Director, Marketing Finance in Chicago, Illinois at Potbelly Corporate

Director, Marketing Finance

Come build the Potbelly Nation with us! Our legendary hot and toasty sandwiches, irresistible shakes and cookies satisfy Potbelly fans every day.

Potbelly started as a small antique store that turned into a lines-out-the-door neighborhood sandwich shop. Today, there are more than 460 Potbelly Sandwich Shops across the U.S. Our leaders build and inspire teams to bring our customers a unique Potbelly experience.

Who you are:

You are a strategic, highly analytical finance leader who thrives at the intersection of Marketing, Digital, Finance, and Data. You bring a strong track record of shaping growth strategy, influencing investment decisions, and building high-performing teams in fast-paced, data-rich environments.

You are a trusted advisor who can move seamlessly from enterprise-level strategy to rigorous analysis. You are comfortable challenging assumptions, connecting data across sources, and translating complex insights into clear recommendations for senior executives. You build strong cross-functional relationships and bring both financial discipline and a growth mindset to decision-making.

You'll be a phenomenal candidate for this role if you:

• Strategic and commercially minded, with the ability to connect financial insights to enterprise growth priorities
• Naturally curious and driven to understand the “why” behind performance
• Highly analytical, with strong judgment and attention to detail
• Comfortable working with large, ambiguous datasets and translating them into executive-level insights
• Action-oriented and accountable for outcomes—not just analysis
• An influential communicator who can effectively challenge, align, and advise senior cross-functional leaders
• A strong people leader who develops talent, builds capability, and creates a high-performance team culture

You can expect:

This role sits at the center of Marketing, Finance, and Data—helping shape how Potbelly invests in growth, measures performance, and scales the business. The Director, Marketing Finance will serve as a senior strategic finance partner to Marketing and Digital leadership and will help elevate the organization's approach to growth investment, performance measurement, and decision support.

Every day is going to be a little different. You'll work across strategic planning, investment decisions, pricing, promotions, performance measurement, and special projects, with broad exposure to senior leadership and the business. You'll encounter:

• Respect and candor; the quality of the idea wins the day.
• A casual, focused, and agile environment operating under our Potbelly values.
• Direct ownership of the financial partnership supporting key Marketing and Digital growth initiatives.
• Frequent interaction with Potbelly's CMO, CFO, and other members of the Senior Leadership team.

What you will do:

• Serve as the senior Finance partner to Marketing and Digital leadership, shaping growth strategy, investment allocation, and long-range priorities.
• Lead the financial strategy and decision-support agenda for Marketing and Digital, ensuring investments are grounded in clear economics, measurable outcomes, and enterprise priorities.
• Build and refine frameworks to evaluate marketing effectiveness, including ROI, payback, and incrementality
• Translate marketing, digital, customer, and financial data into actionable insights and executive recommendations that improve performance across channels.
• Lead financial evaluation of major campaigns, promotions, tests, and growth initiatives, including go/no-go recommendations and post-investment performance reviews.
• Partner with Marketing, Digital, Operations, and Data leaders to shape pricing and promotional strategy through modeling of elasticity, mix, customer behavior, and competitive positioning.
• Establish financial rigor around the test-and-learn agenda, including prioritization, measurement standards, and scalable approaches for evaluating results.
• Own the Marketing financial planning process, including the annual budget, monthly forecasts, long-range planning, scenario analysis, and ongoing investment reallocation.
• Work closely with Marketing leadership to build long-term strategic plans and business cases to support presentations to senior leadership and the Board of Directors.
• Direct and support various initiatives to improve and enhance financial processes, data visualization, reporting, etc. through Power BI, Planful and Excel.
• Build, lead, coach, and retain a high-performing Finance team; set priorities, raise analytical capabilities, and create clear accountability for results.
• Lead cross-functional and enterprise initiatives as needed, bringing financial perspective and disciplined problem solving to high-impact business questions.
• Report to VP of Finance.

Why this role matters:

• This role will directly influence how Potbelly allocates resources and invests in growth, making it a critical driver of near-term performance and long-term enterprise value.
• The Director will elevate Marketing Finance from reporting and analysis to proactive strategic leadership—helping the organization make faster, more informed, and more financially disciplined growth decisions.

What you will need:

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive Finance experience, including meaningful leadership responsibility; experience in a multi-unit, retail, restaurant, consumer, or high-growth business strongly preferred.
• Significant experience directly supporting Marketing, Digital, e-commerce, or other growth functions, with demonstrated ability to influence investment and commercial decisions.
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• Proven people leadership, team-building, coaching, and talent-development experience, including leading teams through growth and change.
• Deep expertise in budgeting, forecasting, long-range planning, investment analysis, and financial modeling.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating marketing effectiveness, promotions, pricing, customer economics, or digital-channel performance.
• Advanced Excel skills and strong experience with financial planning, reporting, and visualization tools such as Power BI, Planful, or similar systems; R and/or Python experience a plus.
• Strong executive presence and the ability to communicate complex analysis clearly, influence senior stakeholders, and drive decisions across functions.
• Excellent strategic thinking, problem solving, project leadership, and analytical skills.
• Experience using advanced statistical analysis or modeling to draw insights from large datasets is a plus.
• High energy, intellectual curiosity, sound judgment, and a strong sense of urgency and accountability for results.

Here's what's in it for you:

• Medical, Dental, Vision and Flexible Spending Account– We care about you and your family.
• 401(K) – We want to help secure your financial future.
• Time Off – We all need some time to relax, right?
• Employee Assistance Program – Things out of our control happen, we will help you get through it.
• Domestic Partner Benefits – We love who you love.
• Potbelly Meal Discounts – Hungry? We'll feed you
• Work Life Balance – You have a life outside of work, we want you to enjoy it

At Potbelly, we are committed to creating a welcoming and respectful environment where individuals are valued for their unique perspectives, backgrounds, and strengths. We believe that inclusion, collaboration, and mutual respect enhance the way we serve our customers and work together as a team. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business need.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. Each applicant will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

Application Deadline: Applications must be submitted by [08/25/2026] to be considered for this position. The posting may close earlier if a suitable candidate is selected before the deadline.