Description
Position Summary
GBC Food Services is seeking a highly capable, execution-focused Regional Director of Cut Produce Merchandising and Operations to lead operational performance, franchisee success, client partnership, and brand execution across a multi-region portfolio of prepared foods franchise kiosks.
This role is responsible for driving consistent execution across assigned markets by partnering with franchisees, field leaders, host-location clients, internal operations teams, Quality Assurance, Training, Finance, Human Resources, and senior leadership. The Regional Director will serve as a key business leader responsible for improving sales performance, protecting food safety and brand standards, strengthening franchisee and client relationships, and ensuring field teams execute with urgency, discipline, and accountability.
The ideal candidate is a strong multi-unit operator with deep experience in food service, franchise operations, retail food programs, or prepared foods environments. This leader must be comfortable operating in a fast-paced, field-based business where success depends on operational discipline, strong relationship management, data-driven decision-making, and the ability to influence results through both direct and indirect leadership.
Highlights
- Lead regional operational performance across assigned prepared foods franchise kiosks.
- Support franchisee execution, sales growth, food safety, and brand consistency.
- Partner with host-location clients and internal teams to resolve operational barriers.
- Analyze performance trends and lead structured improvement plans.
- Develop regional field leaders and reinforce a culture of ownership and accountability.
Scope and Objectives
The Regional Director of Prepared Foods is accountable for leading regional execution across assigned prepared foods kiosks, franchise operators, field leaders, and host-client relationships. The primary objectives of the role are to:
- Drive operational excellence across assigned prepared foods locations.
- Improve franchisee and operator performance through coaching, accountability, and business support.
- Protect brand standards, food safety, and customer experience across all assigned locations.
- Strengthen host-client relationships through proactive communication, execution discipline, and issue resolution.
- Increase sales, profitability, and operational consistency through data-driven field leadership.
- Develop regional field teams and build a high-performance operating culture.
- Identify and resolve execution gaps before they become client, food safety, financial, or brand risks.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Regional Operational Leadership
- Lead operational performance across assigned prepared foods franchise kiosks and regional markets.
- Ensure consistent execution of company standards related to food safety, product quality, merchandising, sanitation, customer experience, staffing readiness, and brand presentation.
- Conduct regular field visits to evaluate kiosk performance, observe execution, identify gaps, and support corrective action.
- Partner with franchisees, operators, regional managers, program directors, and internal teams to ensure locations operate to GBC standards.
- Establish clear expectations for execution, follow-up, and accountability across assigned markets.
- Identify underperforming locations and lead structured improvement plans to stabilize operations.
- Ensure field leaders are actively reviewing store conditions, franchisee execution, client feedback, sales trends, and compliance risks.
Franchisee and Operator Performance Support
- Serve as a strategic and operational partner to franchisees and approved operators within the assigned region.
- Provide guidance, coaching, and business support to help franchisees improve execution, sales, customer experience, and compliance.
- Monitor franchisee performance and identify trends related to staffing, ordering, production, product availability, shrink, service quality, and store-level execution.
- Support onboarding, development, and performance improvement of franchisees and operators.
- Partner with internal teams to escalate franchisee concerns, operational barriers, training needs, or compliance risks.
- Help franchisees understand and execute company standards while maintaining appropriate franchisor-franchisee boundaries.
- Support conversion, stabilization, and growth initiatives related to new and existing franchise locations.
Food Safety, Quality Assurance, and Brand Protection
- Champion food safety, sanitation, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance across all assigned locations.
- Partner with Quality Assurance and Compliance teams to ensure locations follow applicable food safety requirements, company procedures, and client expectations.
- Monitor inspection results, audit findings, incident reports, complaints, and corrective action plans.
- Ensure field teams respond quickly and appropriately to food safety concerns, quality issues, customer complaints, and host-client escalations.
- Reinforce proper product handling, labeling, temperature control, cleanliness, rotation, display standards, and sanitation practices.
- Identify recurring food safety or quality trends and partner with cross-functional teams to implement sustainable solutions.
