Manager, Finance - Sales Analysis

Del Taco•Lake Forest, CA

About The Position

The Manager, Finance – Sales Analysis is a hands-on individual contributor who drives profitable sales growth across an approximately 600-unit quick service restaurant system comprising company-operated and franchised locations. Reporting to the Vice President of Finance, the role is the primary Finance business partner to Marketing and works closely with Product Development, Supply Chain, and Operations. It combines financial analysis and advanced data analytics to evaluate sales performance, promotional effectiveness, pricing strategies, and product profitability, and to turn complex data into actionable recommendations. A central focus is assessing how sales growth contributes to restaurant profitability. The position supports Marketing strategies, promotions, and new product initiatives; develops and applies measurement frameworks; evaluates sales and margin impacts; analyzes system-wide results across channels, markets, and dayparts; and builds reporting and dashboards. It also partners on pricing recommendations, product and recipe costing, COGS planning, sales forecasting, budgeting, variance analysis, and scenario development.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, Data Analytics, or a related quantitative field.
At least 5–7 years of progressive experience in financial analysis, commercial finance, business analytics, FP&A, or related analytical work.
Advanced Excel skills, including complex modeling, large data sets, and sophisticated analysis.
Experience translating business performance data into actionable commercial or financial recommendations.
Strong knowledge of profitability drivers, contribution margin, budgeting, forecasting, and performance measurement.
Experience with large data sets and business intelligence or analytical tools.
Strong problem-solving, critical thinking, curiosity, and ability to independently structure complex analyses.
Excellent communication and presentation skills for non-financial business partners.
Ability to influence cross-functional decisions without direct reporting authority.
Strong organization and attention to detail.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a large or complex restaurant, retail, consumer products, or multi-unit organization.
Experience in a franchised business or mixed company-operated/franchise model.
Marketing, pricing, promotional effectiveness, sales analytics, or product profitability experience.
Advanced Power BI, Tableau, or comparable data visualization proficiency.
Experience with SQL, Power Query, or other data transformation and analysis tools.
Familiarity with POS data, menu management, or recipe costing systems.
Experience with test/control analysis, incremental sales measurement, or promotional ROI.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary Finance business partner to Marketing, supporting marketing strategies, promotional programs, and new product initiatives.
Use standardized and develop new frameworks to measure marketing campaigns, limited-time offers, product introductions, and promotions.
Partner with Marketing and Product Development to design test-and-learn programs with appropriate test/control groups, baselines, measurement methods, and financial success criteria.
Evaluate sales lift, transactions, average check, product mix, discounting, cannibalization, and incremental contribution margin.
Prepare post-promotion evaluations and recommendations to inform future marketing investment and product decisions.
Lead system-wide sales analysis across company-operated and franchised restaurants, identifying trends and business drivers.
Evaluate same-store sales growth, transactions, average check, and product mix by market and region.
Analyze sales performance and profitability across in-restaurant, drive-thru, digital ordering, and third-party delivery channels.
Evaluate sales performance by daypart, including transaction behavior and product mix, to assist Operations’ analysis of restaurant operating hours.
Maintain and develop reporting and dashboards to enable company-wide understanding of sales results.
Partner with Marketing and Operations to analyze and recommend pricing actions that balance sales growth, guest value, and profitability.
Model pricing impacts on transactions, average check, product mix, revenue, and contribution margin, and monitor realized pricing performance against expected outcomes.
Partner with Supply Chain and Product Development on product costing, COGS analysis, and planning.
Maintain recipe costing data in business systems using ingredient specifications and recipe builds owned, provided, and validated by Product Development.
Coordinate with Supply Chain to incorporate current and forecast ingredient and packaging costs into costing models.
Support COGS budgets and forecasts with Supply Chain, incorporating commodity assumptions, product mix, and cost changes.
Lead system-wide sales forecasts, with separate projections for company-operated and franchise locations.
Support annual budgeting and periodic forecasts through detailed sales and COGS analysis.
Explain actual results versus budget, forecast, and prior year, including key variances and future implications.
Develop scenarios and sensitivities to inform commercial and strategic decisions.