Product Operations Lead

Product Operations Lead

Taco Bell was born and raised in California and has been around since 1962. We went from selling everyone's favorite Crunchy Tacos on the West Coast to a global brand with 7,500+ restaurants, 350 franchise organizations, that serve 42+ million fans each week around the globe. We're not only the largest Mexican-inspired quick service brand (QSR) in the world, we're also part of the biggest restaurant group in the world:
Yum! Brands. Much of our fan love and authentic connection with our communities are rooted in being rebels with a cause. From ensuring we use high-quality, sustainable ingredients to elevating restaurant technology in ways that haven't been done before… we will continue to be inclusive, bold, challenge the status quo and push industry boundaries.

We're a company that celebrates and advocates for different, has bold self-expression, strives for a better future, and brings fun while we're  fuel our culture with real people who bring unique experiences. We inspire and enable our teams and the world to Live Más. At Taco Bell, we're Cultural Rebels. Want to join in on the passion-fueled fun? Learn more about the career below.

Product Operations Lead is responsible for bridging the gap between restaurant operations, business strategy, and product development. This role sits at the intersection of real-world execution and digital product, owning the translation of operational challenges and business goals into clear product direction.

You will partner closely with technical product managers (TPMs) and field operators to ensure our labor management systems (scheduling, forecasting, people management, timekeeping, and reporting) drive measurable business impact.

This is a high-leverage role focused on defining problems, shaping strategy, and ensuring that product investments translate into operational and financial outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

1. Operational Insight & Problem Definition

Develop deep expertise in restaurant labor operations, including scheduling, staffing, compliance, and labor cost management. Identify and prioritize high-impact operational pain points through field engagement, data analysis, and stakeholder input. Translate ambiguous operational challenges into clearly defined problem statements with measurable success criteria.

2. Product Strategy & Direction

Define the strategic vision for labor management operational & business capabilities in alignment with company goals (e.g., margin improvement, efficiency, scalability). Partner with TPMs to shape product roadmaps based on business value, ROI, and operational impact. Establish guardrails and principles for product solutions (e.g., flexibility vs. control, automation vs. manual workflows).

3. Cross-Functional Collaboration

Act as the primary liaison between operations, business leadership, and technical product teams. Provide operational context and validation during product design and development. Partner with TPMs to ensure product solutions account for real-world complexity, edge cases, and adoption risks. Foster trusted partnerships across franchise leaders and home office teams to understand evolving business needs, establish shared expectations for product solutions, and ensure successful execution against agreed-upon objectives.

4. Adoption & Impact Realization

Define rollout strategies and oversee change management in partnership with operations and product teams. Collaborate with franchise leadership and corporate teams to plan, execute, and evaluate solutions, ensuring stakeholder alignment on objectives, timelines, risks, and outcomes. Champion franchise engagement throughout the innovation lifecycle, ensuring field perspectives are incorporated into testing plans and change management activities to maximize adoption and business impact.

Ensure alignment of incentives, processes, and expectations to drive product adoption. Measure and monitor business impact (e.g., labor allocation, productivity, schedule accuracy, compliance, ease). Travel to test markets (approx. 15%
-25% travel) to collect feedback, measure impact, and inform on future prioritization. Iterate on strategy based on…