Reports to: Vice President of Development

With a projected 1,000 cafes in the United States by 2030, Paris Baguette is one of the fastest-growing neighborhood bakery cafés in the world. Our vision is to reestablish the neighborhood bakery café as the heart of the community around the world.  Paris Baguette’s mission is to bring expertly crafted baked and brewed goods through a warm and welcoming bakery café experience that delivers joy to everyone.

If you are someone who has heart, wants to spread joy, nourish community and is ready to rise to the occasion, we are looking for you to join our growing team!

WHAT WE ARE HUNGRY FOR

The Director of New Café Openings will lead the strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of the New Café Opening function across North America, ensuring every new bakery café opens efficiently, consistently, and positioned for long-term franchisee success. The role is responsible for designing and scaling best-in-class new café opening systems and for the training, deployment, and performance management of a 30+ person on-site opening support organization operating both pre- and post-opening. The Director serves as the senior leader and primary point of contact for franchisee readiness during the pre-operational lifecycle, ensuring a seamless transition from Development to Operations while driving efficiency, accountability, and repeatable results at scale.

KNOWLEDGE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Leads all new café openings across North America, including transfers, with full ownership of opening outcomes. 
• Develops and executes opening strategy, timelines, and capacity planning to support aggressive year-over-year growth. 
• Oversees the training, deployment, and on-site execution of a 30+ person New Café Opening team supporting cafés before, during, and after opening.
• Establishes clear performance expectations, KPIs, and accountability frameworks for opening teams and franchise partners.
• Prepares franchise owners for long-term operational success, not just opening day readiness, through structured training, coaching, and post-opening follow-up. 
• Standardizes and continuously improves new café opening processes, playbooks, and tools, driving efficiency, speed, and quality. 
• Leads cross-functional alignment with Development, Construction, Supply Chain, IT, Training, and Operations to ensure flawless execution. 
• Establishes and leads post-opening review and performance validation programs to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement. 
• Builds strong, trust-based relationships with franchisees and serves as a partner throughout the opening journey. 
• Recruits, develops, mentors, and retains senior leaders’ managers and team members within the New Café Opening organization. 
• Drives vendor strategy and alignment to support scalable, repeatable openings. 
• Supports enterprise initiatives tied to growth, scale, and operational excellence. 
• Other duties may be assigned.

WHAT YOU NEED TO HAVE

• Bachelor’s degree required in Business Administration, Operations, Organizational Development, or equivalent experience.
• At least 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in multi-unit restaurant, retail, or franchise environments with significant exposure to high-volume new unit openings.
• Proven experience leading large, geographically distributed teams and building scalable systems in fast-growth organizations.
• Demonstrated success in franchise environments, including preparing owners for operational readiness and long-term success. 
• Strong strategic mindset with the ability to balance big-picture planning and disciplined execution. 
• Exceptional leadership presence with the ability to influence cross-functional partners and franchise stakeholders at all levels.
• Highly organized, data-driven, and process-oriented leader with a passion for continuous improvement.
• Ability to travel extensively across North America in support of new café openings.
• Flexible, adaptive, upbeat, open and visible work style, with a successful track record of supporting operations leaders across a large geographically decentralized portfolio.
• Passion for people! Dynamic and engaged leader who has a passion for empowering, inspiring, motivating & developing team members and franchisee relationships.
• Exceptional organizational and communication skills with the ability to effectively balance priorities and deliver results in a fast-paced, ever-changing, and highly entrepreneurial environment.
• Feedback is a gift! Ability to provide constructive feedback and recognition to every member of the organization, along with Franchisees, to ensure we have an open and transparent culture of high performance standards.
• High emotional intelligence with the ability to work with, and support diverse teams by being highly empathetic, intuitive, self-motivated and driven.
• Teams Win! Has to be a team player who fosters a collaborative and engaged teamwork environment.
• Being a Brand Ambassador, with an excellent knowledge of and commitment to Paris Baguette’s Mission, Vision, Brand Values and Culture.
• Love of travel! Ability to commute to all current Corporate and Franchise locations, as well as proposed openings.

