Sr. Data Engineer - Loyalty & Customer Analytics

El Pollo Loco•Costa Mesa, CA

12d•$130,000 - $143,000•Hybrid

About The Position

At El Pollo Loco, we are on a mission to be the nation’s leading fire-grilled chicken restaurant. When it comes to our people, we are all about growth. Whether that means specialized training, a clearly laid out career trajectory or collaborating cross-functionally, we are committed to the success of our people the same way we’ve been committed to the success of the El Pollo Loco brand for the last 50 years. In fact, we see you as our secret ingredient. While our chicken is fire, it’s our people who set us ablaze. Our restaurants are only the tip of the flame! If you’re looking for an innovative, winning, and welcoming workplace, then a flamin’ good career in our Restaurant Support Center is right for you. At our Support Center, we believe our best work is done Together, when departments collaborate and everyone is confident in contributing their ideas. This is why we are in the office 3 days per week. Let’s Get Loco! The Senior Data Engineer owns El Pollo Loco's (EPL) loyalty and customer spend data, turning it into reliable, actionable insight for leadership. This role starts with the business problem: understanding what decision leadership needs to make, then independently designing and delivering the data solution that supports it. The engineer owns data domains end to end, from source ingestion and architecture through reporting and analysis, and ensures data integrity across internal systems and external partners. Working directly with business departments, internal technology teams, and external technology vendors, this role drives architectural improvements that directly shape how EPL leadership makes decisions.

Requirements

8+ years of progressive experience in data engineering, data architecture, or analytics engineering, including ownership of production data platforms.
Expert-level SQL and strong experience with modern ETL/ELT practices and data processing.
Hands-on experience with cloud data warehouse platforms (e.g., Snowflake or comparable).
Experience with data governance and data modeling to ensure data integrity as analytics and reports are developed across EPL.
Demonstrated ability to take an ambiguous business problem and independently design, build, and deliver a solution.
Experience managing integrations and working relationships with third-party technology vendors.
Experience with LLMs and agentic frameworks, and the ability to integrate AI into analytics workflows.
Technical leadership mindset with a long-term architectural vision and a commitment to high-quality delivery.
Comfortable operating with ambiguity and setting direction where none exists.
Strong judgment in balancing short-term needs against long-term business goals.
Communicates clearly in business terms with executives and non-technical stakeholders.
Sense of urgency and strong attention to detail in a fast-paced environment.

Nice To Haves

Experience with loyalty, customer, or transactional data in restaurant, retail, or consumer businesses is strongly preferred.
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field preferred, or equivalent professional experience.

Responsibilities

Business Problem Framing: Partner with Marketing, Finance, Operations, and leadership to understand business questions, translate them into data requirements, and recommend the right solution approach without needing detailed direction.
Independent Solution Design: Own solutions from concept to production, including evaluating options, making architectural trade-off decisions, and delivering working outcomes with minimal supervision.
Data Domain Ownership: Design, build, and maintain data pipelines, ingestion flows, and analytical models for loyalty, customer, and transaction data.
Architecture & Governance: Define and own data architecture for the domain, ensuring alignment with business needs, security, scalability, and cost effectiveness.
Vendor & Partner Collaboration: Work directly with external technology vendors and data providers (loyalty, POS, digital ordering, and marketing platforms) to define integrations, resolve data issues, and hold partners accountable for data quality and delivery.
Data Contracts & Integration: Establish data contracts with internal and external sources, integrate new data sources, and develop reusable transformation patterns.
Pipeline Reliability & Optimization: Identify limitations in existing data processes, drive improvements, and establish best practices, including automated monitoring, alerting, and self-healing processing.
AI/ML Integration: Apply AI/ML technologies, including large language models and agentic frameworks, to expand analytics capabilities and automate insight generation.
Innovation & Scalability: Modernize ingestion frameworks and build secure, scalable, and maintainable solutions that support EPL's growth.