Tropical Smoothie Cafe is accelerating its digital transformation to deliver a modern, seamless, and highly personalized guest experience across all digital touchpoints. As consumer behaviors evolve, we are committed to delivering the best digital experiences that meet rising expectations for convenience, loyalty engagement, and frictionless ordering.
The Director, Digital Channels will serve as the strategic and day to day leader of the Product Team, responsible for delivering a unified end-to-end digital experience across mobile app, web, and kiosk channels. This position will supervise the Product Managers for each channel, ensuring consistency across roadmaps and guest experience, while also actively contributing to the success of the team. You have a passion for creating best in class digital experiences, you have an eye for detail when it comes to User Experience design and you are at the forefront of consumer needs and trends.
This leader has a growth mindset, building upon the recent success of our digital channels but will take it to the next level. You will own digital channel performance, guide a cohesive analytics and event-tracking strategy, and strengthen cross-functional delivery in partnership with all business functions in particular Engineering, Marketing, Menu Innovation and Operations. The ideal candidate has successfully led major digital transformations with proven growth results, launched complex digital products, led product teams and excels in aligning stakeholders and removing organizational roadblocks in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
Essential Functions
Digital Channel Leadership & Product Strategy
- Set the vision, strategy, and unified roadmap for the mobile app, website, and kiosk experiences, ensuring channel consistency and seamless cross-platform journeys.
- Lead and mentor a team of Product Managers
- Ensure each channel delivers a cohesive and intuitive guest experience, rooted in customer feedback, analytics, and brand standards.
- Drive major digital transformation initiatives, including large-scale platform launches, redesigns, or re-platforming efforts.
- Own channel performance KPIs and drive growth
- Own the digital performance scorecard for all digital channels
- Ensure uniform data and event tracking across every channel to provide reliable analytics, accurate measurement, and effective insight generation.
- Leverage product analytics, A/B testing, VOC feedback, usability studies, and guest replays to inform and prioritize roadmaps.
- Partner with analytics teams to derive actionable insights that fuel iterative optimization.
- Serve as primary liaison for business stakeholders to ensure clear requirements, aligned expectations, and continuous communication of key milestones and roadmap changes.
- Lead cross-functional workstreams to reduce guest friction, improve performance, and deliver integrated omnichannel experiences (e.g., app ↔ kiosk ↔ web ↔ CRM).
- Translate business needs into clear and actionable product requirements and ensure timely delivery.
- Oversee the execution of near-term and long-term digital channel roadmaps, ensuring high-quality delivery and measurable business impact.
- Manage external partners and technology vendors, influencing their roadmaps, driving high-quality, on-time delivery.
- Monitor emerging industry trends, best-in-class digital experiences, and competitive technology advancements to identify opportunities for innovation.
- Recommend and evaluate new technologies, capabilities, and platforms that enhance guest experience, operational efficiency, or sales growth.
- Implement and manage an A/B Testing program to drive innovation and optimize user experience across channels
- 8+ years of progressive product leadership experience, including managing multiple digital channels or large-scale customer-facing digital platforms.
- Proven experience leading digital transformation initiatives, including launching/relaunching apps, websites, or omnichannel programs.
- Experience overseeing Product Managers or cross-functional product teams.
- Demonstrated success driving year-over-year digital growth in a B2C environment.
- Strong knowledge of ecommerce, mobile app ecosystems, kiosk technologies, restaurant technology platforms, and marketing technology stacks.
- Extensive experience with analytics platforms (e.g., GA4, GTM, product analytics tools), customer data platforms, CRM systems, SEO, AEO, GEO and A/B testing tools.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence and align stakeholders across Marketing, Engineering, Operations, and Executive leadership.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, resource-lean environment with competing priorities.
- Strong vendor management, contract negotiation, and partnership-building skills.
- Must be a self-starter, analytical, organized, growth minded, customer focused and independent problem solver with an attention to detail
- Experience with digital product development tools (Jira, Confluence, Monday.com & other agile products)
- Experience with Agile and Scrum methodologies
Bachelor’s Degree in Management Information Systems or a related field required.
Strongly Preferred
QSR or fast casual restaurant experience a plus.
About the company
Company website•Restaurants
About Tropical Smoothie Cafe®
Tropical Smoothie Cafe is a national fast-casual restaurant brand built on a mission to Inspire Better®, a commitment that starts with our better-for-you food and smoothies and extends to inspiring better in the communities we serve. Born on a beach in 1997, today Tropical Smoothie Cafe has more than 1,350 locations in 44 states. For the fourth year in a row, the brand was ranked #1 in the Smoothie/Juice Category by Entrepreneur Franchisee 500. For 11 consecutive years the brand has received the Franchise Times Fast and Serious award, and for 2023 the brand received the TopScore FUND Award with a score of 920, the highest in the QSR segment by FRANdata, for the third consecutive year.
In 1997, we opened our first franchise in Tallahassee, Florida to give our customers a place to sit and relax while enjoying our fruit smoothies. By 1999, we added a wide range of wholesome food options to our menu that perfectly complemented our smoothies. One year later, we officially established the Tropical Smoothie Cafe name.
In 2007, we celebrated our 10-year anniversary and started our own holiday, National Flip Flop Day. On National Flip Flop Day, we raise funds to benefit Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry Campaign and customers who visit our Cafes wearing flip flops between 2pm - 7pm receive a FREE smoothie. It's a great day to bring on the sunshine in the lives of children who are facing childhood hunger.
Today, we have over 1,350 franchise locations in more than 44 states and customers continue to fall in love with Tropical Smoothie Cafe as a destination for flavor. We’ve always been guided by this one simple belief: when you eat better, you feel better and when you feel better - all is better. It's why our mission is to inspire a healthier lifestyle by serving amazing food and smoothies with a bit of tropical fun.
Interested in owning your own Tropical Smoothie Cafe? Visit http://tropicalsmoothiefranchise.com/ for more information.