Job Title

Director Restaurants Technology - Relocation to UAEThe Director of Restaurant Technology is responsible for defining and leading the end-to-end technology strategy that powers Americana''s restaurant/QSR ecosystem across 2,600+ restaurants in 12 countries. This role provides strategic direction, governance, and execution oversight for all restaurant-facing technologies across dine-in, delivery, drive-thru, and pickup channels including POS systems, kitchen automation, digital menu boards, kiosks, handheld ordering, drive-thru technology, and transactional cost-control platforms.The Director is accountable for ensuring that all technologies deployed within the restaurants are stable, secure, scalable, and aligned with brand, market, and operational requirements. The role partners closely with Operations, IT, Digital, Procurement, and vendor ecosystems to ensure technology delivers measurable value, improves customer experience, and enhances operational efficiency.A core responsibility of this role is to lead the IT Service Management capability for all restaurant technologies. The Director builds and governs an ITIL-aligned support framework, ensuring disciplined, structured processes across:Incident Management (rapid and consistent issue resolution across markets)Problem Management (elimination of recurring issues through root-cause analysis)Change Management (controlled deployment of updates, patches, and enhancements)Release & Deployment Management (standardized, risk-free rollouts)Service Request & Knowledge Management (scalable and documented support models)Vendor, SLA & Compliance Management (ensuring partners deliver high uptime and quality)The role ensures that all restaurants receive consistent, high-performing technology support, both onsite and remotely, enabling store managers and frontline teams to operate efficiently and deliver an exceptional customer experience. This leader continuously evaluates innovative and fit-for-purpose solutions that support Americana''s growth, operational excellence, and customer-centric mission.Scope: Restaurants Division Across All Markets.Key Responsibilities:Define and lead the Restaurant Technology strategy in alignment with executive leadership.Serve as the primary architect of restaurant technology innovation across all Americana ME markets.Collaborate with Group Technology teams to seamlessly deliver restaurant-specific requirements.Design, enhance, and customize technology systems that elevate customer experience and empower employees across all dine-in, drive-thru, delivery, and pickup channels.Select and govern the right technologies to support multi-brand, multi-country operations, including POS platforms, drive-thru systems, and restaurant IoT & hardware ecosystems.Oversee the planning, implementation, pilot phases, and full deployment of all new restaurant systems.Partner with Brand Leadership, Operations Excellence, Supply Chain, Finance, Digital, and Market GMs to ensure technology solutions meet business needs.Approve procurement of technology hardware, software, and services to meet the needs across regions.Build and maintain strong vendor partnerships, manage contractual SLAs, performance KPIs, and vendor compliance.Establish and enforce ITIL-driven processes for change, release, knowledge, and configuration management.Lead continuous service improvement initiatives to enhance system stability, reduce downtime, and increase operational efficiency.Build and optimize a high-performing Restaurant Technology team and define an operating model that combines in-house capabilities with strategic outsourcing for non-core functions.Education:Bachelor''s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is required.A master''s in technology, Computer Science, or an MBA is strongly preferred and considered a significant advantage.Additional certifications in ITIL, Cloud Technologies, POS Systems are desirable.Experience:15+ years of progressive leadership experience in a large multi-market and/or multi-brand Quick Service Restaurant companies.Proven experience managing large, geographically distributed teams across multiple countries or regions.Demonstrated capability in leading major transformation initiatives within a retail or restaurant technology ecosystem, including modernization, digitalization, and operational change.Extensive experience working within a franchise-driven operating model of comparable size and complexity to Americana.Strong background in designing, architecting, and implementing restaurant IT systems, including POS, kitchen automation, kiosks, drive-thru, and digital menu boards.Deep experience in end-toend IT implementation lifecycle including strategy, design, development, rollout, testing, UAT, deployment, and hyper care.Handson experience collaborating with crossfunctional teams and global vendors, managing SLAs, and driving service excellence in a highpressure operational environment.Skills:Superior analytical and problemsolving capabilities.A strong strategic and business mindset.Excellent organizational and leadership skills.Outstanding communication and interpersonal abilities.Ability to extract and distill requirements and turn them into reality using technology.Strong business relationship management and stakeholder management.Attention to detail and excellent time management skills.Ability to work effectively in a fastpaced, dynamic environment able to deal with ambiguity and think outside the box.This is a relocation role to the UAE please apply only if interested.Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Americana Restaurants by 2x.#J-18808-Ljbffr