What’s Unique About You Is What Makes Us Better! Diversity is our strength and competitive advantage. Bring your flavor to the Papa John's team today!
The Director of International Market Development (New & Existing Markets), is responsible for originating, qualifying, and securing high‑quality international franchise and development opportunities. This leader is responsible to build and manage a robust global pipeline of prospective partners, focusing on both new market entries and existing market opportunities in existing markets.
This role helps to drive long‑range international development goals, ensuring that new partners meet the operational, financial, and gold standards required to deliver sustainable PSA performance, profitable net openings, and long‑term comp sales growth.
Duties and Responsibilities (other duties as assigned)
Lead Generation & Partner Origination
Generate a high‑quality pipeline of international franchise prospects across markets
Leverage an established global network of franchise operators, multi‑unit restaurant groups, institutional investors, and strategic partners.
Identify and cultivate relationships with prospective partners who demonstrate strong QSR operational capability, financial strength, and long‑term growth potential.
Partner Qualification & Deal Progression
Conduct structured due diligence on prospective franchisees, including operational experience, capital readiness, organizational capabilities, and alignment with brand principles.
Manage all early‑stage conversations and progress qualified prospects through the development funnel.
Collaborate closely with internal experts in Development Agreements, Market Mapping, and regional leadership (MEA, APAC, LATAM, UKE) to ensure alignment and deal readiness.
Cross‑Functional Collaboration
Bring the right internal stakeholders into the process at the appropriate moments, including Supply Chain, R&D, Marketing, Technology, and Operations.
Ensure internal alignment and market readiness to support successful new market entries and existing market development.
Partner with Business Development to ensure consistency of standards, partner selection, and strategic fit.
Strategic Planning & Market Development
Create and maintain internal executive one pagers with financial proposals, partner and partner profiles that inform decision‑making.
Develop proactive plans (e.g., communication plans, conferences) to generate new leads across priority markets and white‑space geographies.
Contribute directly to the long‑range international development plan by identifying and securing partners capable of meeting growth targets.
Communication & Leadership
Deliver clear, concise updates to senior leadership on pipeline progress, partner quality, and market opportunities.
Represent the brand with professionalism, strategic insight, and commercial rigor in all external interactions.
Take initiative in designing new approaches, tools, and processes that enhance lead generation and partnership conversion.
Everybody loves pizza, which means they also love the people who are behind the scenes working to deliver it. This is complex and challenging work – but let’s face it – it’s also pizza! If you want a fulfilling career with a company that’s always moving forward, we’re the right place.
Papa John's Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Papa John's and has not been reviewed or approved by Papa John's.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as available for eligible roles, including medical and dental options, alongside life and disability coverage in some packages.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support is described as available for eligible employees through a 401(k) plan, sometimes referenced with a company match depending on role and employer.
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Career-Linked Recognition & Rewards — Career-linked rewards are described through education support such as the Dough & Degrees program and occasional performance-related bonuses or recognition-style perks in certain organizations.
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What We Do
Papa John's Pizza is an American restaurant company that runs the third largest take-out and pizza delivery restaurant. Papa John's seeks people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and share our philosophy for success. Hands-on training, a clean and safe work environment, quality business practices, advancement opportunities and meaningful work combine to produce not only the best pizza, but also the best team members! Better Opportunities. Better People! At Papa John's we call ourselves team members instead of employees because we believe it is only through a strong team we can produce the best experience for our customers. Whether at our corporate campus, distribution centers, our restaurants, or located internationally; Papa John's has a variety of positions for talented and passionate people. Papa John's is an equal opportunity employer and provides excellent career opportunities for our entire team. Our company philosophies of promote from within and rewards based on performance are important elements of our company culture.
