Head of Experience

Head of Experience, Nando's USA

WHO WE ARE

At Nando's, we want to be the most loved restaurant brand in North America, sharing the spirit of Nando's PERi-PERi with everyone who chooses to access it. We will redesign and build a business that thrives as it answers fully, it is consumers' needs -and endures over time through genuinely putting people at the heart of what we do. We will lead our values and act with care, compassion, and kindness. By doing this, we will Change Lives Together, every day and everywhere.

Nando's Peri-Peri USA is a growing restaurant group currently seeking to add a full-time Head of Experience to our Restaurant Support family. Known best for our marinated and flame grilled chicken basted to your liking with our famous PERi-PERi sauce, our casual and culturally diverse company has deep roots as global brand originating in South Africa.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Head of Experience owns the full guest journey at Nando's. This leader ensures that every interaction across restaurants, digital platforms, delivery, and community touchpoints reflects the warmth, personality, and humanity of Nando's brand. They bring together Brand, Marketing, Operations, and MarTech to create experiences that feel personal, consistent, and memorable — driving repeat visits, deeper loyalty, and emotional connection.

This role is the connective tissue between what we say (brand), what guests feel (experience), and how the systems work (MarTech + digital ecosystem).

Performance & Impact

• Contribute to growth in repeat visits, loyalty participation, and customer lifetime value.
• Contribute clear improvements in guest satisfaction and brand sentiment.
• Ensure higher experience consistency across market clusters and restaurant formats.
• Contribute to frontline feedback: “This helps us serve better” vs “This is just another corporate requirement.”
• Ensure digital experiences that feel as warm and soulful as the restaurant floor.

Key Responsibilities

Guest Journey & Experience Design

• Design and continuously refine end-to-end guest journey maps across dine-in, takeaway, digital ordering, delivery platforms, loyalty experiences, and community engagement.
• Translate the Spirit of Nando's into operational rituals and guest-facing moments that are teachable, scalable, and heartfelt.
• Support brand storytelling by bringing heritage, culture, art, and community purpose into the lived customer experience.

Operational Integration

• Ensure platforms work/integrate to enrich a frictionless world experience for guests and team.
• Partner tightly with Operations to embed CX standards that feel natural for restaurants to deliver (not scripted or corporate).
• Develop and socialize experience scorecards tied to retention, repeat visits, brand love, and frontline ease of delivery.

Customer Insights & Loyalty

• Lead customer insights: VOC, surveys, digital analytics, loyalty behavior, social listening, and frontline feedback loops.
• Own loyalty program strategy and evolution, including personalization, segmentation, and engagement.

Digital & MarTech

• Oversee CRM + lifecycle marketing, ensuring messages feel like real hospitality — never automated noise.
• Manage the MarTech ecosystem (CRM, CDP, loyalty platform, analytics, digital ordering, app/web UX, delivery integrations), aligning tools to guest experience priorities.
• Partner with Digital Product to ensure Nando's digital channels are warm, intuitive, and human-centered, not transactional.
• Own the roadmap for platforms supporting guest experience: CRM, loyalty, CDP, marketing automation, guest analytics, app/web ordering, and third-party delivery integrations.
• Ensures technology enhances human hospitality rather than replacing it.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Build, mentor, and lead high-performing teams across Set clear performance expectations and KPIs, regularly reviewing team progress and providing actionable feedback to drive results.
• Serve as a cultural steward, modeling leadership behaviors that reinforce brand authenticity, guest-centricity, and operational excellence.
• Empower teams with the tools, resources, and authority needed to make effective decisions, encouraging ownership and entrepreneurial thinking.
• Lead organizational change with transparency and empathy, guiding teams through transformation initiatives while maintaining engagement and morale.

*Work Arrangem***ent -**This role requires a strong presence to lead cross‑functional collaboration, mentor teams, and engage directly with key stakeholders. Location is flexible, with travel or in‑person engagement arranged as needed to support strategic priorities.

Candidates should be prepared for an interview exercise that demonstrates skills and abilities required for the position as a part of the in-person interview process. Nando's Restaurant Group i**s an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. Requirements: Skills, Education, and Other Job-Related Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, or related field; advanced degree preferred.15+ years of leadership experience in brand marketing, commercial growth, or consumer marketing.
• Experience Strategist who bridges creativity and operational practicality.
• Deep empathy for guests and front-of-house teams.
• Data-comfort + storytelling-driven: can read the signal and communicate it with heart.
• Cross-functional influencer able to align Marketing, Ops, IT, Digital, and Finance.
• Systems thinker who sees how brand + culture + tech come together in real life.