Director Digital Strategy

The Director of Digital Strategy owns Steak 'n Shake's digital growth strategy across the mobile app, online ordering, loyalty, and first-party data — the channels that drive guest acquisition, visit frequency, and digital sales mix across our 400+ locations. This is an in-house, brand-side leadership role: you set the strategy, define how it is measured, and hold internal teams and vendor partners accountable to the results.

You turn guest behavior and performance data into a prioritized, ROI-justified roadmap, align company leadership on where to invest, and make sure digital programs launch cleanly and perform at the store level. You work across Marketing, Operations, and IT, and you are the single owner of the digital planning cycle end to end — from opportunity identification through measurement and the case studies that drive internal alignment.

Reporting & Scope

• Reports to: VP of Information Technology.
• Direct reports: Quality Business Analyst and Manager, Digital Systems.
• Location: Indianapolis, IN (corporate HQ).
• Scope: 400+ company and franchise locations. Digital programs must perform operationally at the store level, not just in concept.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategy & roadmap — Own the long-term digital growth strategy and the planning cycle. Identify market opportunities and shifts in guest digital behavior, and translate them into a prioritized roadmap that drives acquisition, visit frequency, and digital sales mix.
2. Measurement & analytics — Define the digital KPIs (app installs / monthly active users, loyalty enrollment and active members, digital sales mix, incremental visits, acquisition cost, retention). Build and maintain the tracking and reporting system, partnering with the data/BI team on performance reporting.
3. Digital platform & stack ownership — Own the strategy for the brand's digital stack — mobile app, online ordering, loyalty, customer data platform (CDP), and marketing automation. Partner with IT to continuously improve the performance of the app and online ordering platform, ensuring the guest experience and data capture keep pace with where the business is headed.
4. First-party data & personalization — Grow the first-party data asset and use it to drive segmentation, lifecycle marketing, and AI-driven personalization and testing across channels.
5. Vendor & agency leadership — Brief, challenge, and hold vendors and agencies accountable for best-in-class content and execution. Review vendor KPIs and SLAs, and make build/buy and vendor decisions that balance capability against cost.
6. Program delivery & QA — Own quality assurance, delivery timelines, and launch readiness so programs ship on time and work at the store level.
7. Cross-functional alignment — Drive alignment across Marketing, Operations, and IT. Communicate strategy, trade-offs, and results to company leadership, and surface decisions that need their input.
8. Internal case studies — Develop case study material that showcases results and builds organizational alignment behind integrated digital strategy.

Required Qualifications

1. Bachelor's degree in marketing, business, advertising, communications, or a related field — or equivalent experience.
2. 5+ years leading digital marketing strategy and delivery, including at least 2 years in a leadership or people-management role.
3. Demonstrated track record of hitting business KPIs driven by digital activation (traffic, conversion, sales, retention).
4. Deep working knowledge across digital channels — search, social, web, and mobile app.
5. Strong analytical skills; fluent in reading performance data and turning it into decisions, with comfort in BI tools and dashboards.
6. Experience leading vendor and agency engagement, including the review and assessment of KPIs and SLAs.
7. Proven ability to build budgets and present ROI-based cases to senior leadership.
8. Ability to lead cross-functional planning and adapt quickly in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Digital marketing experience in the QSR or multi-unit restaurant/retail industry.
• Hands-on experience implementing or refining a customer data platform (CDP) and marketing automation.
• Loyalty program strategy and growth experience.
• Experience launching or owning a mobile app and/or online ordering platform.
• Familiarity with AI-driven personalization and structured experimentation / A/B testing.
• Experience operating across a franchise footprint and partnering with field operations.