E-Commerce & Loyalty Director

We’re KFC, an iconic brand serving world-famous finger lickin’ good fried chicken since 1952. With more than 28,000 restaurants across 150 countries and territories, our people and culture are at the heart of everything we do—creating an environment where individuals can be their best selves, make a difference, and have fun. Our KFC Global division, based in Dallas, TX, supports regional teams, franchise partners, and nearly one million team members worldwide. With a hybrid work environment and strong cross-functional collaboration, we work together to share the joy of great-tasting chicken across the globe. As part of Yum! Brands, we also collaborate with leading brands like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger & Grill.

This is an exciting opportunity to drive innovation and growth at KFC MENAPAKT FZ-LLC. As the E-Commerce & Loyalty Director, you will own and lead the loyalty and e-commerce agenda, setting the vision and strategy for a bold transformation. With a focus on loyalty, CRM, personalization, and owned digital channels, you will turn loyalty into a profit engine and a key differentiator for the brand. This role requires a data-driven, fast-paced leader who can navigate complexity and inspire high-performing teams.

Responsibilities:
This is a unique leadership opportunity to build the loyalty and ecommerce agenda at a brand poised for bold transformation. As Ecommerce & Loyalty Director, you will set the strategy and standard for loyalty, CRM, personalization, and owned digital channels (app, web, kiosk). You shape how the brand builds long-term customer relationships through engagement, recognition, and behavioral design—making loyalty a genuine competitive differentiator rather than a cost of doing business. You will steer a high-performing team of specialists while collaborating with cross-functional partners, franchisees, and global stakeholders.

This role calls for a loyalty leader who drives decisions with data, operates at speed, and thrives in complexity. You are not just a programme manager; you are an architect of customer relationships. You bring deep loyalty and personalization expertise, a strong grasp of technology, and comfort in ambiguity. Success requires more than individual excellence—the ability to inspire high-performing teams, influence stakeholders, and lead cross-functionally with clarity, confidence, and impact.

Define and Lead the Loyalty Strategy (25%)
Own the loyalty strategy end to end and set the vision for customer engagement and commercial growth. Establish a unified loyalty framework that scales across markets. Act as the subject-matter expert on loyalty, driving best practice in acquisition, activation, and retention. Bring a forward-looking view on programme design—gamification, progression-based engagement, and applied behavioural economics—to keep the programme distinctive and hard to replicate.

Secure Franchisee Buy-In & Loyalty Adoption (20%)
This role sets the strategy; franchisees execute. The core skill is influence—turning loyalty strategy into a commercial case compelling enough that franchisees choose to adopt and fund it. Build the business case (incremental sales, frequency, retention, ROI, and funding model) and win franchisee investment market by market. Govern adoption, alignment on programme economics and data-sharing, and consistent execution across markets. Enable franchise partners through capability-building, loyalty playbooks, and transformation workshops—empowering them to run the programme well.

Drive Ecommerce & Owned Channel Growth (20%)
Define and lead the unified digital commerce vision across web, app, drive-thru, and kiosk for a seamless, connected, and profitable customer journey, with franchisees executing in market. Make the app the single front door for ordering, payment, and loyalty. Tailor strategy by market maturity—from foundational enablement to advanced orchestration—ensuring omnichannel consistency, growth, and platform innovation. Set the UX, merchandising, and conversion standards that drive customer acquisition, penetration, basket, and repeat through owned channels. Set the direction for digital marketing and media that drives qualified traffic and acquisition into owned channels, with a test-and-learn discipline to optimize conversion. Strengthen the value of direct, owned channels as the primary route to acquire and retain the customer.

Set the Personalization & Lifecycle Strategy (15%)
Define the personalization strategy and the segmentation and lifecycle framework—onboarding, activation, frequency, win-back—that markets and franchisees execute against. Set the standard for how customer data drives one-to-one engagement at scale, and hold the discipline that value comes from campaign and merchandiser execution exploiting the data, not the model alone. Guide markets on best practice and evolve loyalty from points math to emotional brand connection.

