Program Manager II

Restaurant Supply Chain Solutions, LLC, a Yum! Brands Co-op, is currently seeking a Program Manager II, to join the Taco Bell Concept team in Irvine, CA.

This position is part of the Program Management team that supports the supply chain for Taco Bell’s 8,200+ restaurants in the U.S. with annual sales more than $18B. This role leads to complex, high-visibility national commercialization initiatives that protect restaurant execution, franchisee experience, supply continuity, and brand performance.

To be successful in this role, Program Manager II must be a strategic, relationship-oriented supply chain leader who can integrate project management, demand planning, financial risk management, scenario planning, and executive stakeholder communication. This person will influence cross-functional decisions, drive launch readiness, manage risk across suppliers and distributors, and provide executive-ready recommendations for new products, limited time offers, core menu forecasts, and strategic supply chain initiatives.

Annual oversight is estimated at:

• 20-30 food, packaging and smallwares launches to support national NPI and LTOs
• $300MM-$500MM in inventory authorizations

Hybrid position: 3 days in the office, 2 days remote

Excellent benefits:
Medical, Dental, Vision, Vacation, Life Insurance, Retirement, Wellness, and much more.

• Lead complex, high-profile national commercialization initiatives for Taco Bell as the supply chain owner from test kitchen concept through restaurant execution. Key initiatives include new product introductions, limited time offers, product transitions, packaging changes, supplier capacity projects, and other marketing calendar initiatives with significant brand, franchisee, and operational visibility.
• Collaborate with cross functional stakeholders (marketing, operations, finance) to identify, quantify, and document the supply chain demands.
• Drive executive alignment on supply chain tradeoffs, commercialization risk, contingency plans, inventory exposure, supplier readiness, and launch readiness decisions.
• Collaborate with supply chain partners internally (supply planning, procurement, distribution) and externally (suppliers, distributors) to develop supply strategies that enable maximum flexibility with minimal financial risk. This includes planning contingencies, capacity assurance, and ingredient procurement timelines.
• Manage multiple overlapping launch timelines with significant supplier, distributor, procurement, quality, inventory, and restaurant execution dependencies.
• Manage supply chain timelines and deliverables of both internal and external stakeholders to ensure flawless execution of marketing initiatives.
• Orchestrate deployment and depletion of new ingredients from suppliers to distributors to restaurants.
• Provide timely, executive-ready communication to internal supply planners, procurement partners, brand partners, Finance, suppliers, distributors, and leadership, including clear recommendations, risk implications, and required decisions.
• Present supply updates, risk assessments, launch readiness recommendations, and decision points to Concept and RSCS Executive Teams.
• Ensure key learnings and best practices are captured to support future strategic planning and continuous improvement.
• Create and manage inventory procurement authorizations, balancing supply assurance, sales upside, supplier lead times, depletion risk, and excess or obsolete inventory exposure.
• Special projects, and other duties as assigned by management.

• Leverage technology systems (primarily Blue Yonder and Power BI) to drive uninterrupted supply:
• Collaborate with cross functional partners to understand marketing activities; gather and input demand plans into the system.
• Develop and maintain accurate demand forecasts for assigned core menu items and products.
• Develop forecast scenarios and sensitivity analyses that translate marketing, sales, product, supplier, and operational assumptions into actionable supply chain recommendations.
• Monitor menu sales, rapidly identify forecast misses, coordinate research activities to reconcile significant variances, adjust plans, and inform stakeholders and leadership with concise insights, business implications, and recommended actions.
• Use and maintain demand planning software.
• Participate in continuous improvement and process optimization efforts.
• Special projects, and other duties as assigned by management.