Director, International Business Development

About the Role
The International Business Development Director will be instrumental in turbo charging the company's next phase of growth on our journey to becoming a Top 10 Global Restaurant Brand. As a team player, you will work in close partnership with the Global Head of Business Development, regional stakeholders across EMEA, APAC, and LATAM, and teams at our Global Support Centre.

Primary Objective:
The #1 objective of this role is to build and maintain a high-quality development pipeline that effectively balances brand awareness, market accessibility, and Brand Partner profitability. Achieving this balance is fundamental to ensuring sustainable, long-term growth for the brand.
The role is multi-faceted and suited to a passionate self-starter who is both culturally and commercially astute. You will focus on the end-to-end Brand Partner (Franchisee) identification and onboarding process, including financial and legal due diligence, mapping the Brand Partner landscape globally, cultivating relationships, and tracking QSR/F&B/Fast Casual market trends. Additionally, you will develop a global infrastructure for scalable development, identifying and managing best-in-class third-party vendors, such as market planning and analytics.
In essence, you will play a critical role in defining and driving business and brand expansion for the company globally.

Responsibilities Include:

• Leading the identification, assessment, and onboarding of new brand partners globally.
• Developing and maintaining a structured global partner pipeline and tracking system.
• Partnering with finance and legal to manage due diligence and franchise agreements.
• Building and managing global vendor relationships (e.g., analytics, real estate planning).
• Monitoring global QSR and fast-casual trends to inform strategic decision-making.
• Collaborating with regional teams to ensure consistent, scalable execution.
• Reporting regularly on market performance and partner success metrics.

What You'll Need

• Experience in a similar role is essential, preferably in a global role within the restaurant segment.
• A global citizen with an extensive network and cultural exposure and awareness.
• Deep knowledge of the restaurant sector.
• Natural relationship-building skills.
• Multilingual capability is a plus.
• A robust and qualified franchise pipeline aligned to the company's long-term market strategy.
• Experience in growth acceleration through new and existing Brand Partner development.
• Ability to build strong internal and partner relationships grounded in trust and performance.
• Strong grasp of real estate development and market planning principles.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, presentation, and negotiation skills.
• Strong understanding of franchise business models and P&L drivers.
• 10+ years in international business development or franchise growth (preferably QSR).
• Willingness to travel up to 60-70%.
• Knowledge of the real estate arena and strong analytical ability.

Who You Are
You recognize that the real work happens in the restaurants, and everything you do should support their success. You stay humble, roll up your sleeves, and always look for ways to help. You learn from others and contribute wherever you can.
You care deeply about doing great work and driving results. You’re curious, ask questions, and seek out opportunities to improve. You don’t just point out problems—you bring solutions, ideas, and perspectives that move the team forward.
You take full responsibility for your work and see things through to completion. You aren’t afraid to fail because you know that failure is a part of learning and growth. You take action, move fast, and keep pushing forward.
You lead with empathy, respect, and emotional intelligence. You collaborate effectively, fostering a culture of trust and constructive feedback. You understand the importance of teamwork and ensure that your actions build others up rather than break them down.
You push yourself and others to be better. You embrace healthy conflict, knowing that great ideas and strong teams emerge from honest, constructive conversations. You believe that leaders create leaders and are committed to fostering a culture of growth, challenge, and continuous improvement.

Equal Opportunity Employment
The company provides equal opportunities for everyone that works for us and everyone that applies to join our team, without regard to sex or gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, any service, past, present, or future, in the uniformed services of the United States (military or veteran status), or any other consideration protected by federal, state, or local law.