Food Management Systems & Data Manager

El Pollo Loco•Costa Mesa, CA

6d•$95,529 - $135,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Food Management Systems & Data Manager owns El Pollo Loco’s recipe and food inventory systems and serves as the source of truth for recipe and inventory data. The role maintains accurate data, develops insights to improve food cost and profitability, and ensures menu items are built and maintained consistently across locations. The Manager audits, cleans, and maintains recipe and inventory data; updates recipe costing for vendor price changes; analyzes actual-versus-theoretical food cost; and identifies causes of loss. The role also supports recipe and prep optimization, new-item setup, inventory practices, platform features, vendor integrations, reporting, and system access administration. This position partners with Supply Chain, Culinary, Operations, Finance, restaurant teams, and company and franchise operators. It supports system questions and troubleshooting, validates reported discrepancies, improves reporting and system usability, and presents actionable recommendations to leadership. The Restaurant Support Center works in the office three days per week.

Requirements

3–5 years of restaurant back-office experience in inventory, costing, or finance; multi-unit QSR experience is preferred.
Hands-on experience with food management systems such as CrunchTime or Restaurant365.
A proven track record of data cleanup and data integrity work.
Working knowledge of FTP (File Transfer Protocol), GDSN (Global Data Synchronization Network), and POS systems.
Advanced Excel skills.
Experience supporting field or franchise operators and explaining technical issues in plain language.
Analytical, detail-oriented, and proactive, with strong communication skills.

Nice To Haves

Multi-unit QSR experience.
A bachelor’s degree in business, finance, hospitality, or a related field; equivalent experience is also accepted.

Responsibilities

Audit recipe and inventory data to identify and correct inconsistencies, errors, and outdated entries.
Clean and standardize recipe records, including removing duplicates and verifying ingredient quantities across locations.
Correct inventory discrepancies, standardize units of measure, and archive inactive items.
Monitor data daily to prevent errors from compounding.
Maintain current recipe costing in the Recipe & Food Inventory System, including updates for vendor price changes.
Standardize portion sizes, develop efficient prep schedules, and roll out digital checklists to reduce waste.
Calculate actual-versus-theoretical food cost and identify root causes of losses such as portioning, spoilage, or theft.
Implement platform features that improve ordering, waste tracking, and food cost performance.
Own new item and recipe setup, establishing accurate and timely entry protocols in coordination with Supply Chain and Culinary.
Support consistent restaurant inventory practices, including physical counts, FIFO/FEFO, and usage-rate monitoring to right-size stock levels.
Manage Supply Chain partner and vendor integrations, including secure FTP data exchange, GDSN product data and images, and transmission-error troubleshooting.
Serve as a resource for company and franchise operators on system questions, data validation, and inquiries.
Troubleshoot and resolve restaurant recipe, inventory, and costing issues.
Validate operator-reported discrepancies against system data and follow through on corrections.
Gather operator feedback to improve system setup, training, and day-to-day usability.
Audit reports, retire outdated or duplicate reports, and consolidate remaining reports into a clear, usable set.
Streamline operational data and metrics for restaurant and field leaders.
Manage platform access and user roles for company, franchise, and corporate users, and review access as roles change.
Build and maintain food cost, variance, and inventory reports for Operations, Finance, and franchise partners.
Identify trends and opportunities and provide actionable recommendations to leadership.