SWEET BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation
• Free Cake for your Birthday
• Medical, Dental, Vision benefits
• 401K Retirement Plan
• Paid time off, paid Holidays
• High Performance Culture

Reports to: Vice President of Development

With a projected 1,000 cafes in the United States by 2030, Paris Baguette is one of the fastest-growing neighborhood bakery cafés in the world. Our vision is to reestablish the neighborhood bakery café as the heart of the community around the world.  Paris Baguette’s mission is to bring expertly crafted baked and brewed goods through a warm and welcoming bakery café experience that delivers joy to everyone.

If you are someone who has heart, wants to spread joy, nourish community and is ready to rise to the occasion, we are looking for you to join our growing team!

WHAT WE ARE HUNGRY FOR

The Director of New Café Openings will lead the strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of the New Café Opening function across North America, ensuring every new bakery café opens efficiently, consistently, and positioned for long-term franchisee success. The role is responsible for designing and scaling best-in-class new café opening systems and for the training, deployment, and performance management of a 30+ person on-site opening support organization operating both pre- and post-opening. The Director serves as the senior leader and primary point of contact for franchisee readiness during the pre-operational lifecycle, ensuring a seamless transition from Development to Operations while driving efficiency, accountability, and repeatable results at scale.

KNOWLEDGE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Leads all new café openings across North America, including transfers, with full ownership of opening outcomes. 
• Develops and executes opening strategy, timelines, and capacity planning to support aggressive year-over-year growth. 
• Oversees the training, deployment, and on-site execution of a 30+ person New Café Opening team supporting cafés before, during, and after opening.
• Establishes clear performance expectations, KPIs, and accountability frameworks for opening teams and franchise partners.
• Prepares franchise owners for long-term operational success, not just opening day readiness, through structured training, coaching, and post-opening follow-up. 
• Standardizes and continuously improves new café opening processes, playbooks, and tools, driving efficiency, speed, and quality. 
• Leads cross-functional alignment with Development, Construction, Supply Chain, IT, Training, and Operations to ensure flawless execution. 
• Establishes and leads post-opening review and performance validation programs to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement. 
• Builds strong, trust-based relationships with franchisees and serves as a partner throughout the opening journey. 
• Recruits, develops, mentors, and retains senior leaders’ managers and team members within the New Café Opening organization. 
• Drives vendor strategy and alignment to support scalable, repeatable openings. 
• Supports enterprise initiatives tied to growth, scale, and operational excellence. 
• Other duties may be assigned.

WHAT YOU NEED TO HAVE

• Bachelor’s degree required in Business Administration, Operations, Organizational Development, or equivalent experience.
• At least 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in multi-unit restaurant, retail, or franchise environments with significant exposure to high-volume new unit openings.
• Proven experience leading large, geographically distributed teams and building scalable systems in fast-growth organizations.
• Demonstrated success in franchise environments, including preparing owners for operational readiness and long-term success. 
• Strong strategic mindset with the ability to balance big-picture planning and disciplined execution. 
• Exceptional leadership presence with the ability to influence cross-functional partners and franchise stakeholders at all levels.
• Highly organized, data-driven, and process-oriented leader with a passion for continuous improvement.
• Ability to travel extensively across North America in support of new café openings.
• Flexible, adaptive, upbeat, open and visible work style, with a successful track record of supporting operations leaders across a large geographically decentralized portfolio.
• Passion for people! Dynamic and engaged leader who has a passion for empowering, inspiring, motivating & developing team members and franchisee relationships.
• Exceptional organizational and communication skills with the ability to effectively balance priorities and deliver results in a fast-paced, ever-changing, and highly entrepreneurial environment.
• Feedback is a gift! Ability to provide constructive feedback and recognition to every member of the organization, along with Franchisees, to ensure we have an open and transparent culture of high performance standards.
• High emotional intelligence with the ability to work with, and support diverse teams by being highly empathetic, intuitive, self-motivated and driven.
• Teams Win! Has to be a team player who fosters a collaborative and engaged teamwork environment.
• Being a Brand Ambassador, with an excellent knowledge of and commitment to Paris Baguette’s Mission, Vision, Brand Values and Culture.
• Love of travel! Ability to commute to all current Corporate and Franchise locations, as well as proposed openings.

SWEET BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation
• Free Cake for your Birthday
• Medical, Dental, Vision benefits
• 401K Retirement Plan
• Paid time off, paid Holidays
• High Performance Culture