Yum!
Job Description
As the Director of Product Design for Smart Ops at Byte, you will lead the strategic design vision, execution, and team that power the operational backbone of our restaurant technology suite. This role requires a systems thinker with deep experience designing across complex enterprise ecosystems-balancing user needs, technical realities, and business outcomes.
Key Responsibilities:
Design Leadership & Vision:
Salary Range: $160,400 - $207,680 annually + bonus eligibility and stock-based compensation. This is the expected salary range for this position. Ultimately, in determining pay, we'll consider the successful candidate's location, experience, and other job-related factors.
About Us
Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, and its subsidiaries franchise or operate a system of over 59,000 restaurants in more than 155 countries and territories under the company's concepts - KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill. The Company's KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands are global leaders of the chicken, Mexican-style food, and pizza categories, respectively. Habit Burger & Grill is a fast casual restaurant concept specializing in made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches and more. In 2024, Yum! was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America, and the company was recognized among TIME Magazine's list of Best Companies for Future Leaders, Newsweek's list of America's Most Responsible Companies and USA Today's America's Climate Leaders. Yum! also received widespread recognition in 2023, including being listed on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and Forbes' list of America's Best Employers for Diversity. In addition, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands were ranked in the top five of Entrepreneur's Top Global Franchises Ranking for 2023.
As the Director of Product Design for Smart Ops at Byte, you will lead the strategic design vision, execution, and team that power the operational backbone of our restaurant technology suite. This role requires a systems thinker with deep experience designing across complex enterprise ecosystems-balancing user needs, technical realities, and business outcomes.
Key Responsibilities:
Design Leadership & Vision:
- Define and champion a cohesive design strategy for Smart Ops that aligns with Yum!'s business objectives and restaurant operator needs.
- Craft a north star experience vision for a suite of interdependent tools while supporting phased delivery, flexibility, and iteration.
- Guide a successful end-to-end redesign of a core operational platform-ensuring that quality, scale, and usability remain uncompromised.
- Lead, mentor, and scale a team of talented designers across multiple Smart Ops domains, providing clarity, support, and strategic direction.
- Build team structures that optimize for both embedded ownership and centralized craft leadership.
- Shape the design team's career paths, rituals, and operational models to grow individual designers and team impact.
- Drive the development and integration of a shared design system in partnership with the design systems team, enabling consistency, efficiency, and scalable design execution.
- Create and uphold UX principles, patterns, and standards to ensure cohesive experiences across Smart Ops tools and the broader Byte ecosystem.
- Partner deeply with Product, Engineering, and Brand to shape roadmap direction, translate user needs into execution, and advocate for design as a strategic pillar.
- Navigate technical constraints and business priorities with clarity and influence-bringing teams along through storytelling, framing, and design rationale.
- Be a trusted voice in leadership forums, helping shape cross-org strategy, investment, and resourcing conversations.
- Establish design operating rhythms including critiques, planning, reviews, and collaboration cadences with cross-functional peers.
- Champion tools, processes, and rituals that unlock high-velocity design execution and continuous quality improvement.
- Define success metrics for design work and tie UX impact to key business and operational outcomes.
- Ground design work in insights from operators, employees, and franchisees across varied restaurant environments.
- Champion customer research and usability testing as core parts of the product development process, not optional or after-the-fact.
- Ensure that every design decision reflects the realities of the people who use our tools in high-stakes, fast-paced environments.
- Build a high-bar, high-trust culture of design grounded in curiosity, rigor, and care.
- Invest in team health and morale while pushing for exceptional execution and impact.
- Foster diversity of thought and experience within the team-creating space for creativity, growth, and continuous learning.
- 10+ years of product design experience, with 5+ years in design leadership roles overseeing complex or enterprise product ecosystems.
- Experience leading large-scale design initiatives across deeply interconnected domains, platforms, or workflows.
- Demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity and complexity, bringing clarity and alignment across cross-functional teams.
- Strong systems thinking, interaction design, and user-centered product development skills.
- Deep understanding of design systems and scalable design operations.
- Excellent communication and storytelling skills-able to tailor influence from ICs to executives.
- Proven track record of mentoring and growing design talent and shaping org culture.
- Passion for solving real-world operational problems and building tools that empower people.
- Prior experience in operational tools, enterprise software, or platform design is a plus, but not required.
Salary Range: $160,400 - $207,680 annually + bonus eligibility and stock-based compensation. This is the expected salary range for this position. Ultimately, in determining pay, we'll consider the successful candidate's location, experience, and other job-related factors.
About Us
Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, and its subsidiaries franchise or operate a system of over 59,000 restaurants in more than 155 countries and territories under the company's concepts - KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill. The Company's KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands are global leaders of the chicken, Mexican-style food, and pizza categories, respectively. Habit Burger & Grill is a fast casual restaurant concept specializing in made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches and more. In 2024, Yum! was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America, and the company was recognized among TIME Magazine's list of Best Companies for Future Leaders, Newsweek's list of America's Most Responsible Companies and USA Today's America's Climate Leaders. Yum! also received widespread recognition in 2023, including being listed on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and Forbes' list of America's Best Employers for Diversity. In addition, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands were ranked in the top five of Entrepreneur's Top Global Franchises Ranking for 2023.