- Protect the GBC brand by ensuring consistent execution across product quality, appearance, service, and customer experience.
Sales, Financial, and Performance Management
- Analyze regional sales, margin, shrink, labor, productivity, customer feedback, audit results, and other key performance indicators.
- Identify growth opportunities and develop action plans to improve sales, profitability, and operational efficiency.
- Partner with Finance, Operations, and field leadership to evaluate location performance and recommend corrective actions.
- Review underperforming locations and lead root-cause analysis to determine whether issues are related to staffing, training, product mix, ordering, execution, client environment, or franchisee performance.
- Support sales-driving initiatives, promotional execution, merchandising standards, and local market opportunities.
- Ensure regional leaders understand performance expectations and are using data to make timely business decisions.
- Provide regular performance updates to senior leadership, including wins, risks, trends, and action plans.
Client and Host-Location Relationship Management
- Build and maintain strong working relationships with host-location clients, retailer partners, and key field contacts.
- Serve as an escalation point for regional client concerns, operational issues, service gaps, and execution challenges.
- Partner with internal leadership to ensure client commitments are understood, communicated, and executed.
- Support business reviews, market visits, and client meetings as needed.
- Ensure field leaders communicate professionally, timely, and effectively with client partners.
- Proactively identify client relationship risks and work cross-functionally to resolve issues before they impact business continuity.
- Represent GBC with professionalism, credibility, and strong business judgment.
Team Leadership and Talent Development
- Lead, coach, and develop assigned regional field leaders and operational support teams.
- Set clear expectations for performance, accountability, communication, field presence, and issue resolution.
- Build a culture of ownership, urgency, follow-through, and continuous improvement.
- Evaluate regional talent capabilities and identify development needs, succession opportunities, and performance concerns.
- Partner with HR and senior leadership on workforce planning, performance management, talent development, and organizational structure needs.
- Ensure field leaders are trained, aligned, and equipped to support franchisee success and client execution.
- Model leadership behaviors consistent with GBC's values, business priorities, and standards of professionalism.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with Operations, Quality Assurance, Training, Franchise Development, Finance, HR, Supply Chain, Marketing, and Client Relations.
- Translate company objectives into clear regional execution plans.
- Support new location openings, transitions, market launches, franchisee changes, and operational stabilization plans.
- Partner with internal stakeholders to remove barriers impacting field execution.
- Provide practical field feedback to improve programs, processes, training materials, product offerings, and operational standards.
- Support enterprise initiatives related to growth, standardization, compliance, and profitability.
Risk Management and Compliance
- Identify and escalate operational, food safety, franchisee, client, staffing, financial, and brand risks.
- Ensure corrective action plans are documented, tracked, and completed timely.
- Maintain appropriate records related to field visits, performance reviews, escalations, audits, and action plans.
- Support compliance with company policies, client requirements, food safety regulations, and operational procedures.
- Exercise sound judgment when handling sensitive business, franchisee, employee, or client matters.
- Maintain confidentiality of company information, business strategies, client information, franchisee data, and operational records.
Key Performance Indicators
Success in this role may be measured by the following indicators, subject to business priorities and leadership direction:
- Operational Execution: Store visit completion, audit scores, corrective action closure, standards compliance
- Food Safety & Quality: Inspection performance, QA findings, complaint trends, sanitation compliance
- Sales & Business Performance: Sales growth, underperforming location improvement, product availability, shrink reduction
- Franchisee Performance: Franchisee engagement, execution consistency, training completion, stabilization of at-risk locations
- Client Satisfaction: Escalation resolution, client feedback, host-location relationship health
- Team Leadership: Field leader performance, retention, development, accountability, succession readiness
- Issue Resolution: Speed and quality of response to operational, client, and compliance concerns
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Food Service Management, Hospitality, Operations, Retail Management, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
- 8+ years of progressive experience in food service operations, prepared foods, retail food, franchise operations, hospitality, convenience retail, grocery food programs, or multi-unit operations.
