Sr. Project Specialist, Support Now

The Business Readiness Sr. Project Specialist is a professional role within the Support Now Workforce Optimization and Readiness team. This role is pivotal in guiding the Support Now organization through significant change by proactively identifying, evaluating, and leading the strategic readiness of all Support Center projects and initiatives impacting Chick-fil-A Restaurants and Customers. Operating with substantial latitude, the Business Readiness Lead drives continuous improvement within the Readiness framework, ensuring Support Now is strategically prepared to deliver exceptional support. This position requires a heart for serving others, a deep understanding of organizational dynamics, and the ability to influence and collaborate across all levels of the business, including (but not limited to) DTT, Marketing, International, Communications, and Restaurant Development to ensure Support now is ready to support and initiatives are implemented with maximum positive impact on our staff, Restaurants and Customers. The Business Readiness Sr. Project Specialist champions alignment, preparedness, and effectiveness, ultimately advancing the mission and purpose of the Support Now department through strategic readiness and an unwavering commitment to operational excellence.

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.

Strategic Initiative Leadership & Framework Development:

• Leads the strategic development and continuous improvement of the initiative/readiness framework for Support Now, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and best practices.
• Champions and drives the continuous development of advanced readiness techniques and expertise across the team.
• Responsible for the proactive outreach, intake, discovery, and readiness of any Support Center project or initiative that passes our selection standards for Support Now, requiring support.
• Evaluates and makes strategic recommendations on whether or not to support certain projects or initiatives from across the business, for all of Support Now, consulting with our strategy and transformation partners.
• Establish and contribute to formal governance structures (e.g., Standards, Readiness Advisory Boards), facilitating meetings and ensuring adherence to established readiness standards
• Drives the continuous improvement of the Readiness Framework and Service Selection Standards.

Strategic Readiness & Project Oversight:

• Directs the creation and management of processes to identify all projects/initiatives requiring Support Now involvement to support Restaurants and Customers effectively.
• Directs the creation of strategic readiness plans and provides expert consultation to all business initiative/project owners for those rolled out to the Restaurants or Customers requiring Support Now support.
• Proactively identifies and strategically resolves collisions of schedules or resources, providing high-level recommendations to stakeholders and Support Now leadership to prevent disruptions.
• Leads the identification, assessment, and strategic mitigation of risks across multiple initiatives, communicating potential impacts to leadership.
• Conduct comprehensive stakeholder analyses, change impact assessments, and develop strategic change adoption plans for all critical initiatives.

Business Readiness Framework Execution:

• Obtaining approved project lists for the Support Center for proactive outreach.
• Maintaining the intake of projects/initiatives from Support Center teams needing assistance.
• Coordinating and facilitating discovery sessions with partners and external stakeholders to ensure alignment on the scope of work for projects/initiatives.
• Documenting and delegating all tasks relevant to the strategic readiness play for each project or initiative.
• Leading the strategic prioritization and influencing the sequencing of all projects/initiatives requesting Support Now's support.
• Engaging and collaborating with internal stakeholders to ensure seamless integration.
• Establishing and overseeing metrics to track the progress and quality of work being done, and assessing the readiness of Support Now teams to fully onboard and support an initiative or project.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Communication:

• Establishes and nurtures strategic partnerships with stakeholders across Chick-fil-A to ensure seamless support and alignment.
• Serve as the primary liaison and relationship owner for key strategic partners involved in the Support Now Readiness Framework.
• Leads and facilitates critical cross-functional meetings, including but not limited to:
  
  • Readiness Checkpoints
  • Post-project reports
  • After-action review sessions
  • Internal Focus groups
• Drives high-level, strategic communication to all stakeholders, ensuring comprehensive documentation and transparency.
  Budget & Resource Management:
• May be asked to provide budgetary recommendations in alignment with Workforce for resourcing needs to support a project or initiative.

Quality Assurance:

• Leads and directs post-project or after-action reviews driving continuous improvement across all processes.
• Provides strategic feedback and insights to project owners and Support Now teams.
• Directs the creation of strategic presentations or reports as necessary on initiative or project closure, presenting findings to the project owner, stakeholders and leadership.
• Identifies, champions, and implements significant improvement opportunities and communicates recommendations to relevant parties.

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, organizational development, project management
• 1 or more years of relevant work experience

Skills:

• Strategic Planning
• Executive Presence
• Project Management
• Change Management
• Strong Negotiation Skills

• 3or more years of relevant work experience
• Business Acumen
• Risk Management
• JIRA
• Monday.com
• Process Improvement
• ITIL Foundation or higher
• PROSCI certification