Marketing Manager – Slim Chickens UAE

Slim Chickens is making its UAE debut. We're looking for the person who'll bring the brand to life and shape its success from day one.

Born in a garage in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 2003, Slim Chickens has grown into a global brand of nearly 400 restaurants built on hand breaded tenders, a buttermilk marinade its founders spent years perfecting, house made dipping sauces and genuinely warm hospitality. It has a following that turns up wherever it opens. The UAE is next and this role owns how that story gets told here. This is not a role that inherits a finished playbook. The Marketing Manager will be involved from the ground up, contributing to which menu items land in the UAE, shaping how the brand speaks in this market and delivering the first opening, the first campaign and the first wave of UAE fans. The role includes time with the founding brand team in the United States and with our counterparts in the United Kingdom, seeing how Slim Chickens is built and marketed before bringing it home.

Day to day, the role leads the market launch and ongoing marketing of Slim Chickens in the UAE, establishing the brand in a highly competitive QSR and fast casual landscape. The role will develop and execute locally relevant marketing strategies and campaigns that build brand awareness, drive store traffic, transactions and sales, and establish a strong and distinctive presence for Slim Chickens in the UAE. Local relevance is the whole game here, a US brand does not land in this market by being translated, it lands by being understood. Working closely with Operations and the wider ELR team, the Marketing Manager will oversee the full customer-facing marketing journey across brand launch, new store openings, social and digital, PR, local store marketing, promotions, partnerships and in-store experience in addition to liaising with the global host brand team.

This is a hands-on role requiring someone who understands the pace, consumer behaviour and commercial drivers of the QSR and premium fast casual dining category and can translate local and global trends into relevant ideas for the UAE market. If you want to point at a brand in five years’ time and say “I built that here”, this is that job.

Why This Role Is Different

Very few marketers get to open the first store of a brand in a country. This role does and everything that follows is built on decisions made in the first twelve months.

Time in the US with the founding Slim Chickens team and in the UK with an established international operation. You will see the brand from the inside before you are asked to represent it.

Genuine input into menu localisation. Which items travel, which need reworking, what a UAE guest actually wants at 11pm on a Thursday.

Your budget, your agency roster, your social voice, your calendar. Small enough team that you own the outcome, big enough business that you have proper backing behind you.

Key Position Accountabilities

Brand Launch & Marketing Strategy

• Lead the development and execution of the Slim Chickens UAE launch strategy and subsequent annual marketing plan.
• Localise the global Slim Chickens brand proposition for the UAE while maintaining brand standards and consistency. This includes tone of voice, creative treatment and Arabic language expression of the brand.
• Contribute to the localisation of the UAE menu, working with Culinary and the global brand team on which products, flavours, formats and occasions are right for this market.
• Develop 360° campaigns across digital, social, PR, in-store, partnerships, delivery platforms and local store marketing.
• Lead marketing plans for new store openings, from pre-launch awareness and community engagement through launch and post-opening traffic generation. Build strong local relevance through culturally relevant campaigns, partnerships, events and activations, including the moments that matter most in this market (Ramadan, Eid, National Day, school holidays and the summer trading period)

Brand Immersion & Global Partnership

• Spend structured time with the Slim Chickens brand team in the United States and with the established UK business to build deep knowledge of the brand, its operating model and its marketing approach.
• Act as the daily link between the UAE business and the global host brand team, securing approvals efficiently and representing the UAE market’s needs credibly.
• Bring learnings from other Slim Chickens markets into the UAE plan and feed UAE insight back into the global brand.

Commercial & Local Store Marketing

• Develop creative marketing initiatives that directly drive footfall, transactions, frequency, average transaction value and sales.
• Work closely with Operations to develop Local Store Marketing plans tailored to individual store catchments and trading opportunities.
• Identify opportunities around product launches, meal occasions, promotions, limited-time offers and partnerships to drive incremental revenue.
• Review campaign and promotional performance against agreed KPIs and use learnings to optimise future activity.
• Maintain awareness of competitor activity across the UAE fried chicken, burger, QSR and fast-casual landscape.

Essential

• Degree level qualification in Marketing, Business or a related discipline or equivalent practical experience.
• Minimum 5 years’ marketing experience, including at least 2 years in QSR, fast casual, restaurant, retail or another fast moving consumer brand environment.
• Deep, first hand understanding of the UAE market. How people here eat, socialise, celebrate, scroll and spend and strong fluency in the local food, culture and creator landscape.
• Experience supporting a new brand, store or major product launch or a clear appetite and aptitude for building something from a standing start.
• Demonstrable experience developing campaigns that have driven store traffic, transactions and sales, rather than brand awareness alone.
• Strong social media and digital marketing experience, with an excellent understanding of TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and emerging platforms and trends.
• Experience managing and briefing social media, creative and PR agencies.
• Experience with new store openings, local store marketing, promotional campaigns and product launches.
• Strong commercial and analytical mindset with the ability to interpret campaign and sales performance.
• Excellent project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally for brand immersion and training.

Preferred

• Exposure to a chicken or fried chicken concept or another high frequency food brand.
• Previous experience marketing to UAE / GCC Gen Z and younger millennial audiences.
• Experience working with delivery aggregators and digital acquisition platforms.
• Established understanding of the UAE food, lifestyle, creator and media landscape.
• Experience working with an international franchisor or global host brand.
• Arabic language skills, with the ability to develop and review Arabic language creative and content and to work confidently with local media, creators and community partners.

What We Offer

• Ownership of a brand launch in a market where the brand does not yet exist.
• International brand immersion in the US and UK.
• Exposure to senior ELR leadership and to a global franchisor.
• Structured development, with dedicated support to build your skills.