Principal Category Lead

How We Work At Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A, Inc. ('Chick-fil-A' or 'the Company') Staff members play a vital role in achieving our strategic goals by developing their skills, fostering inclusive teamwork, and embracing innovation. All Staff are expected to contribute to a compelling future by inspiring and motivating those around them. Growth and development are essential at Chick-fil-A. We want Staff to seek new perspectives and adopt new methods to drive continuous improvement and adaptation to evolving business needs. Lastly, we ask Staff to seek wisdom, expect the best, accept responsibility, respond with courage, and think others first.

Our Flexible Futures Model offers a healthy mix of working in person (currently a minimum of 8-10 days per month) and virtually,  strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community.

• High enterprise influence and trust
• Navigates tense and challenging situations with authenticity, partnership, grace and wisdom
• Adaptable and leads through change well providing clarity for stakeholders
• Demonstrates enterprise wide, holistic business thinking skills
• Has a passion for the Restaurant business and Chick-fil-A Operators; eager and willing to work in Chick-fil-A Restaurants breading chicken, cooking waffle fries, etc.to gain perspective and appreciation for the business, the Operator's role, and Customer expectations
• Leads projects effectively and professionally to ensure stakeholders and Operators are informed and supportive and Customer expectations are met
• Create annual business plans, including scope, human capital needs, and budget requirements for all projects
• Identify and implement cost savings and continuous improvement initiatives
• Exhibit strong people skills and the ability to accomplish work effectively with, alongside, and through others
• Understands the relationship between the Operator/Restaurant and the Chick-fil-A Support Center, vendors, and partners
• Demonstrates ability to mine for and leverage data to make sound business decisions and recommendations

• Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, establishing personal networks, benchmarking state-of-the-art practices, and participating in professional societies
• Actively explore trends to stay abreast of the trends in the marketplace
• Exhibit strong knowledge and awareness of historical and competitive marketplace
• Displays a curious and continuous mindset seeking to improve self, others, and the work/processes

• Proven success in influencing at multiple levels across an organization
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills: highly collaborative with ability to build solid working partnerships across functional groups
• Comfortable and confident presenting recommendations and answering questions to multiple levels of leadership - EC, Strategy Teams, Operators, Team Members, etc.
• Analytical depth and technical expertise in project management, processes, systems and equipment interface
• Demonstrated expertise in the product development process
• Exceptional relational skills to enable interaction with a variety of stakeholders
• Excellent planning, organizing and project management abilities
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Tools and Windows Operating Systems
• Strong desire to learn industry trends
• Sense of urgency
• Highly self-motivated, grit, and able to work both collaboratively as well as independently
• Demonstrates high-level, strategic and low, in-the-weeds altitudes

• Previous Experience at Chick-fil-A, Inc. Sr. Project Leader on Category Leader Team
• Experience in leading work in product development, brand management, consumer packaged goods or related field
• Restaurant experience (corporate or restaurant level)