Senior Director Grab & Go

Purpose:The Senior Director of Grab & Go is responsible for shaping and executing Avolta’s food, beverage, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) merchandising strategies, with a primary focus on accelerating growth in the Grab-and-Go business model. This role drives strategic planning, store standards, product implementation, and collaboration with marketing to elevate consumer engagement and deliver measurable revenue and margin improvements.

Essential Functions:

• Drives Grab & Go merchandising strategies and execution that maximize revenue growth, accelerate product placement, and enhance the customer experience across retail and restaurant operations
• Leads fresh food innovation and product launches, establishing store standards for fixtures, merchandising, pricing, and product sell-thru to drive food sales as a percentage of total store sales
• Partners with Marketing to develop and execute innovative storytelling strategies that deepen brand connection and drive incremental sales
• Partners with Category Management, Supply Chain, Culinary, Operations, and Finance teams to analyze program performance, challenge status quo, and implement strategies that maximize revenue and profitability in operations
• Establishes and enforces consistent merchandising standards to ensure efficiency and deliver premium customer experience across all locations
• Optimizes vendor partnerships product placement programs to enhance visibility, accelerate sales growth, and strengthen vendor-supported product placement strategies
• Directs planning and execution of seasonal initiatives that create a differentiated and premium retail experience
• Leverages customer insights and analytics to understand shopping behaviors, optimize the customer journey, and provide actionable recommendations through comprehensive performance and financial reporting
• Oversees sales and cost-of-sales budgets, guaranteeing alignment with ROI targets and brand objectives
• Identifies and pursues new revenue streams within airport F&B initiatives to expand convenience sales and rebate opportunities

Reporting Relationship: The Senior Director of Grab & Go reports to the Vice President of Culinary

Minimum Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills, and Work Environment:

• The combination of education and professional experience must exceed 10 years:
  • In a leadership role: Requires 5 years of experience leading a team of professionals engaged in retail merchandising, CPG, or food service operations
  • In a technical role: Requires 10 years of experience engaged in retail merchandising, CPG, or food service operations
    • A bachelor’s degree in a program related to the functional area can count for 3 of the ten-year requirement
    • An MBA or a master’s level degree in a program related to the functional area can count for an additional 2 years of the ten-year requirement
  • In the industry: 5-7 years of Hospitality, F&B and/or Retail experience
• Specialized Training:
  • Training that leads to an expert level of retail merchandising strategies, product placement, and consumer packaged goods
• Specialized Skillset/Competencies/Traits:
  • Demonstrated experience driving revenue growth and margin improvement in retail or food service operations
  • Strong vendor relationship management and negotiation skills
  • Financial acumen including budget management, P&L analysis, and cost-of-sales optimization
  • Proficiency in consumer insights, data analysis, and using analytics to drive strategic decision-making
  • Excellent leadership and cross-functional collaboration skills with ability to influence senior leadership
  • Innovation mindset with ability to identify and implement new revenue opportunities
  • Advanced business acumen and also has the strategic mindset required to understand the long-term implications of merchandising decisions and to advance the organization’s goals
  • Demonstrated history of anticipating the needs of the business and complex stakeholders
  • Demonstrated history of creating and maintaining positive work environments through coaching, developing, and leading teams to achieve common goals
  • Demonstrated experience exhibiting a continuous improvement mindset with the ability to optimize work processes and achieve positive results

• Location/Travel:
  • This role is located at the North America Support Center in Bethesda, MD
  • This role may require up to 50% travel