Field Marketing Lead - Local Growth & Openings

El Pollo Loco, Inc.; Costa Mesa (CA); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

HSA Savings Account

401(K) Retirement Plan

Paid Vacation

Sick Pay

12 Paid Holidays

Employee Assistance Program

Free El Pollo Loco food

PerkSpot discounts

Job summary

El Pollo Loco, Inc. is seeking a Field Marketing Specialist to lead local store marketing programs, new restaurant openings, and community engagement across our California market.

You will own strategy, execution, and continuous improvement, partnering with franchisees and corporate teams to bring the brand to life at the local level. The ideal candidate has 1–3 years of marketing experience in food service or franchising, a Bachelor's degree, strong organizational skills, and the ability to

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree preferred in Marketing, Communications, Business, or related field.
• 1–3 years of marketing experience, ideally within food service, retail, franchising, or consumer-facing brands.
• Experience in field marketing, events, brand activation, and franchising is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Execute local store marketing campaigns, promotions, public relations initiatives, and programs that drive sales, traffic, and brand awareness.
• Coordinate with restaurant leadership to distribute marketing toolkits, materials, and resources.
• Maintain, update, and review assets and requests in the Local Store Marketing Portal, ensuring guides and materials are accurate and accessible.
• Track usage and engagement with LSM tools to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Represents the marketing team in front of franchisees, collaborating on strategy and execution of events.
• Lead the planning, logistics, and execution of marketing activities related to new restaurant openings, independently executing NROs as assigned given the volume of openings across the market.
• Lead community outreach, public relations, event materials, and promotional assets for new restaurant openings.
• Manage and optimize the NRO asset and budget tracker, ensuring accurate documentation of spend, timelines, and vendor coordination.
• Conduct trade area assessments of NROs, identifying sales-driving and community-building opportunities.
• Own the fundraiser and community give-back program end-to-end — from strategy and franchisee outreach through execution and post-program reporting.
• Make day-to-day decisions on program structure, partnership requests, and franchisee participation, exercising independent judgment on program matters and escalating only major strategic shifts to the Field Marketing Manager.
• Continuously evaluate and improve fundraiser program mechanics, materials, and processes to increase franchisee participation and community impact.
• Build scalable tools, templates, and workflows that allow the fundraiser program to grow alongside the brand's expansion.
• Work with cross-functional teams (Operations, Training, Creative, Supply Chain, etc.) to support execution of field marketing programs.
• Process invoices, maintain budget trackers, and ensure accurate documentation of marketing spend.
• Assist in preparing presentations, reports, and recaps for internal stakeholders and franchise partners.
• Attend internal and franchisee-facing meetings, take detailed notes, and distribute clear, timely recaps to relevant stakeholders.
• Draft and manage email correspondence across franchisee, vendor, and internal audiences, ensuring communications are timely, accurate, and on-brand.
• Support the collection, organization, and reporting of field marketing data, campaign performance, and local insights.
• Assist in analyzing promotional outcomes and identifying opportunities to improve future activations.
• Provide general marketing support as assigned by the Field Marketing Manager.
• Participate in local market visits and assist onsite for key events, when needed.

Skills

Strong organizational & project mgmt

Excellent communication

Customer service mindset

Travel 10–20%

Education

Bachelor's degree in Marketing/Communications/Business

Tools

Microsoft Office

PowerPoint

Excel

Word

Job description

El Pollo Loco, Inc. is seeking a Field Marketing Specialist to lead local store marketing programs, new restaurant openings, and community engagement across our California market.

You will own strategy, execution, and continuous improvement, partnering with franchisees and corporate teams to bring the brand to life at the local level. The ideal candidate has 1–3 years of marketing experience in food service or franchising, a Bachelor's degree, strong organizational skills, and the ability to