The Manager - Market Development Planning, is responsible for the development, maintenance, and enhancement of strategic market plans that support disciplined, data driven growth across both existing and new markets.  

This role partners closely with Real Estate, Franchise Sales, Operations, and other cross functional teams to deliver market insights, trade area analysis, impact claims, cannibalization analysis and scenario-based sales and cannibalization forecasting, that informs development decision across both existing and new markets.  

This role will be responsible for translating complex market, spatial, and competitive analyses into clear, actionable recommendations that improve decision quality related to new store development and asset optimization. The role serves as an unbiased analytical and strategic partner, educating stakeholders and franchisees while supporting aligned actions that drive sustainable market performance. 

• This role will have a direct report.

Location
Candidates outside Atlanta may work remotely, while Atlanta‑based candidates will be office‑based. Preference will be given to candidates in the Atlanta market. Travel may be required periodically to support field initiatives, market reviews, or cross-functional meetings.   

Duties & Responsibilities 

Strategic Market Planning 

• Conduct market and brand research to develop and maintain strategic market plans that prioritize new store development (when and where) and optimize franchise and company assets. 

• Support ongoing innovation and enhancement of market planning methodologies, tools, and deliverables. 

• Assist in the socialization of market plans to enable disciplined execution by Real Estate teams and franchise partners. 

Franchise Inventory Support 

• Develop, maintain, and summarize Franchise Sales Inventory to support strategic market growth. 

• Support cross functional clustering and alignment of franchise inventory for sale to existing and new franchise candidates. 

Trade Area, Site & Forecasting Analytics 

• Utilize spatial (GIS) tools, demographics, competitive and business generator data, points of interest, and mass mobile data to evaluate trade area and site characteristics. 

• Identify success metrics for trade areas and sites and apply comparable store analysis to inform recommendations. 

• Deliver scenario-based sales, cannibalization, and impact assessments using forecasting tools, models, analog history, and other approved methodologies.  

Restaurant & Portfolio Performance Assessment 

• Assess performance of existing assets, including impacts from proximate openings, relocations, remodels, asset optimization strategies, and competitive landscape changes. 

• Partner with cross functional teams to develop and prioritize actions based on market conditions and analytical findings.  

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Enablement Functional Collaboration & Enablement 

• Collaborate with Real Estate, Franchise Sales, Operations, and other partners to educate and enable knowledge-based decision making. 

• Provide ongoing analytical support, recommendations, and course corrections to optimize growth at national, market, and micro market levels.  

• Respond to ad-hoc mapping, geospatial analysis, and data requests to support field and corporate teams for ad-hoc mapping, geospatial analysis. 

Data, Tools & Platform Support 

• Support the development, maintenance, and enhancement of location and market databases used for mapping, analysis, and tracking. 

• Ensure data accuracy, consistency, and usability across market planning platforms and reporting tools. 

Strategic Communication 

• Developing executive‑ready PowerPoint presentations to support strategic planning and decision‑making. 

• Presenting analyses and strategic recommendations to senior executives and franchise partners. 

• Delivering training and knowledge‑sharing sessions to cross‑functional stakeholders on new insights, methodologies, and analytical techniques. 

Qualifications (Education & Experience) 

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred in geography, real estate, economics, urban planning, finance, analytics, or related field.  

• 5+ years of experience in market planning, site selection, development analytics, real estate, franchising, or related analytical roles.  

• 5-7 years of related experience in the field with a sound understanding and track record of market planning, business strategy and problem solving 

• 5-7 years' experience with statistical and mathematical modeling, demographics, and mobile data.  Experience with sales and customer transaction trend analysis. 

• 5+ years of retail or restaurant experience. 

• Strong strategic and analytical thinking with demonstrated problem-solving capability. 

• Proven ability to communicate complex, fact-based insights clearly and concisely to diverse stakeholders. 

• Strong project and process management skills with a bias toward action and on-time delivery. 

• Proficiency in PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Outlook, and Teams. 

• Experience with tools such as GIS (ESRI), Power BI, Alteryx, SQL, Tableau, or similar analytics platforms preferred. 

• Hands-on experience with Alteryx, including the ability to build and manipulate workflows 

• Customer service mindset with high responsiveness to sensitive issues and complex stakeholder needs. 

Travel Required

• Travel up to 20%

Salary: $77,324.63 - $151,785.38 per year

The salary range above represents the low and high end of the salary range for this position. Actual placement within this range will vary based on various factors including but not limited to experience, education, training, and location.