Operations Excellence Manager (12 Month FTC)

About the Job

As Operations Excellence Manager, you will support the continued evolution of Pizza Hut IOM (International Operating Markets) operational and guest experience capability. This role sits at the intersection of customer insight, operational excellence, systems transformation, and franchise partnership. You will identify opportunities to simplify operations, improve guest experience, strengthen operational consistency, and embed smarter ways of working that deliver measurable business impact. You will combine customer and operational insight with strong project leadership and practical operational understanding to help translate strategy into sustainable execution across our restaurants. This includes leading complex cross‑functional initiatives, improving operational adoption of systems and tools, identifying trends and opportunities within customer and operational data, and supporting franchise partners to deliver consistent improvement. A key part of the role will be balancing strategic thinking with practical implementation, ensuring initiatives are not only well designed, but effectively embedded into day‑to‑day restaurant operations.

The successful candidate will bring strong curiosity, commercial awareness, structured problem solving, and the ability to influence across multiple stakeholder groups. They will be comfortable working with data and insight, but equally motivated by understanding how operations work in practice and how frontline execution can be improved.

Project & Programme Delivery

• Lead and support cross‑functional projects across customer experience, operational improvement, restaurant systems, and operational transformation initiatives.
• Own project coordination across multiple workstreams, ensuring clear timelines, stakeholder alignment, communication, and delivery against agreed objectives.
• Partner with Operations, franchisees, and cross‑functional teams to successfully pilot, test, and embed new initiatives, tools, and ways of working.
• Support operational rollout and adoption of projects by identifying barriers, driving engagement, and ensuring initiatives land effectively in restaurants.
• Manage relationships with relevant external partners and vendors where required, ensuring projects remain commercially and operationally focused.
• Capture project learnings, operational insights, and best practices to support continuous improvement and scalable implementation across the business.
• Support governance, reporting, and tracking of key operational initiatives to ensure visibility of progress, risks, and outcomes.

Customer Experience & Insight

• Lead and manage the relationship with our customer care provider, ensuring excellence service delivery and continuous improvement.
• Analyse customer and operational data to identify trends, opportunities, and operational focus areas.
• Translate insight into clear and practical recommendations to support operational improvement.
• Share learnings and trends with franchise partners and cross‑functional teams to support improved guest experience and restaurant performance.
• Partner with internal and external stakeholders to continuously improve customer experience processes and reporting.

Data & Insights

• Leverage operational, commercial, and guest performance data to generate insights that inform strategic priorities and drive continuous improvement across restaurant operations.
• Deliver robust analysis and performance reporting that enables proactive identification of risks, opportunities, and operational trends, supporting fact‑based decision‑making across markets.
• Collaborate with Global stakeholders to translate initiatives into measurable operational outcomes, ensuring alignment with restaurant excellence objectives and market targets.
• Champion a culture of continuous improvement by using analytics and operational insights to simplify processes, optimise execution, and enhance both team and guest experiences.

Systems & Ways of Working

• Own and optimise core operations systems to ensure simplicity, effectiveness, and adoption.
• Analyse and improve ways of working in restaurants to reduce complexity and improve team engagement.
• Lead the embedding of global tools, systems, and practices across the market.

Whos in your team? Working relationships

• Franchisees and their operational teams (Principal Operators, Operations Leaders, Area Coaches & RGMs)
• Pizza Hut Franchise Operations Team
• Pizza Hut Restaurant Excellence Team
• Marketing, HR, QA, Supply Chain and wider Restaurant Support Centre teams
• External suppliers where relevant

Skills & Experience

• Experience working in a franchise, hospitality, retail, restaurant or operationally‑led business.
• Strong organisational and project coordination skills.
• Ability to analyse data and identify practical operational insights and opportunities.
• Strong communication and relationship‑building capability.
• Curious and solutions‑focused mindset with a passion for continuous improvement.
• Comfortable working cross‑functionally across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Experience supporting operational change, behavioural adoption, or implementation of new systems/processes.
• Understanding of restaurant/QSR operations is advantageous but not essential.
• Willingness to spend regular time in restaurants and operational environments.

Pizza Hut UK: Where Ambition Meets Opportunity

Joining Pizza Hut UK means embarking on an entrepreneurial journey with the excitement of a start‑up and the support of a globally recognised brand. We're constantly pushing boundaries, embracing innovation, and creating exceptional experiences for our customers. So, if you're ready to leave your mark in the thrilling world of Pizza Hut, come join us on this incredible journey.

We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, and encourage candidates who believe they may be a good fit even if they do not meet every single qualification to apply.