Position Summary
The Country Director is the primary business partner to the Master Franchisee in India and is accountable for protecting, growing, and strengthening the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. brands within the market. The role partners closely with the franchisee's leadership team and CKE's regional functional teams to drive sustainable sales and profit growth, execute development commitments, uphold brand standards, and ensure consistent delivery of the customer experience.
Operating through influence rather than direct operational control, the Country Director builds trusted relationships, provides strategic guidance, and ensures the franchisee meets contractual obligations, business objectives, and brand standards.
Essential Functions
Franchise Partnership
- Serve as the senior strategic partner to the Master Franchisee.
- Develop strong executive relationships built on trust, transparency, and accountability.
- Support development and execution of the annual business plan and long-term market strategy.
- Provide commercial insights and recommendations to improve sales, profitability, and restaurant performance.
Business Performance
- Drive achievement of agreed KPIs, including Same Store Sales, EBITDA, Gross New Units, Net New Units, guest metrics, and operational scorecards.
- Lead quarterly business reviews and monitor action plans.
- Identify performance gaps and support recovery initiatives.
Brand Standards & Operational Excellence
- Ensure consistent execution of brand standards across Food Quality, Service, Cleanliness, Speed of Service, Training and Guest Experience.
- Monitor QA, Operations Assessment, and customer satisfaction performance.
- Champion continuous improvement and operational best practices.
Development & Growth
- Support delivery of development agreement commitments.
- Partner on site approvals, opening readiness, and successful restaurant launches.
- Ensure new restaurants open fully compliant with CKE standards.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Coordinate support across Marketing, Digital, Supply Chain, Finance, Development, IT, Restaurant Excellence, QA and Legal.
- Drive implementation of regional and global initiatives.
- Represent franchise needs while protecting CKE brand interests.
Governance
- Monitor compliance with franchise agreement obligations and operating standards.
- Ensure timely corrective action plans where standards are not achieved.
- Maintain robust reporting and business governance.
Position Qualifications/Core Competencies
- 10+ years leadership experience within QSR, retail, or other multi-unit consumer businesses.
- Strong franchise management experience.
- Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.
- Strong commercial and financial acumen.
- Experience supporting multi-unit operations and restaurant development.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience leading cross-functional initiatives.
- Knowledge of the Indian QSR market preferred.
- Fluent English (written and spoken).
- Willingness to travel approximately 35% of the time across India.
CORE COMPETENCIES
Leadership
Business
Franchise Partnership
Commercial Acumen
Influencing Without Authority
Operational Excellence
Collaboration
Strategic Thinking
Coaching & Capability Building
Data-Driven Decision Making
Integrity
Execution Discipline
Stakeholder Management
Customer Focus
SUCCESS MEASURES
- Constant interaction with internal and external partners in person, by phone, and/or electronic communications
- Travel as needed across India based on business requirements.
THE COMPANY RETAINS THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR ASSIGN OTHER DUTIES TO THIS POSITION AS DEEMED APPROPRIATE WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE. 
