Product Operations Lead

About the role

Taco Bell is a global brand with 7,500+ restaurants, serving 42+ million fans each week. As part of Yum! Brands, we're known for our authentic connection with communities and our commitment to sustainability and innovation.

Responsibilities

• Develop deep expertise in restaurant labor operations, including scheduling, staffing, compliance, and labor cost management.
• Identify and prioritize high-impact operational pain points through field engagement, data analysis, and stakeholder input.
• Translate ambiguous operational challenges into clearly defined problem statements with measurable success criteria.
• Define the strategic vision for labor management operational & business capabilities in alignment with company goals.
• Partner with TPMs to shape product roadmaps based on business value, ROI, and operational impact.
• Establish guardrails and principles for product solutions (e.g., flexibility vs. control, automation vs. manual workflows).
• Cross-functional collaboration: act as the primary liaison between operations, business leadership, and technical product teams; provide operational context and validation during product design and development; partner with TPMs to ensure product solutions account for real-world complexity, edge cases, and adoption risks; foster trusted partnerships across franchise leaders and home office teams to understand evolving business needs, establish shared expectations for product solutions, and ensure successful execution against agreed-upon objectives.
• Adoption & Impact Realization: define rollout strategies and oversee change management in partnership with operations and product teams; collaborate with franchise leadership and corporate teams to plan, execute, and evaluate solutions, ensuring stakeholder alignment on objectives, timelines, risks, and outcomes; champion franchise engagement throughout the innovation lifecycle, ensuring field perspectives are incorporated into testing plans and change management activities to maximize adoption and business impact; ensure alignment of incentives, processes, and expectations to drive product adoption; measure and monitor business impact (e.g., labor allocation, productivity, schedule accuracy, compliance, ease).
• Travel to test markets (approx. 15% -25% travel) to collect feedback, measure impact, and inform on future prioritization.
• Iterate on strategy based on performance and feedback.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent years of experience.
• 8+ years of experience in product management, strategic decision-making, influencing, and presentation creation capabilities.
• Experience with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Adobe Experience performing data analysis and business case development.
• Self-motivated individual who adapts readily to change, is empowered to make quick and effective decisions, and seeks feedback.
• Capable of working independently and leading conversations and project efforts with minimal assistance and feedback.
• Strong communication skills.
• Process-driven problem solver: ability to analyze complex situations with multiple factors and make key decisions.

Qualifications

• Passionate about driving operational excellence and leveraging data to improve business outcomes.
• Ability to work independently and lead conversations and project efforts with minimal assistance and feedback.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to influence stakeholders across various levels.
• Experience with data analysis and business case development.

Skills

• Data-driven decision making.
• Operational insight and problem definition.
• Product strategy and direction.
• Collaboration and cross-functional partnership.
• Adoption and impact realization.
• Iterative process and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Generous parental leave for all new parents and adoption assistance program.
• 401(k) with a 6% matching contribution from Yum! Brands with immediate vesting.
• Comprehensive medical & dental including prescription drug benefits and 100% preventive care.
• Discounts, free food, swag and… honestly, too many good benefits to name.

Pay

$121,600 to $142,900 annually + bonus eligibility + benefits.

Schedule

Hybrid work schedule (onsite expectation Tues, Wed, Thurs), year-round flex day Friday, onsite childcare through Bright Horizons, onsite dining center and game room, onsite dry cleaning, laundry services, and carwash, onsite gym with fitness classes and personal trainer sessions, up to 4 weeks of vacation per year plus holidays and time off for volunteering.