director, Workforce Technology & Digital Experience

Starbucks Coffee Company is a renowned global coffeehouse chain celebrated for its commitment to tradition and continuous evolution in serving its customers. Established as a company focused on blending rich coffee culture with innovation, Starbucks has expanded its reach worldwide, becoming a leader in the retail coffee industry. Known for its high-quality coffee products and store experiences, Starbucks is more than just a coffee company; it's a community hub fostering connection and quality service. The company prides itself on empowering its partners (employees) by leveraging technology to create an efficient, flexible, and engaging work environment that supports both customer satisfaction and operational excellence.

The role of Director, Workforce Management & Coffeehouse Systems at Starbucks is crucial in advancing the company's enterprise technology strategy particularly focused on retail labor, scheduling, and in-store partner tools. This leadership position operates at the confluence of Partner Tech, Retail Operations, and Enterprise Data & Analytics, driving innovative platform-based solutions that emphasize a balance between standardization and flexibility at scale. The director is responsible for leading strategy, engineering, and delivery of the Workforce Management (WFM) and Digital Experience platforms ensuring these systems are enterprise-grade, resilient, and extensible. These platforms support essential shift execution processes and are increasingly enhanced by artificial intelligence and intelligent automation, which improves productivity, accelerates decision-making, and augments problem-solving for partners and retail operators.

This role involves leading the modernization of the core Workforce Management platform to UKG (Kronos) and unifying the ecosystem for a streamlined, efficient operation. The Director will define and execute a multi-year platform roadmap that aligns with enterprise architecture principles, transitioning from fragmented tools to scalable, product-centric platforms that enable reuse, integration, and speed to market. They will oversee engineering teams to ensure the delivery of secure, highly available, API-driven platforms that meet high standards for architecture, integration, DevSecOps, and observability. Improvements in system reliability, performance, and cost efficiency are also key objectives.

Beyond technical leadership, this position requires translation of retail and partner needs into scalable platform capabilities such as labor optimization, scheduling, and enhancing the partner experience. Collaboration with Retail, HR, and Data teams drives embedding AI-enabled insights and analytics-driven decision-making into WFM and in-store tools, improving operational efficiency. This ensures platforms are adaptable across markets while maintaining enterprise consistency. The director will build and lead a diverse organization of engineering leaders and product-aligned teams, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and talent development with an emphasis on product mindset and enterprise ownership.

The director also influences senior leadership across various departments, driving alignment on platform investments, prioritization, and vendor relationships to maximize strategic value. They bear end-to-end accountability for platform performance, availability, and delivery outcomes, balancing operational excellence with ongoing innovation. Clear, data-driven decision-making in a high-scale and complex environment is paramount. This role is pivotal in shaping Starbucks' evolution in retail operations through enterprise platform modernization, directly impacting partner experience, operational performance, and the company’s ability to sustain growth and innovation.