Principal Design Lead, Design Standards & Templates

The Principal Design Lead for Restaurant Design Templates & Standards is a pivotal member of the Design Integration team, overseeing the refinement and upkeep of both New and Existing Restaurant design templates and standards. This role involves providing comprehensive training to stakeholders in Restaurant Development, specifically addressing new or revised design initiatives that impact our templates and standards. The focus is on actively gathering feedback from end users, integrating updates from change management, and ensuring that our building designs consistently meet or surpass industry standards.

This role assumes responsibility for guiding both internal and external partners, fostering the ongoing development and enhancement of our building designs and templates. Strategic efforts are required to articulate the purpose behind design changes to internal and external stakeholders, emphasizing clarity and understanding. Collaboration with various internal teams across the organization is crucial for continuous improvement, and close cooperation with stakeholders within Restaurant Design is essential to thoroughly comprehend the needs of end users, thereby enhancing project execution efficiency. 

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.

• Provide strategic design leadership and direction of our restaurant templates and standards including managing content and continually improving the user experience.
• Foster collaboration and connections across the Chick-fil-A organization, proactively engaging with stakeholders to ensure alignment and effectiveness of the templates.
• Identify, lead, and develop design partners, vendors, and agencies to support ongoing template and standards enhancements.
• Develop communication processes to help prepare, communicate, and educate key groups and departments across the organization on any new and updated design initiative in order to establish one voice across the business.
• Collaborate closely with key stakeholders and Integration Readiness teams to gain insights into upcoming design initiatives, enabling the development of new restaurant templates and standards.
• Accountable for leading a team or teams of external partners for continued template support.
• Accountable for leading a team or teams of external partners for creation and maintenance of design standards.
• Develop and manage comprehensive documentation of tools for using templates and standards.
• Develop and lead communication opportunities to educate teams throughout Chick-fil-A to establish one voice across the business.
• Cultivate and build design and business acumen across the business for a better understanding of both design principles and broader business strategies. 

• Bachelor's degree in architecture, engineering, industrial design, or similar. 
• 5-8 years of experience in building design. 
• Proven track record of success in managing projects, iniatives, and vendor teams. 

• 8+ years of experience in building design. 
• Restaurant design experience.
• Professional architectural license and/or registration. 
• Experience with modeling application Revit.