Director of Data & Digital

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria•Buffalo Grove, IL

About The Position

Lou Malnati's is seeking a Director, Data & Digital to lead the technology powering our digital guest experience and enterprise data capabilities. This role oversees digital ordering channels — including ecommerce, online ordering, loyalty, and mobile — as well as the data engineering, analytics, and BI platforms that support enterprise decision-making. The Director will report to the CTO and serve as a key member of the IT Leadership Team.

Requirements

Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills; ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Working knowledge of digital commerce platforms, ecommerce architecture, and online ordering systems.
Working knowledge of data engineering concepts, including pipeline architecture, data modeling, and BI tooling selection.
Proven ability to manage external development and analytics partners.
Experience managing budgets, vendor contracts, and technology roadmaps.
Demonstrated ability to hold teams accountable while supporting individual performance and development.
Ability to operate with limited resources and maintain momentum in ambiguous environments.
Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, business, or related field preferred.
8–12 years in technology roles with increasing leadership responsibility.
Demonstrated experience leading digital product, data, or platform teams.
Experience in restaurant, retail, hospitality, or multi-unit consumer businesses preferred.
Familiarity with restaurant technology ecosystems preferred: Toast, Revel, Paytronix, online ordering platforms.
Experience leading platform migrations, digital transformation initiatives, or data platform build-outs.
Track record of presenting and defending technical roadmaps to executive and board-level audiences.

Nice To Haves

Use AI to accelerate requirements synthesis, technical specification drafting, and partner briefing documents.
Apply AI to analyze digital platform data — conversion trends, error patterns, and abandonment signals — to sharpen roadmap priorities.
Leverage AI to research ecommerce approaches, analytics platform options, and digital industry best practices.
Use AI to draft stakeholder communications, executive updates, and vendor performance summaries.
Apply AI to review and summarize code or data pipeline deliverables from development partners, improving oversight without deep technical review time.

Responsibilities

Leads the technology roadmap for digital ordering and guest-facing channels, including ecommerce, online ordering, loyalty (Paytronix) and mobile.
Owns integration quality across multi-vendor platforms including POS (Toast/Revel), payment (Braintree), loyalty, and catering (ezCater).
Oversees the guest-facing digital experience across high-frequency, transaction-intensive channels.
Leads roadmap prioritization in partnership with Marketing, Ecomm Operations, and Finance.
Defines and executes the enterprise data strategy including architecture, pipelines, BI tooling, and reporting infrastructure.
Builds and manages the data platform serving Operations, Marketing, and Finance.
Champions adoption of data-driven decision-making across the organization.
Owns relationships with data vendors and establishes internal data governance standards.
Builds and manages the digital and data team, including hiring, development, and performance management.
Establishes delivery standards, accountability structures, and team operating cadence.
Develops team members and manages succession within the function.
Represents the function at the executive level in the CTO's absence.
Manages vendor relationships, contracts, and performance for digital and analytics partners.
Communicates progress, risks, and tradeoffs to senior leadership.
Performs other related duties as assigned.