Director, People Development and Leadership Effectiveness

Position Summary

The Director, People Development and Leadership Effectiveness is responsible for building and leading Denny’s people development work in partnership with the Chief People leader. This role supports leadership development, manager effectiveness, support center growth, restaurant leadership curriculum, talent readiness, culture activation, and the practical application of The Denny’s Way across the organization.

This is a hands-on leadership role. The person in this role must be able to think strategically, build the work, facilitate leadership sessions, support leaders, manage execution, and measure whether the work is making a difference. This role will not lead a large team. It will serve as the primary owner responsible for bringing structure, clarity, and momentum to people development under the People function.

Denny’s is entering one of the most important chapters in its history. The brand is moving with greater focus, accountability, and expectation that work must turn into visible progress. That kind of growth requires stronger people capability: leaders who communicate clearly, managers who coach and develop their teams, support center teams who understand the restaurants and franchisees they serve, and restaurant-facing development that helps operators execute with confidence.

This role helps build that capability. The work is bigger than training. It is about helping Denny’s grow into a stronger organization with clearer leadership expectations, stronger manager routines, deeper connection to franchisees, better follow-through, and a culture that shows up in how people lead every day.
 

Key Responsibilities

People Development Strategy

- Build and execute Denny’s people development roadmap in partnership with the People leader.
- Translate business priorities into development programs, tools, leadership routines, and learning experiences that support the work ahead.
- Identify the leadership and manager capabilities needed to strengthen business performance, franchisee partnership, restaurant execution, team effectiveness, and organizational growth.
- Prioritize the work that will have the greatest impact on leaders, teams, restaurants, franchisees, and guests.
- Bring structure and follow-through to people development so ideas turn into usable programs, tools, and leadership behaviors.

Leadership and Manager Effectiveness

- Design and deliver development for managers, emerging leaders, functional leaders, field leaders, and high-potential talent.
- Build leadership experiences that strengthen accountability, communication, coaching, decision-making, change leadership, business ownership, and follow-through.
- Help define what strong leadership looks like at Denny’s and make those expectations clear, teachable, and repeatable.
- Develop tools that help managers lead better conversations, give feedback, coach performance, recognize people, set expectations, and lead through change.
- Partner with business leaders to identify manager capability gaps and create targeted solutions.
- Support leadership meetings, team sessions, retreats, onboarding experiences, and other key moments where leaders need clarity and alignment.

 The Denny’s Way and Culture Activation

- Translate The Denny’s Way into leadership behaviors, manager expectations, team routines, and development experiences.
- Build tools that help leaders understand what The Denny’s Way looks like in daily decisions, communication, coaching, accountability, recognition, and collaboration.
- Partner with HR, Internal Communications, Operations, Field Leadership, and functional leaders to reinforce The Denny’s Way across support center, field, and restaurant-facing audiences.
- Help leaders connect The Denny’s Way to business performance, franchisee trust, restaurant execution, team engagement, and guest experience.
- Ensure culture is not treated as separate from the business, but as part of how Denny’s leads, operates, and serves the system.

 Support Center Team Growth

- Build development strategies that help support center leaders and teams grow with the needs of the business.
- Create learning experiences that help support center teams understand the franchise model, restaurant economics, field realities, operator pressure, and guest impact.
- Partner with functional leaders to identify capability gaps and build solutions that improve team performance and collaboration.
- Help support center teams see how their work connects to restaurants, franchisees, field leaders, and guests.
- Reinforce a stronger service mindset so the support center understands its role in helping the system perform.

Restaurant Leadership Curriculum and Field Capability

- Support the design and improvement of restauran