Set the Platform, Data & Measurement Direction (15%)
Set the reference architecture for the loyalty platform and the identity layer that gives a single customer view across app, web, kiosk, and delivery—franchisees build, this role sets the standards, feature direction, and the principles of scalability and modularity. Set the standard for the Martech and data stack that powers loyalty and personalization—CDP, decisioning, and CRM—and the direction for a cookie less, privacy-centric future. Set a unified measurement framework—penetration, active engagement, frequency uplift, LTV, and ROI—and run regular performance reviews with markets to protect quality and programme impact.

Lead the Team & Align Stakeholders (5%)
Build and inspire a high-performing team and agency partners across loyalty, CRM, personalization, and analytics. Partner with Marketing, Technology, Operations, and Finance to ensure the loyalty agenda delivers both brand and business value. Localize global strategy for market fit, and align markets to the global loyalty roadmap.

Specialized /Technical Knowledge/Skills and Other relevant requirements

          Strategic Vision & Leadership 

• Deep loyalty expertise with a proven track record of scaling best-in-class loyalty programmes in large organisations—optimising for penetration, active engagement, frequency, and retention.
• Strong command of personalization and CRM—segmentation, lifecycle journeys, and decisioning—with the ability to architect scalable strategies from foundational enablement to advanced one-to-one engagement.

• Forward-looking on loyalty design—gamification, progression-based engagement, and applied behavioural economics—with a track record of making programmes distinctive and hard to replicate.

  Technology & Martech Expertise

• Strong understanding of the Martech and analytics ecosystem, including tools such as GA360, CDPs, Adobe Experience Cloud, Firebase—able to guide platform strategy and partner with technical experts for deployment and optimization.
• Well-versed in performance marketing disciplines (SEM, SEO, Paid Media, App Marketing) with the ability to guide teams and agencies on strategy, execution standards, and KPIs.
• Able to evaluate and align Martech ecosystems across CRM, loyalty, media, and automation tools—ensuring interoperability, scalability, and business relevance.

• Fully capable of orchestrating cross-functional teams, agencies, and vendors to deploy best-in-class digital and Martech solutions at scale.

  Data & Analytics Leadership

• Strong command of data strategy—including customer segmentation models (RFM, CLV), predictive analytics (churn, frequency), and behavioral insights—to inform decision-making.
• Ability to translate complex data into clear strategic direction, ensuring the right metrics, dashboards, and insights are in place to measure what matters.
• Experienced in overseeing the development of enterprise-wide reporting frameworks and real-time dashboards (e.g., Power BI, Big Query)—in partnership with analytics leads and BI teams.

• Leads with a data-first mindset—championing test-and-learn culture, performance optimization, and closed-loop measurement across digital programs.

  Team Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Charismatic communicator and presenter with strong executive presence.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams, agency partners, and franchisees across diverse markets.
• Skilled at influencing senior stakeholders, aligning on priorities, and presenting complex results in clear, actionable narrative formats.

• Able to lead through ambiguity with a solution-first mindset and an agile, iterative approach.

  Soft Skills & Personal Attributes

• Visionary yet grounded, able to balance strategic foresight with day-to-day execution.
• Collaborative leader with a strong sense of accountability, values, and adaptability.
• Thrives in high-performance, multi-project environments with excellent attention to detail.
• Culturally intelligent and effective in multi-market, multi-stakeholder environments.

• Fluent in English (Arabic is a plus).

  Qualification & Prior experience

• 12+ years of progressive leadership in loyalty, CRM, or digital commerce roles, preferably in QSR, retail, or FMCG.
• Tertiary qualification in Marketing, Business, or Technology; MBA or postgraduate studies preferred.
• Proven track record scaling loyalty programmes that deliver measurable customer and commercial impact across multi-unit franchise or regional markets.
• Proven experience operating across culturally diverse, multi-market environments—ideally with exposure to franchise-led or decentralized business models.
• Demonstrated ability to grow within a single organization or lead transformation across multiple business units.
• Comfortable bridging the gap between technical teams and commercial stakeholders, from franchise operators to C-level executives.