Sr. Director, Technology Operations & Retail Technology

Planet Fitness • Boston, MA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Founded in 1992 in Dover, NH, Planet Fitness is one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the United States by number of members and locations. We have over 2,700+ stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Panama, Mexico, Australia, and Spain. 90% of Planet Fitness stores are owned and operated by independent franchisees. At Planet Fitness, our unique mission has always been to enhance people’s lives by providing a high-quality fitness experience in a welcoming, non-intimidating environment. And we’re proud of the amazing Planet Fitness team that supports our clubs and team members. They are comprised of dynamic, dedicated, and talented individuals who represent our values of integrity, transparency, passion, respect, and excellence (while having fun!) in everything they do. Joining the PF family means being part of a company that cares about bettering the health and wellbeing of our communities. It means being a part of a supportive, engaging workforce with an inclusive culture that values diversity and creates an environment where everyone can feel they belong. It means encouraging professional growth and development. It means making true, lasting connections with your co-workers with celebrations, team building activities and engaging corporate events! It means creating a positive impact in our local communities through our Judgement Free Generation® philanthropic initiative. It means being part of a brand that you can be proud of! For the past 30 years, we’ve helped millions of people in their fitness journey and revolutionized the industry along the way. And we’re just getting started! Overview The Sr. Director, Technology Operations & Retail Technology is a senior leadership role responsible for the strategic direction, operational excellence, and delivery of two critical technology domains: Technology Operations / Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and Retail Technology. This leader ensures the reliability, performance, and innovation of enterprise systems while driving technology capabilities across fitness club locations. The role requires a hands-on, results-oriented executive who thrives in a fast-paced, franchise-oriented environment and can translate complex technology strategy into practical, field-level outcomes. This role follows a hybrid schedule and requires regular, in-person work at our Hampton, NH office or future Boston, MA office. Our hybrid model is M/T/W in office and TH/F are optional work-from-home. Candidates must reside within commuting distance of our office. Fully remote work is not available for this role.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field; advanced degree a plus
• 10+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, with at 3 years managing multi-functional teams at the Director level or above preferred
• 5+ years of demonstrated accountability and experience managing technology budget planning in a publicly traded company
• 5+ years of experience with vendor management and contract management at a publicly traded company demonstrating experience in contracts exceeding $2MM
• Demonstrated experience leading Technology Operations, SRE, or retail infrastructure teams in a high-availability environment
• Proven track record managing retail, field, or distributed technology programs — preferably in a franchise, hospitality, or multi-location retail environment
• Strong working knowledge of SRE principles, ITIL frameworks, incident and change management, and cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Excellent executive communication skills with the ability to present complex technical topics to non-technical stakeholders and franchise partners
• Ability to lead through influence across matrixed teams and franchise structures
• Experience managing technology through organizational scaling or M&A integration events
• Extremely detail-oriented, efficient, and organized with an exceptional ability to establish priorities and objectives
• Exceptional presentation and communication skills along with the ability to communicate effectively across all levels of the organization, including executives
• Able to establish and maintain effective, collaborative work relationships with diverse individuals, internally and externally
• Creative, progressive, thought leadership with the ability to influence at all levels of the organization
• Excellent leadership skills including the ability to build teams, motivate, guide, and mentor
• Possess a results-driven entrepreneurial mindset, demonstrating initiative and creativity
• Demonstrated strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and organizational leadership skills
• Exhibits comfort, ease, and flexibility working in an extremely fast-paced ever-changing, deadline-driven environment
• Cooperative team player with an upbeat, positive, “can-do” attitude!
• Ability to work off-hours and provide on-call support as needed

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a fitness, wellness, or consumer facing retail industry, a plus
• Familiarity with PCI DSS compliance requirements in a retail or point-of-sale environment, preferred
• ITIL, SRE, or cloud certifications (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect, Google Cloud Professional)

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop two high-performing teams across Technology Operations/SRE and Retail Technology disciplines.
• Define and execute a multi-year technology roadmap aligned to organizational growth, operational scalability, and franchisee experience goals.
• Serve as a key technology advisor to the VP of Technology and Executive Leadership Team on operational risk, infrastructure strategy, and retail technology initiatives.
• Build a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and engineering excellence across both teams.
• Establish and enforce SLAs, SLOs, and error budgets across critical platforms and services.
• Drive incident management maturity including blameless post-mortems, root cause analysis, and systemic remediation.
• Oversee infrastructure modernization efforts including cloud adoption, automation, and platform reliability improvements.
• Maintain rigorous change management discipline to minimize production risk while enabling delivery velocity.
• Partner with Security and Compliance teams to ensure infrastructure meets regulatory and policy requirements.
• Oversee the lifecycle management of all in-club technology including POS, access control, networking, and digital experience systems.
• Develop and maintain standardized technology deployment playbooks for new club openings, remodels, and franchisee onboarding.
• Partner with club operations leadership and franchisees to understand field-level needs and translate them into scalable technology solutions.
• Manage vendor relationships and contracts for retail technology platforms and field support services.
• Ensure technology environments in all club locations meet security, compliance, and operational standards.
• Own department budgets for both teams, including capital planning, vendor spend, and headcount.
• Communicate technology performance, risk, and investment priorities clearly to executive and franchise stakeholders.
• Collaborate with product, development, and security teams to ensure seamless delivery of technology initiatives.
• Represent technology operations in enterprise risk, audit, and compliance forums as needed.

Benefits

• Planet Fitness cares about you and your well-being. We offer a comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees which includes the core medical, dental, vision, life and disability as well as supplemental accident, hospital and critical illness coverage options.
• In addition, we are proud to offer eligible employees a generous time off program (including volunteer time), childcare reimbursement, paid parental leave, pet care reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, free Black Card membership, learning and development programs and a whole host of engagement activities.
• We offer a 401(k) Plan with safe harbor employer matching and an employee stock purchase plan.
• This role is also eligible to participate in an annual corporate bonus incentive program based on company financial and personal performance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director