Senior Director, Technology PMO

Church’s Texas Chicken

Employee Job Description

Job Title: Senior Director, Technology PMO

Reports To: SVP, Chief Technology Officer

Department: Technology

Revised: September 2026

Job Summary

Responsible for the strategic leadership and executive governance of the Technology Program Management Office (PMO), setting the direction, decision-making framework, and standards that govern how the IT organization prioritizes, resources, and delivers programs and projects across Church’s Texas Chicken’s restaurant operations, infrastructure, and enterprise back office portfolios. This is fundamentally a player-coach role — the Senior Director does not lead from a distance. They personally lead planning and delivery of the organization’s largest, most complex, and most critical programs and projects: developing project plans, running structured alternatives analysis on major decisions, and staying hands-on through execution, while simultaneously setting portfolio strategy and exercising autonomous decision-making authority over risk tolerance and resourcing trade-offs on behalf of the CTO. The Senior Director is accountable for the overall health, predictability, and business value of the technology portfolio, from strategic direction through hands-on, in-the-work execution of its highest-priority initiatives.

Serves as the organization’s senior-most PMO leader and primary interface between Technology and the business, independently building and managing relationships with the most senior stakeholders — including franchise leaders and business-unit executives — without requiring escalation. Comfortable and capable of representing the technology portfolio directly to the Board of Directors and executive leadership team when called upon, translating portfolio performance, risk, and investment trade-offs into clear, decision-ready narratives. As a player-coach, also serves as the organization’s foremost mentor in project management practice — regularly and directly coaching project and program managers in planning, estimation, alternatives analysis, and delivery rigor. Leads a team of program and project management professionals, including Senior Managers, and reports to the SVP, Chief Technology Officer.

Key Duties/Responsibilities

Player-Coach Program & Project Leadership — Personally lead planning and delivery of the organization’s largest, most complex, and most critical programs and projects — directly developing project plans and schedules, owning scope, budget, and stakeholder outcomes — while simultaneously setting strategic direction for the broader technology portfolio. This is a hands-on, in-the-work role, not a purely oversight function.

Project Planning & Alternatives Analysis — Personally conduct and lead rigorous project planning and structured alternatives analysis (e.g., build-vs-buy, vendor and solution options, sequencing, and resourcing trade-offs) for the organization’s highest-stakes programs and projects, ensuring major investment and delivery decisions are grounded in disciplined, well-documented option analysis before resources are committed.

Project Management Mentoring & Capability Building — Serve as the organization’s foremost mentor in project management practice — regularly and directly coaching project and program managers, including those outside direct reporting lines, in planning, estimation, risk management, alternatives analysis, and delivery execution, raising the overall project management maturity of the organization.

Portfolio Strategy & Decision Authority — Own the strategic direction and executive governance of the technology PMO — setting portfolio priorities, decision rights, and risk-tolerance frameworks, and exercising final decision-making authority over program and project approval, resourcing, and prioritization trade-offs on behalf of the CTO.

Executive & Franchise Stakeholder Management — Autonomously build and manage executive-level relationships with the organization’s most senior stakeholders, including franchise leaders and business-unit presidents — representing Technology’s delivery commitments, negotiating competing priorities, and resolving conflicts at the highest levels without requiring escalation.

Board & Executive Presentation Readiness — Serve as a credible, board-ready presenter for the technology portfolio — capable of preparing and delivering clear, decision-ready presentations to the Board of Directors and executive leadership on portfolio performance, risk, and investment trade-offs when called upon.

Enterprise Program & Project Recovery — Serve as the final escalation point and ultimate decision authority for troubled or at-risk programs and projects across the portfolio — personally stepping in as a hands-on player-coach to determine recovery strategy, resourcing, and go/no-go decisions, and engaging the most senior stakeholders when delivery confidence is at risk.

PMO Governance & Standards — Define, own, and continuously evolve enterprise PMO standards, governance frameworks, project planning methodologies, and portfolio intake/prioritization models, exercising sole authority over the methodologies, tools, and reporting cadences used across the technology organization, in both waterfall and agile environments.

Cross-Functional Executive Partnership — Build and sustain enterprise-level partnerships with Operations, Finance, Marketing, Franchise, and Supply Chain executive leadership, acting as Technology’s senior-most delivery representative and shaping cross-functional strategic alignment on major initiatives.

Vendor & Partner Governance — Own vendor and strategic partner governance at the executive level — including contract strategy input, executive relationship management with vendor leadership, and final decision authority on performance escalations and remediation.

Enterprise Change Leadership — Sponsor and govern enterprise-wide change management and technology adoption initiatives, securing executive and franchise-level buy-in and ensuring organizational readiness for major technology and process transformations.

PMO Team Leadership — Lead and develop a team of program and project management professionals, including Senior Managers — building bench strength and succession depth across the PMO function, and making autonomous decisions on team structure, staffing, and development investment.

Position Requirements (Education, Qualifications, Experience)

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Business, Hospitality Management, or a related field; MBA or other advanced degree preferred.

10+ years of combined restaurant business and technology experience, including significant experience operating at an executive or senior-leadership level within QSR or multi-unit retail/restaurant operations.

Demonstrated track record of independently setting technology portfolio strategy and making autonomous, high-stakes resourcing and prioritization decisions with enterprise-wide impact.

Proven, hands-on, player-coach track record personally leading and planning the organization’s largest, most complex, or highest-risk technology programs and projects — not solely overseeing them — in addition to portfolio-level strategic leadership.

Strong, demonstrated project planning skills and experience conducting structured alternatives analysis (e.g., build-vs-buy, vendor/solution options, sequencing, and resourcing trade-offs) to guide major program and project decisions; this is considered an essential, hands-on skill for this role.

Demonstrated experience and genuine passion for mentoring and developing project and program managers in core PM disciplines — planning, estimation, risk management, alternatives analysis, and delivery execution — including mentoring beyond direct reports.

Proven experience building and managing trusted relationships with C-suite executives and franchise leaders, with the demonstrated ability to prepare