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Welcome to Tomorrow

We believe that effective leaders don't simply seek "jobs"; they seek organizations with a compelling story, exceptional leaders, and room for continued growth. As you scroll through this page, you will gain a better understanding of Restaurant Technologies' narrative, where the company has been, and where it is going.

Senior Director of Operations Excellence

RESTAURANT TECHNOLOGIES (RT)

Restaurant Technologies (RT) is a high-growth integrator of automated safety and efficiency solutions, and complex peripheral services, for the commercial kitchens of restaurants (independent, QSR, fast food), convenient stores, retail outlets, grocers, delis, casinos, hotels, and other food services organizations.  RT employs over 1,000 people and is generating nearly $650M in annual revenue, with steady long-term, double digit year-over-year growth, and an extraordinarily high-performing bottom line. Founded by entrepreneurial spirits tied to the McDonald's organization in the 1990's, RT is a well-established organization with an impressive executive team that is currently driving transformation, innovation, scalability, and major growth across the US. 

As the company continues to rapidly evolve and mature, the RT executive team has made it their #1 priority to significantly invest in their enterprise business processes creating a much stronger, more scalable infrastructure. RT is looking to transform their legacy operations function, developing and pivoting to a new model that will streamline their end-to-end business with a core operations excellence team driving impactful changes. With that in mind, the newly appointed Chief Transformation Officer - Alissa Partee - seeks to identify a Sr. Director of Operations Excellence who will build out a new team and function responsible for creating and executing various initiatives focused on continuous improvement, process engineering, and technology enablement.  This leader will play a pivotal role in the maturity of the organization, working cross-functionally to develop a holistic business architecture that will better connect the enterprise from start to finish. 

A Foundation you can build on

Getting a sense of the foundation that has been built prior to your arrival offers a lens through which you can see where your career may go.

Restaurant Technologies (RT)

Restaurant Technologies (RT) is a $650M+, privately held, vertically integrated full service integrator of automated safety solutions and services for commercial kitchens across the United States.  RT is the fastest-growing provider of cooking oil management, and back-of-house hood and exhaust cleaning solutions, in the country.  It services well over 35,000 national quick-service and full-service restaurant chains, independent restaurants, grocery delis, hotels, casinos, convenience stores, universities, and hospitals and has grown tremendously year-over-year for decades.

RT's History

RT was founded in the late 1990's by a group of entrepreneurial spirited leaders from the food service industry who had strong ties to the McDonald's organization and recognized a serious challenge in the way that cooking oil was managed in commercial kitchens.  They realized that the lack of automation in the handling of oil - its replenishment, monitoring, filtration, and even the logistical movement of the product - was exposing many workers to serious danger, enormous amounts of labor intensive and costly work, and creating an absolute mess in kitchens across the US.  So they started Restaurant Technologies in 1997 to solve this problem on the foundation of a single, incredibly well-engineered system and service model, which is branded today as "Total Oil Management" - an all-encompassing solution for cooking oil delivery, filtration, grease removal, automated replenishment, and recycling at the push of a single button.  Having developed a proprietary, evolutionary system that was non-existent and remains without much competition, the company has grown immensely at a very rapid pace.

A Stand Out In Food Service

Restaurant Technologies is a stand out in food service as it operates in a niche space with little competition.  With its incredibly well-operated, vertically integrated structure, RT owns its proprietary systems and technology, and has intelligently built peripheral service structures around these equipment solutions to drive "vertical integration", which includes its own delivery teams, storage facilities (depots), installation services, and customer support/field service groups.  Recognizing its strength of position in the space, RT has embarked on a transformation to drive continued growth of the existing "core" product portfolio while introducing new products and services in an effort to continue diversifying the organization in the greater food services space within which RT is only 1% penetrated.

Scale

RT is the most efficient and fastest growing provider of oil management solutions in the food services industry today, employing over 1,000 people across the United States whose efforts are generating roughly $650M+ in annual revenue.  RT operates over 40 distribution centers, and services nearly 35,000 customers across restaurant and hospitality industries, including some of the most formidable brands in the business like McDonald's, Burger King, HyVee, Dairy Queen, Jack In The Box, Denny's, Kwik Trip, and many more.

Our Take On RT

Performance

RT is an explosively growing organization.  Its leadership team is not interested in status quo or maintenance.  Rather, they wish to continue the intelligent expansion of the business from a top and bottom line perspective, personnel and team growth, and product portfolio diversification and growth.  RT hires aspirational, high-performing leaders who align with the company's expectation for continued change and healthy growth.

Integrity

RT's leadership team embodies strength in character.  From the CEO through the entire organization, this team is constantly encouraged and expected to do what is right with candor, without compromise.  The executive team is honest, forthcoming, and transparent and fully understands the value in establishing trust inside and outside the organization.

Speed

RT's leadership team moves quickly.  Decisions and progress are made with tremendous velocity, an imperative characteristic of a high-growth, vertically integrated organization.  RT embodies an entrepreneurial culture, where leaders have the autonomy to drive the business forward in the most nimble and agile way.

What You Will Be A Part Of

As a senior leader at RT, you will position the organization for its future, which requires an understanding of those around you, what they collectively stand for, and how they positively impact the world.

ESG - French Fries to Fuel

RT has partnered with Chevron Renewable Energy Group to turn used cooking oil into low carbon fuel furthering aligning with their ESG initiatives. 

TOTAL OIL MANAGEMENT, RT'S FLAGSHIP PRODUCT

A thorough explanation of Restaurant Technologies' flagship product, Total Oil Management.

AUTOMIST - AUTOMATED HOOD & FLUE CLEANING

RT's newly introduced product, Automist, is explained in further detail.

