic, guests, sales, and member value — without falling back on platform jargon or vanity metrics. Travel Requirement May be required to travel up to 25% of the time #J-18808-Ljbffr GoTo Foods