Senior Manager of Field Marketing

About Ford’s Garage

Founded in 2012 in downtown Fort Myers, Fl. minutes from Henry Ford’s winter estate, Ford’s Garage is a distinctive, vintage auto-themed restaurant brand inspired by a 1920s service station. The concept blends immersive, detail-rich design with a chef-driven menu featuring prime burgers, elevated comfort food, and a full bar. An Official Licensee of the Ford Motor Company, Ford’s Garage operates 34 locations across eight states throughout the Southeast, Northeast, Midwest and Central Atlantic states, with several openings and new market entries on the horizon. Our guests don’t just come for the food – they come for our energetic atmosphere and genuine hospitality behind every meal. We are a brand on the rise, and we’re building a team to help power our growth! 

The Opportunity

Reporting to the CMO, the Senior Manager, Field Marketing is the essential link between Ford’s Garage national brand strategies and our Garage Partners who bring them to life every day. This is a role for a seasoned leader, coach, and doer who understands that great marketing isn't just created at the national level – it's won in the trade area, one guest at a time. You will work hand-in-hand with our franchisees and restaurant teams to translate national marketing platforms into locally relevant plans that drive traffic, build loyal guest bases, and deliver profitable sales growth. You’ll bring the tools, data, and coaching mindset to help operators understand their markets and take decisive action. You don't just hand off a playbook – you teach, guide, and inspire accountability and results.

This leader keeps a constant pulse on the marketplace – analyzing local demographics, competitive activity, promotional performance, and shifts in consumer behavior – and turns those insights into clear action plans.

A key pillar of this role is ownership of the Ford's Garage Local Restaurant Marketing (LRM) toolkit – continually innovating, teaching, and executing proven LRM strategies that deliver business impact. From cultivating relationships with local car clubs, schools and businesses to building catering programs that create new revenue streams, this leader knows how to embed a restaurant deeply into the fabric of its community. This is a high-travel role (up to 50%) best suited for a Florida-based candidate with deep multi-unit restaurant experience.

Scope & Accountabilities

Franchise & Operator Partnership, Traffic and Sales Building

• Serve as the primary field marketing coach and strategic partner for Ford’s Garage franchisees and restaurant operators.
• Translate national brand campaigns and initiatives into locally tailored plans that are relevant, executable and built to win in each trade area.
• Build strong relationships across franchisees, cross-functional partners, senior leaders, agencies and vendors, earning credibility through expertise and measurable results.
• Coach and train restaurant teams to execute local restaurant marketing with confidence while supporting with hands-on activation.

LRM Toolkit, Community Engagement & Catering

• Own and continuously innovate the Ford’s Garage LRM toolkit – developing, teaching, and executing proven strategies that build traffic and profitable sales.
• Cultivate relationships with local car clubs, automotive enthusiast groups, schools, businesses, youth sports teams, and 501c3 organizations to authentically embed each location in its community.
• Develop and grow catering programs system-wide, helping restaurants unlock catering as a meaningful incremental revenue channel.
• Partner with Marketing agencies, including design, social media, loyalty, digital and others to develop LRM materials as needed.

Data, Insights & Market Intelligence

• Leverage Placer.AI and other research platforms to analyze trade area performance, guest visitation patterns, and competitive positioning.
• Monitor local demographics, competitor activity, promotional performance, and consumer behavior to surface actionable insights and tailored market strategies.
• Own and continually measure programs’ impact; establish KPIs and report consistently on campaign effectiveness.

New Openings, Brand Activation & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead field marketing planning and execution for new restaurant openings and new market entries, partnering with franchisees to build awareness and passionate guest bases from day one.
• Champion LRM execution across the system, plan community events and brand activations, and manage relationships with local partners.
• Collaborate with operations, culinary, and franchise development teams; represent the operator perspective in internal marketing planning and manage field budgets for maximum ROI.

Qualifications

Required

• 7 years of progressive field marketing experience in multi-unit restaurant brands, with a proven track record as a coach and strategic partner to restaurant operators and franchisees.
• Demonstrated ability to translate national marketing strategies into trade area-specific plans, owning LRM programs end-to-end — including community engagement, grassroots outreach, and catering development — with measurable results.
• Experience planning and executing new restaurant openings and supporting new market entries.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to synthesize multiple data streams, identify opportunities and recommendations, and assess program impact on sales, transactions, and other KPIs.
• Excellent organizational, time-management, and project-management skills; able to manage multiple priorities across a large footprint.
• Collaborative, responsive, accountable and strongly field-service oriented; takes pride in problem-solving and supporting our field teams.
• Strong relationship-building skills across franchisees, cross-functional partners, senior leaders, and vendors.
• Willingness to travel up to 50%; Florida-based strongly preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related field, or commensurate experience.

Preferred

• Hands-on experience with Placer.AI or similar trade area and foot traffic analytics platforms.
• Proficiency with competitive analysis tools, consumer research platforms, and marketing technology.
• Experience with loyalty platforms, social media content creation and developing creative/templates a plus.