RENAISSANCE HOTEL CHANGES THE WAY THEY MANAGE OIL

Executive Chef, David Creamer, shares his satisfaction with his partnership with Restaurant Technologies.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

The field force driver team describes what it is like working at Restaurant Technologies.

CAREER PROGRESSION - CEO SPEAKS WITH BILL MOODY

Restaurant Technologies' CEO, Jeff Kiesel, spends time with long-time RT employee, Bill Moody, speaking about Bill's career progression and experience working at the company.

The Company You’ll Keep

Who you’ll work with is often more important than the work itself.  Get to know the Restaurant Technologies leadership team you will be engaging with and supporting in this role.

Alissa Partee

Chief Transformation Officer (Direct Manager)

Alissa joined Restaurant Technologies roughly 3 years ago as the Chief People Officer, providing HR advisory services in a variety of areas including coaching, diversity & inclusion, employee experience, and leading organizational change through unprecedented times of growth and maturity. She grew up in northern MN, specifically the Iron Range, which plays a significant role in her down-to-earth, midwestern nature. Prior to joining RT, Alissa was a part of iconic brands such as Caribou Coffee, Marvin Windows, and Buffalo Wild Wings, exposing her to first-class, authentic, people-driven cultures as well as high-growth environments. After a highly successful run in the CPO chair, RT recently announced Alissa's succession to Chief Transformation Officer, where she will assume full accountability over HR/Talent, Operations Excellence, and IT. Alissa's "no-fear" mindset and core purpose of "contributing to someone else's success" are the perfect intangibles to lead RT through its' next phase of growth and maturity. 

Jeff Kiesel

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

With an MBA from Purdue University and over 30 years of leadership experience, Jeff Kiesel is the incredibly well-respected CEO of Restaurant Technologies, a role he's assumed for the last 16 years.  Jeff is a high energy, very passionate executive who embodies authenticity, candor, transparency, and honesty.  He is a down-to-earth CEO, easily approachable, who sets very high expectations and acts as a strong supporter of his team in achieving those lofty goals.  Jeff is the opposite of a micro-manager, and although highly supportive of his direct reports, hires senior leaders with the expectation that they take their onboarding and success into their own hands, leading autonomously with independence and little "daily" oversight.  Jeff is a family man, and prioritizes health and fitness inside and outside of the office.

Laura Trancheff

Senior Director, Strategic and Corporate Human Resources

Brian Quinn

Senior Director of Commercial Operations

Andy Dulka

Chief Information Officer

Tim Curran

Chief Operations Officer

A Day in the Life

Given RT's impressive growth and innovation over the last two decades, they now find themselves at a pivotal phase of operational transformation. The executive team has properly acknowledged their need for a more scalable, stronger infrastructure and subsequently made intelligent investments to positively impact the business in many functions. This newly created leadership role and operations excellence function, will assume full accountability of the enterprise, from "Tip to Tip", re-engineering and building new systems and processes, ultimately developing a comprehensive operations excellence strategy positively impacting the broader business architecture. This leader will be given the autonomy and ownership to build their team and this new function, driving a continuous improvement environment, empowering the team to harness the power of RT's strategic investments in technology, field operations, and supply chain to create a more connected enterprise driving growth and a premier consumer experience. 

Responsibilities

  • Develop and execute a comprehensive operations excellence strategy that aligns with the organization's overall objectives and goals (financial, efficiency, cost of operating, etc.)

  • Involves the right stakeholders (internal and external) and vendors to imagine and deploy an enterprise operating model.

  • Collaborate with internal teams to develop and implement best practices for enterprise processes, technology and analytics.

  • Architects the way the business works, information/data flows, and processes operate across various technology platforms and mediums.

  • Evaluate and modify current processes and workflows to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement, tied tightly to the enterprise business process.

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  • Enables agile adaptation to new or reinvented processes or operating models through effective organizational change management.

  • Understand and champion the most efficient way value can flow through the organization.

  • Lead cross-functional teams in the implementation of process improvement initiatives, including Lean Six Sigma, Agile, and other continuous improvement methodologies.

  • Partner cross-functionally to identify areas where solutions can be implemented to improve efficiency and productivity.

  • Is a key voice in business project prioritization, resourcing and enablement.

  • Develop and maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure operational efficiency, quality, and productivity across the enterprise.

Requirements

  • Proven ability of identifying and seizing opportunities for synergy and integration.

  • Able to communicate the vision for RT’s operating model future with clear directions to enable the “Art of the Possible” on how our business should work.

  • Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field. Master's degree preferred.

  • Minimum of 10+ years of experience in operations excellence, process engineering/improvement, enterprise business management, or related field or collective experience.

  • Strong knowledge and experience with Lean Six Sigma, Agile, and other continuous improvement methodologies.

  • Proven track record of leading cross-functional teams in executing process improvement initiatives.

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  • Experience in developing and maintaining key performance indicators (KPIs).

  • Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.

  • Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

  • Ability to work collaboratively with internal teams and external partners.

  • Proven ability to deliver results in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.

What You Bring to the Table

Builder

RT's operations function is at a pivotal phase of change and maturity. This person will create and guide a new team, focused on altering existing business processes along with building advanced systems and connectivity across the enterprise. 

Systems Approach

This leader will be re-engineering and analyzing RT's business from end-to-end, effectively utilizing a 'systems' mindset to comprehend how different functions and pieces of the organization are interrelated. 

Compelled by Data

RT's culture was built around an energetic, entrepreneurial spirit resulting in vast change and innovation. Therefore, this leader will bring forth an analytical lens effectively standardizing the availability of data for the executive team and front-line leaders, harnessing the power of their technology investments to make sound business decisions. 

We believe this opportunity has the potential to be your next best thing. What do you think?