Director Marketing - Hard Rock Restaurant Concepts

Overview

Position: Director, Restaurant Marketing

The Restaurant Marketing Director will play a vital role in the success of a restaurant by developing and implementing marketing strategies that align with the company's goals. This position is essential for driving brand awareness, attracting new customers, and retaining existing ones. By analyzing market trends and customer preferences, the Director of Restaurant Marketing creates promotional campaigns that enhance the restaurant's visibility and profitability. Using a mix of marketing, promotional, advertising, social media and public relation activities, the Director of Marketing will take an integrated approach to marketing planning and implementation. Acting as a brand ambassador the person must harmonize the culture, mission, values, and quality standards to ensure that all Cafes maximum potential is achieved. Interacting with employees, guests, agencies and owners this person must contribute to a positive and professional work environment.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the Marketing Managers of the Hard Rock Cafe Division.
• Design and launch restaurant-focused marketing strategies that strengthen the Hard Rock Cafe brand, drive traffic, and deliver incremental revenue.
• Create new activations that differentiate Hard Rock Cafe from competitors and resonate with diverse audiences (Gen Z, families, tourists, locals).
• Partner with Culinary, Operations and Retail teams to integrate food, beverage, merchandise, and experience into unified marketing campaigns.
• Continuously analyze restaurant and casual dining trends to identify opportunities for Hard Rock Cafe to innovate and lead.
• Work with selected agency partners the implementation of the online campaign and creative, and ensure all relevant communication is available to local teams.

Field Implementation & Support

• Ensure marketing strategies are operationalized in the field with clear toolkits, timelines, and measurable KPIs.
• Collaborate closely with Regional Sales & Marketing Managers, General Managers, and Operations leaders to drive local execution.
• Create scalable playbooks and best-practice models to ensure consistency across global markets, while allowing room for local adaptation.
• Oversee campaign reporting, analyzing ROI, traffic lift, and sales performance by region/location.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as a key bridge between Global Marketing and Café Operations, ensuring campaigns are practical, executable, and financially aligned.
• Manage agency and partner relationships for campaign creative, PR amplification, digital media, and influencer activations.
• Align with Finance on marketing budgets, cost allocations, and return-on-investment metrics.
• Represent Café Marketing in global brand meetings, ensuring the restaurant division is positioned as a growth driver for Hard Rock.

Qualifications

Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum 5 years of work experience in Restaurant Marketing Director Role for an International brand.
• Bachelor’s in marketing with experience in entertainment and food and beverage event marketing segment.
• Proven track record of creating and implementing high-impact marketing campaigns that delivered measurable sales growth.
• Strong understanding of customer engagement through digital channels for brands.
• Strong understanding of restaurant operations, field marketing, and the challenges of global/local execution.
• Understanding of relevant social media platforms and managing media activations.
• Ability to multitask and manage in a fast paced, changing environment.
• Proven capabilities in managing media plans and initiatives in an international organization.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams (culinary, retail, operations, PR, digital, creative agencies).
• Strong financial acumen; ability to link marketing initiatives to P&L impact.
• Ability to effectively drive results via coaching and leading a group of Regional Marketing Managers and Cafe Sales & Marketing Managers.
• Develop and maintain positive relationships within the business and social community.
• High-energy individual with effective and influential digital media skills.
• Knowledge of creative, public relations and e-commerce environment.
• Must possess strong communication and listening skills, excellent speaking, reading and writing.
• Comprehend and use technical or professional language, either written or spoken, to communicate complex ideas.
• Ability to effectively pitch and present information in one-on-one or group situations.
• Fluency in English is re