- 5+ years of leadership experience overseeing multi-unit, regional, district, or field operations.
- Strong knowledge of food safety, sanitation, quality assurance, operational controls, and brand standards.
- Demonstrated ability to lead through influence in a franchise, operator, contractor, or matrixed business model.
- Proven success improving sales, operational consistency, customer experience, and team performance.
- Experience analyzing business metrics and translating data into practical field execution plans.
- Strong communication, coaching, conflict resolution, and relationship management skills.
- Ability to travel frequently throughout assigned markets.
- Proficiency with business systems, reporting tools, Microsoft Office, and operational performance dashboards.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting franchisees, licensees, independent operators, or third-party operating partners.
- Experience working with grocery retailers, host-location clients, or national retail partners.
- Experience with sushi, deli, produce, grab-and-go, commissary, convenience food, or prepared foods programs.
- Food safety certification, such as ServSafe Manager or equivalent.
- Experience opening new locations, stabilizing distressed markets, or leading turnaround plans.
- Prior experience working in a fast-growth, multi-state, field-based organization.
- Experience partnering with senior leadership on regional strategy, labor planning, client escalations, and operational improvement initiatives.
Core Competencies
Operational Discipline: Drives consistent execution, accountability, and follow-through across multiple locations.
Business Acumen: Understands sales, labor, shrink, margin, client impact, and operational profitability.
Franchisee Influence: Coaches and guides franchisees while maintaining appropriate business boundaries.
Client Partnership: Builds trust with host-location clients through communication, urgency, and reliability.
Food Safety Mindset: Treats food safety, sanitation, and quality as non-negotiable business priorities.
Field Leadership: Leads from the field, observes conditions firsthand, and acts quickly on execution gaps.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Uses metrics to identify trends, solve problems, and prioritize action.
Talent Development: Builds capable leaders and creates a culture of performance and accountability.
Change Leadership: Leads teams through growth, market changes, operational challenges, and new initiatives.
Executive Communication: Communicates clearly with senior leaders, clients, franchisees, and cross-functional partners.
Physical Demands and Work Environment
The physical demands described below are representative of those required to successfully perform the essential functions of this role, with or without reasonable accommodation.
- Frequently travels to retail, grocery, kiosk, and food service environments.
- Regularly walks, stands, observes operations, and inspects food preparation and display areas.
- May occasionally lift, carry, or move items typically found in a food service environment up to 30 lbs.
- May be exposed to extended periods in cold refrigerated areas, warm production lines, food preparation equipment, cleaning materials, and fast paced active retail environments.
- Must be able to work flexible hours based on business needs, including early mornings, evenings, weekends, or holidays as necessary.
- Must be able to communicate effectively in person, by phone, through video meetings, and in writing.
Expected Leadership Behaviors
- Lead with urgency, ownership, and integrity.
- Protect the brand, customer experience, and food safety standards.
- Build trust with franchisees, clients, and internal teams.
- Solve problems at the root cause, not only at the symptom level.
- Hold teams accountable while providing practical support.
- Use data and field observation to make informed decisions.
- Communicate risks early and clearly.
- Develop people and strengthen the leadership bench.
- Operate with professionalism in high-pressure situations.
- Represent GBC Food Services as a credible, solutions-oriented business partner.
Compensation and Benefits
GBC Food Services offers a competitive compensation and benefits package, which may include base salary, incentive eligibility, health and welfare benefits, paid time off, and other company-sponsored programs, subject to plan terms and eligibility requirements.
Final compensation will be based on factors such as experience, qualifications, geographic location, internal equity, and business needs. Where required by law, GBC Food Services will provide applicable pay range information in accordance with state or local pay transparency requirements.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
GBC Food Services is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Company provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
GBC Food Services is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with applicable law.
Job Description Disclaimer
This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this position. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, qualifications, or working conditions associated with the role. GBC Food Services reserves the right to modify duties, responsibilities, reporting relationships, or job requirements at any time, with or without notice, consistent with applicable law. This job description does not create an employment contract or guarantee of employment for any specific period.
