Principal Design Lead - Environments

Overview:
The Principal Design Lead in Restaurant Design is a corporate professional position responsible for providing strategies, systems, and design solutions that align with enterprise business initiatives and drive the future of our restaurant designs. Given the explosive growth of mobile, along with the changing, complex demands of our business and customers, the Principal Design Lead will play a key role in Chick-fil-A's effort to build scalable and differentiated environments & experiences.

As a Principal Design Lead on the Restaurant Design Team, you will be responsible for leading a design-thinking approach to human-centered design to create experiences and environments that are industry-leading and relevant to our guests, team members, and Operators. Human-centered design is both a mindset and an iterative process for understanding people’s motivations and needs and responding to those needs through the development of creative solutions that provide value to both them and the business.

As part of a multidisciplinary team, you will tackle all aspects of the design process from defining the opportunity to solve, imagining a range of ideas/solutions, physical and/or digital prototyping, and validating design solutions for our restaurant chain. You must be able to clearly define project goals and parameters in an ambiguous state of imagining future needs of the business. You must be an ambitious problem solver, flexible, and able to succeed within a cross-functional environment. The ideal candidate for this position will be at ease combining business strategy with design methodologies to execute ideas into solid designs and experiences that meet the needs of our business, as well as translating the design process and resulting solution for multiple audiences inside and outside of the organization.

This role will provide Design expertise within the area of Environment (Inside Guest Experience, Interiors, and Exterior Brand Expression) initiatives that will have a broad impact across the organization:

1. Develop and communicate the vision & strategy of restaurant environments for a growing portfolio of existing and new building designs
2. Provide guidance on how various organizational initiatives will impact the environment design of New Restaurants, Existing Restaurants, and Custom Projects
3. Create design solutions and experiences that focus on elevating and connecting with our Guests while also creating growth opportunities for Operators
4. Lead the development of future restaurant environments focused on future drivers of change such as digital sales channels, sustainability, and personalized connection.
5. Ensure innovation process includes various approvals/inputs from key stakeholders such as Operators, Field Operations, Marketing, Brand, Risk Management, and Restaurant Development teams
6. Leverage key insights from Operators, Team Members, Guests, and industry trends to identify future design solutions
7. Consult across the business on expert knowledge of environment design principles
8. Build and manage appropriate cross-functional teams and partners from across the business to ensure successful design solutions
9. Collaborate with brand strategists, graphic designers, architects, construction, service & hospitality, and digital experience designers to enhance environments and create holistic design solutions

Our Flexible Future model offers a healthy mix of working in person and virtually, strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community.

Responsibilities:

1. Lead development of the project plans including:
   
   • Scope
   • Project Team – internal staff, consultants, agencies, and vendors
   • Master Service Agreements, Scope of Work documents
   • Timelines
   • Budgets
2. Oversee and be accountable for Design Innovation consultants, contractors, and vendors. Specifically, responsible for building and managing outsourcing/agency strategy for various workstreams
3. Provide initiative report outs to executive leadership
4. Identify a communication plan to keep key stakeholders informed
5. Lead the design of all innovation phases of a project, from translating themes into visual concepts, through design development and refinement
6. Lead the selection of interior and exterior furniture, fixtures, finish palettes, and interior and exterior lighting that is aligned with our brand strategy for multiple restaurant programs
7. Lead Operator and Team Member innovation sessions to vet new design solutions
8. Create and manage both low and high-fidelity design deliverables for testing
9. Lead development of working drawings for field installs and/or test simulations
10. Lead role during test simulations to gain insights on design solutions through research and observation
11. Manage documentation of learnings, creation of guidelines, and development of design criteria
12. Deliver final design guidelines to Integration / Standards team
13. Collaborate with Integration / Standards team to ensure design intent is met during the development and consult with execution team to confirm communication of solution guidelines can deliver the design intent to the field

Minimum Qualifications:

1. Bachelor's degree in design (Service Design, Industrial Design, Architecture, Interior Design, etc.) or Design Management
2. 6 + years’ of experience in restaurant design, customer experience, or innovation management
3. Understanding of the interplay of Brand - Design – Communication
4. Current knowledge of industry trends in retail store and restaurant design including furniture and finishes
5. Experience managing external architectural and/or design team
6. Ability to communicate design with hand sketches/drawings
7. Skilled in the visual, written, and verbal communication of design ideas
8. Strong computer skills with proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Suite

Preferred Qualifications:

1. Master's degree
2. 8 years of experience in restaurant design, customer experience, or innovation management
3. Chick-fil-A corporate or Chick-fil-A Restaurant experience
4. Innovative conceptualizer, yet has disciplined approaches to accomplishing work
5. Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills
6. Experience managing external architectural and/or design consultants
7. Ability to work in a highly collaborative environment within a team approach to accomplishing objectives
8. Ability to adapt and flex within the context of changing priorities
9. Ability to simultaneously manage multiple priorities/projects in various stages of completion
10. Strong computer skills with proficiency in Bluebeam, Miro, and other applicable design software to convey an idea or design

Minimum Years of Experience: 6

Travel Requirements: 25%

Required Level of Education: Bachelor's Degree

Preferred Level of Education: Master's Degree

Major/Concentration: Design (Service Design, Industrial Design, Architecture, Interior Design, etc.) or Design Management