Staff Engineer, Applied AI

Wingstop•Dallas, TX

3h•Onsite

About The Position

Wingstop is seeking a Staff Engineer, Applied AI to lead the team that takes AI from prototype to production across the enterprise. You will own end-to-end delivery of applied AI solutions from problem framing with business partners through deployment, monitoring, and measured impact. This role leads a team of applied AI engineers and data scientists working across restaurant operations, digital ordering, supply chain, and guest experience. You will set the technical direction for how Wingstop builds, ships, and sustains AI systems, and you will be accountable for the business results those systems produce. This role is based at the Global Support Center in Dallas, TX.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field (or equivalent practical experience)
10+ years in data science, machine learning, or applied AI engineering, including leadership roles
3+ years managing technical teams with a track record of shipping AI into production
Deep hands-on experience with Python and the modern ML stack (scikit-learn, PyTorch or TensorFlow, pandas)
Production ML experience: deployment, serving, monitoring, drift detection, and retraining
Experience with LLM and generative AI applications — RAG, prompting, evaluation, and fine-tuning
Experience designing and operating systems in AWS (SageMaker, Bedrock) or a comparable cloud
Strong SQL and experience with modern data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, or similar)
Experience with MLOps tooling, CI/CD, and infrastructure automation
Demonstrated track record of quantifying business impact from AI investments
Translates technical concepts into business language for non-technical executives
Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional influence
High ownership; operates well with ambiguity and shifting priorities
Committed to developing people and building a durable team
Sound judgment on when to ship, when to iterate, and when to stop

Nice To Haves

Master’s or PhD preferred
Cloud certifications (AWS preferred) are a plus
Restaurant, retail, or multi-unit consumer experience is a plus
Experience working in Agile environments such as Scrum, Kanban, or SAFe

Responsibilities

Lead a team of applied AI engineers and data scientists
Own end-to-end delivery of AI solutions: problem framing, modeling, deployment, monitoring, and iteration
Partner with business stakeholders to translate operational problems into AI use cases with clear success metrics
Set technical standards for model development, evaluation, deployment, and ongoing performance monitoring
Prioritize the applied AI roadmap, balancing near-term wins against long-term platform and capability investment
Partner with Data Engineering and BI to ensure solutions are built on reliable, production-grade data
Establish MLOps practices, CI/CD for models, reproducibility, versioning, and automated retraining
Govern responsible AI use: model risk, bias evaluation, data privacy, and third-party model decisions
Drive build-vs-buy decisions across LLM providers, ML platforms, and AI vendors
Communicate results, tradeoffs, and roadmap to senior leadership in business terms
Lead proofs of concept in emerging areas including generative AI, forecasting, computer vision, and intelligent automation

Benefits

Unlimited paid time off for exempt employees
One paid volunteer day of your choice
Competitive bonus structure for eligible roles
Team member stock purchase plan
Health savings or flexible spending account options
401k – (dollar for dollar on the first 3% and then 50 cents on the dollar for the next 2% for team member contributions up to 5% of eligible compensation)
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits
Basic life and AD&D insurance provided
Pet insurance
Education Assistance
Wellness reimbursement program
Paid maternity and paternity leave
Lunch provided every Tuesday and Thursday in office
Discount on Wingstop gift cards
Onsite game room