Director, Franchise Operations - South

Job description

Job Description Summary: Location: Houston, San Antonio, Austin, or other locations within the South Region. The Director, Franchise Leadership – South Zone serves as the primary strategic business partner between The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages (CCSWB) across the South Zone. The role is responsible for strengthening system alignment, accelerating profitable growth, and driving marketplace excellence across the total Coca-Cola beverage portfolio, including Trademark Coca-Cola, Sparkling Flavors, Water, Sports, Juice, Dairy, Tea, Coffee, Energy, and Emerging Categories. Reporting to the Senior Director II, Franchise Operations, the role translates aligned South Zone and commercial priorities into bottler-specific operating plans and works across multiple stakeholders to deliver volume, revenue, transactions, share, and profitable growth objectives. The role connects commercial with frontline execution, maintains a regular in-market cadence across assigned geographies, and leads follow-through on agreed corrective actions. The Director also identifies common execution and capability gaps, shares successful practices across bottlers, and builds capabilities in partnership with the appropriate South Zone functional teams. The Director operates as an experienced individual contributor and escalates material risks, resource needs, and trade-offs with clear recommendations. The successful candidate demonstrates a strong Growth Mindset, continuously identifying opportunities to accelerate business performance, challenge conventional thinking, leverage insights, build organizational capabilities, and inspire both Company and bottler partners to pursue innovative solutions that create sustainable value for the Coca-Cola system. What You’ll Do for Us Serve as the primary strategic liaison between The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages (CCSWB) South Zone leadership team Drive performance across the full Coca-Cola portfolio within CCSWB South Zone, with responsibility spanning all categories, brands, and packages in the assigned geography, supporting profitable volume, revenue, transactions, mix, and share growth through clear territory priorities and accountable execution with bottler partner. Lead territory deployment of aligned commercial strategies and initiatives, partnering with Commercial and other functional teams to establish operational readiness, clear sequencing, ownership, and adoption within the assigned geography. Champion execution excellence by coaching, influencing, and supporting the bottler organization to achieve top-tier performance in Market Street Challenge and other system execution benchmarks. Ensure the right utilization and deployment of Market Street Challenge and Execute, Sell Hunt capabilities. Build and maintain strong executive-level relationships that foster trust, transparency, and mutual accountability. Partner with CCSWB and internal stakeholders to provide strategic input, recommendations, and fact-based insights during the development of annual and long-range Joint Business Plans (JBPs). Develop and activate contingency plans with bottler and cross-functional partners to protect annual business plan delivery across revenue, volume, share, net outlets, SOVI, and pricing execution; monitor recovery milestones and results. Expand territory potential through Share of Visual Inventory (SOVI), Cold Drink Equipment (CDE), innovation execution, and strong conversion of aligned category and commercial plans into outlet-level results. Strengthen operating partnerships across multiple stakeholders by aligning Zone leadership, operations, sales, and frontline teams on agreed priorities across customers, channels, brands, and packages. Assess differences in market potential and performance within South Zone; recommend priorities, resource needs, and segmented execution interventions to the Senior Director II, and implement agreed choices. Participate in weekly and monthly performance routines, integrating revenue, volume, share, transactions, and execution indicators into clear diagnoses, named actions, and follow-through for South Zone Identify root causes of performance gaps with bottler regional operations teams, agree on corrective actions, track recovery, adjust territory plans, and escalate unresolved risks with clear recommendations. Manage assigned discretionary budgets within approved authority, balancing territory needs, expected returns, and bottler execution capacity; recommend investment trade-offs and additional resource needs. Identify common execution and capability gaps across the region and build capabilities in partnership with Region Commercial, Intelligence, RTM, and other functional teams; share successful practices across bottlers. Partner with Franchise Commercial leaders in the bi-monthly planning process, integrating customer, channel, marketing, finance, and supply-chain inputs into a coherent territory execution agenda with clear bottler commitments. Maintain a regular in-market cadence across South Zone to validate outlet execution, learn from customers and frontline employees, identify barriers firsthand, and bring the voice of the market into bottler plans and our Region performance routines. Foster a Growth Mindset by challenging assumptions, identifying new growth opportunities, and driving continuous improvement across the Coca-Cola system. Model The Coca-Cola Company's leadership behaviors. Qualifications & Requirements Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Management, or a related field; Master’s degree preferred. 7 or more years in a CPG organization across sales, key account, franchise management, or operations, including responsibility for business execution within an assigned market or geography. Demonstrated success translating annual strategies into territory operating plans, forecasting performance, managing customer or distributor relationships, and leading corrective actions that improve business results. Strong commercial and financial judgment, including experience with revenue and operating P&Ls, resource prioritization, selling, and negotiation in a complex franchise or entrepreneurial environment. Strong understanding of channel marketing, customer and outlet execution, syndicated research, and competitive analysis, with the ability to combine data and frontline insights to identify execution priorities. Core Accountabilities Franchise Leadership Build trusted partnerships and align bottler and Company priorities. Influence strategic decisions and system growth initiatives. Business Delivery Deliver JBP commitments for Revenue, Volume, Transactions, Market Share, and Portfolio Growth. Ensure key priorities are executed Drive profitable and sustainable business outcomes. Execution Excellence Drive superior marketplace execution across the total beverage portfolio. Improve Market Street Challenge performance. Accelerate Execute and Sell & Hunt adoption and effectiveness. Strengthening bottler capabilities and execution culture to win in the marketplace. What We Can Do For You Iconic Brand: Work on the most recognized brand in the world and be part of developing the next chapter. Exposure to World-Class Leaders : Access to global marketing leaders who will expand your network and expose you to emerging digital platforms and marketing insights. Learning Culture: Access to resources and management programs that give you the tools to continually develop your skills and knowledge. All persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form (Form I-9) upon hire. Skills: Annual Business Planning, Business Plan Implementation, Capacity Planning, Channels Strategy, Contract Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Distribution Operations Management, Financial Performance Management, Negotiation, Strategic Leadership, Teamwork Pay Range: United States: 145,000 - 169,000 USD Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered. Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage: 30 Annual Incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target. Location(s): United States of America City/Cities: Atlanta Travel Required: 26% - 50% Relocation Provided: Yes Job Posting End Date: November 5, 2026 Our Purpose and Growth Culture: We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca-Cola. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. When we collect your personal information as part of a job application or offer of employment, we do so in accordance with industry standards and best practices and in compliance with applicable privacy laws.