Head of Restaurant Technology (12 Month Fixed Term Contract)

With over 60 years of history, Pizza Hut has become the world's largest pizza company, with 18,000+ stores across 100 countries. We're proud to be an International Operating Market of nearly 1,300 Pizza Huts across the UK, Ireland, France, and Canada. At Pizza Hut, our North Star is to be the top pizza choice, bringing people together through the joy of pizza. We're passionate about delivering extraordinary experiences to our beloved customers, keeping our team members happy, and collaborating with our franchisees who operate across 500 Delivery and Restaurant Huts in the UK and Ireland.

As part of the YUM! Brands family, which includes KFC, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill, Pizza Hut proudly stands alongside the largest restaurant group worldwide. Together, we strive for culinary excellence and unmatched dining experiences, whether in our restaurants or at home.

The Head of Restaurant Technology is responsible for leading a team in managing and enhancing Pizza Hut core technology systems, including POS, data, and help desk solutions in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France. This role is key to driving innovation across both physical and digital platforms (phygital), ensuring seamless integration to improve customer experience and operational efficiency. The position will lead major national initiatives such as back of house technology review and the 2026 pan-UK technology rollouts, working closely with third-party suppliers to minimize downtime and optimize system performance.

In addition to overseeing day-to-day restaurant tech operations, the role includes facilitating franchisee communications through the Digitech Committee, ensuring alignment across stakeholders. The successful candidate will also be responsible for data management practices and their integration into broader business strategies. This role requires strong leadership, proactive problem-solving, and the ability to manage both in-house teams and external partners effectively.

This role requires excellent leadership and team management skills. The successful candidate will be able to lead, mentor, and develop a small team of direct reports, fostering a culture of high performance, continuous improvement, and supporting professional growth within the team.

Key Responsibilities Technology Infrastructure Development & Evolution

• Lead the development and optimization of the Maverick suite, enhancing phygital features that integrate physical and digital customer interactions.
• Lead the digi-tech transformation in France, bringing franchises and cross-functional partners on the journey to implement the new digi-tech stack.
• Spearhead POS initiatives and the development roadmap, including Zonal Connect rollouts.
• Oversee the scoping and implementation of Windows OS upgrades and other audit-initiated programmes.
• Partner with Global/Yum! DigiTech team to develop and introduce best practice technology to the market.

Supplier & 3rd Party Management

• Accountability over 3rd-party strategic supplier relationships and technologies such as Dragontail, Fourth, and Zonal, ensuring they meet business requirements.
• Lead team to ensure proactive and reactive responses to restaurant technology issues, minimizing downtime across all locations.
• Assume accountability to ensure all systems are scalable, cost-effective, and meet both operational needs and innovation goals.

Franchisee Communication & Leadership

• Act as the primary liaison for franchisee technology communications, leading technology-related forums (i.e., Zero Incidents Committee 'ZINC') and franchisee councils.
• Chair the Digitech Committee, ensuring alignment between corporate and franchise technology goals and best practices.

Data Management & Integration

• Lead team to ensure restaurant-level data operations, ensuring efficient data capture and reporting unless escalated to global/IOM data systems.
• Collaborate with the analytics and IT teams to ensure that data management supports broader business strategies.

Requirements

• Strong understanding of software architecture principles/patterns and/or strong strategic skills.
• Experience with POS systems and back of house system integrations.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; experience of working with franchisees is a big advantage.
• Strong problem-solving skills with a focus on attention to detail, yet also leading with ambiguity.
• Desire to achieve breakthrough results through continuous drive for improvement.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills, particularly in leading franchisee forums and cross-functional teams.
• Strong problem-solving skills with a proactive approach to incident and risk management, including an eye toward continuous process improvement, and the ability to innovate and simplify both technology and project management processes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ideally 8+ years of experience in backend systems and software engineering, within the food and beverage or retail sectors. Proven franchise experience either in a technology function or another relevant role is preferred.
• 3+ years of experience in leading teams to ABR and strong commercial acumen.
• Ideally a level of higher education or diploma in a Digital and/or technology-related field.

Working Relationships

• Line manager: Chief Digital & Technology Officer
• Digital & Technology Teams across Pizza Hut IOM, Global and Yum! including PHD&T
• Pizza Hut IOM Senior Leadership and Leadership Teams
• Pizza Hut Franchise Partners and Above Restaurant Leaders

This role is based out of our Restaurant Support Centre in Central London, with a minimum of 1 day per week in the RSC required. As Pizza Hut is a franchise business, you may be required to attend franchisee offices and other locations from time to time. There will be events throughout the year that will take place in London including (but not limited to) RSC days, Functional team meetings / 121s and supporting with market visits.