Vice President, Restaurant AI Drive Through & Operations

Summary

Join SoundHound AI's team and lead the drive-thru deployment of AI-powered ordering solutions for quick-service restaurants (QSRs). This VP-level role involves managing a distributed team, overseeing successful pilot programs, scaling rollouts to hundreds of locations, and serving as a subject matter expert for drive-thru best practices. You will conduct on-site assessments, collaborate with clients, create go-live plans, gather feedback, and build a repeatable deployment playbook. The position requires strong leadership, project management, analytical, and communication skills, along with deep understanding of drive-thru operations. The role includes frequent travel and is available for remote work across most of the United States, with occasional in-office requirements.

Requirements

• You have 8+ years leading drive-thru operations or technology deployments for a respected QSR brand or a top-tier restaurant-tech vendor with a drive-thru solution focus
• You have proven credibility as a client-facing consultant or executive liaison
• You have a track record of managing multi-site pilot programs and scaling them into enterprise-wide rollouts
• You have prior experience recruiting, leading, and coaching cross-functional field or implementation teams
• You have a deep understanding of drive-thru operations workflows, audio systems, POS/KDS integrations, and service-time analytics
• You have excellent project-management chops—able to juggle dozens of locations, vendors, and stakeholders simultaneously
• You have strong analytical and communication skills; comfortable presenting to C-suite and frontline crews alike
• You have experience building teams
• Willing and able to travel frequently (25% - 50%) to client sites across North America and occasionally to international markets
• Occasional travel to company headquarters in Santa Clara, CA for leadership summits and roadmap planning

Responsibilities

• Lead and Grow the Drive-Thru Deployment Team
• Manage and mentor a distributed team now comprising US and international team members
• Hire and develop additional program managers, deployment engineers, and field trainers as the business expands
• Establish team OKRs and professional-development paths
• Deliver Successful Drive-Thru Pilots
• Conduct on-site assessments of proposed pilot restaurants—layout, audio quality, POS/KDS integration, signage, crew workflow—and flag risks that could hinder AI performance
• Collaborate with clients’ operations leaders to align on pilot KPIs, success criteria, and crew-training needs
• Create and execute comprehensive go-live plans, including on-site training, end-to-end testing, and real-time performance monitoring
• Gather live feedback from managers and crew, then translate insights into concrete improvements for our AI Analyst and Product teams
• Scale Rollouts & Continuous Improvement
• Build and run a repeatable restaurant deployment playbook that enables rapid expansion without performance degradation
• Coordinate timelines and dependencies across client PMs, installers, and our Partnership team (hardware vendors, audio experts, digital-menu-board providers)
• Track post-launch performance at the store level; deep-dive into outliers, diagnose root causes, and drive remediation plans
• Act as Subject-Matter Expert & Executive Partner
• Serve as the company’s public face for drive-thru best practices — advising client C-suite and operations executives on optimizing process flow, labor models, menu structure, and lane design for AI ordering
• Provide strategic input to internal Product, Partnerships, Account Management, and Sales teams on market trends and client pain points

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with deployment of solutions that utilize conversational AI
• Exposure to international QSR markets and multilingual operations
• Certifications such as Six Sigma, PMP, or equivalent operations credentials

Benefits

• This position is available for remote work across most of the United States
• Comprehensive healthcare
• Paid time off
• Bonus
• Equity