Head of Franchise Development

Head of Franchise Development

Reports to: Founder · Band 5 (Principal) · Mumbai HQ

The opportunity

Aliens Tattoo is the most recognised name in premium tattooing in India. A ₹45 Cr brand today, with a credible line of sight to ₹500 Cr by 2030 — built on a franchise network we intend to take from where we are now to 100 studios across India and select international markets.

The category itself is wide open. India has roughly 60,000 tattoo artists, 14,000 studios, and fewer than 100 that meet the standard a premium customer expects. Demand for premium work is well ahead of supply — customers routinely travel cities and countries to find a studio they trust. We are that studio. The franchise programme is how we put one within reach of every customer who is currently driving four hours to find us.

We're looking for the person who builds that.

The mandate

You will own franchise development end-to-end — from the first conversation with a prospective franchisee to the moment a launch-ready studio is handed across to our operations team. That means picking the markets and the sites, negotiating the leases, running the civil and interior build, managing the vendors and the timelines, walking each studio across the line to opening — and, of course, acquiring and converting the partners who fund it. Once a studio is live, operations runs it. Everything in front of that line is yours.

This is a function to be built, not inherited. You will design the engine, hire the team, codify the playbooks, and own the development P&L — CAPEX and build budgets, cost-per-studio, time-to-launch, lead-acquisition spend, and the unit economics that have to hold up when a sophisticated franchisee pressure-tests them. You will report to the Founder, sit at the strategy table, and have the authority to make this work.

What you'll be doing

Picking markets and sites the way a serious operator picks them — catchment, demographics, footfall, co-tenancy, competition, format fit across Base, Prime and Signature. Driving failure rates down with a real scorecard, not instinct.

Running a live network — brokers, developers, vendors, property lawyers — that lets you move faster and avoid landmines others walk into.

Negotiating leases with teeth on the terms that matter: deposit, fit-out period, assignment, exit.

Delivering build-outs that look the way an Aliens studio is supposed to look, on the timeline and budget you committed to.

Owning the franchise sales funnel — generating leads, qualifying prospects, defending unit economics in front of investors who will challenge them, and signing the right partners (not just any partners).

Holding the development economics — cost-per-studio, capex discipline, time-to-launch — so the network scales without the maths quietly breaking.

Standing up the systems — pipeline CRM, site analytics, build-tracking, a clean handover SOP — that let this function scale without depending on a hero.

Taking the brand international when the moment is right: market entry, master- vs unit-franchise structures, local partners, FDI and cross-border structuring.

Building the team that does all of the above.

What we're looking for

You've done this before — not advised on it, done it. You've personally hunted locations, hit a wall on a lease, replaced a contractor, recovered a slipping launch, and sat across a table from a sceptical investor and earned the signature. You've scaled at least one franchise or multi-unit business through a phase like ours, and you know what breaks at twenty studios that did not break at five.

You are commercial to the core. You read a P&L the way most people read a menu. You can hold your own with a CFO and explain the economics of a Prime studio to a first-time franchisee in the same week.

You are unusually resourceful. The right broker, the right contractor, the right property lawyer in a new city — you either know them or know how to find them by the end of the week. Your network is real, current, and you use it.

You are strategic and hands-on in equal measure. You can articulate a three-year plan in front of the board, and you can stand on a half-finished studio floor at 11pm and fix what's going wrong with the build. Most senior leaders are good at one of these. This role needs both — in the same person, in the same week.

You build teams. You hire people who are sharper than you in their lane, you give them clarity and air cover, and you do not confuse activity with progress.

International franchise exposure is a serious plus. So is premium retail, F&B, wellness or beauty multi-unit experience. A genuine interest in our category and brand is not a plus — it's table stakes.

What success looks like

You've done this before — not advised on it, done it. You've personally hunted locations, hit a wall on a lease, replaced a contractor, recovered a slipping launch, and sat across a table from a sceptical investor and earned the signature. You've scaled at least one franchise or multi-unit business through a phase like ours, and you know what breaks at twenty studios that did not break at five.

Here's the part most candidates get wrong, so we'll be direct about it. Plenty of people can fill a pipeline and close a deal — selling is the easier half of this job, and the half the market is full of. Far fewer can also walk a site and know it's wrong before the lease is signed, or look at a build running two weeks late and know exactly which lever to pull tonight. This role needs the second kind far more than the first. If your instinct on a location, a lease or a contractor is to route it to someone else and wait, this isn't your seat. You own the dirt as surely as you own the deal.

You are commercial to the core. You read a P&L the way most people read a menu. You can hold your own with a CFO and explain the economics of a Prime studio to a first-time franchisee in the same week.

You are unusually resourceful. The right broker, the right contractor, the right property lawyer in a new city — you either know them or know how to find them by the end of the week. Your network is real, current, and you use it.

You are strategic and hands-on in equal measure. You can articulate a three-year plan in front of the board, and you can stand on a half-finished studio floor at 11pm and fix what's going wrong with the build. Most senior leaders are good at one of these. This role needs both — in the same person, in the same week.

You build teams. You hire people who are sharper than you in their lane, you give them clarity and air cover, and you do not confuse activity with progress.

International franchise exposure is a serious plus. So is premium retail, F&B, wellness or beauty multi-unit experience. A genuine interest in our category and brand is not a plus — it's table stakes.

Practical details

Reports to the Founder. Mumbai-based, with significant domestic travel and periodic international