Sr. Data Engineer - Loyalty & Customer Analytics

El Pollo Loco, Inc.; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Great Place to Work culture

Medical, Dental, Vision

HSA Savings

401K with match

Paid time off

Employee discounts

Bonus potential

Job summary

El Pollo Loco, Inc. seeks a Senior Data Engineer to own loyalty and customer spend data, turning it into reliable insights for leadership. You will design and deliver data solutions from ingestion to reporting, collaborating with business teams and external vendors to improve data quality and analytics capabilities.

You will lead data architecture, governance, and scalable pipelines, applying AI/ML techniques to expand analytics while ensuring security and cost effectiveness as EPL grows.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of data engineering/architecture experience with production data platforms.
• Expert-level SQL and modern ETL/ELT practices.
• Hands-on with cloud data warehouses (Snowflake or equivalent).
• Data governance and modeling to ensure analytics integrity.
• Experience with LLMs and AI integration in analytics workflows.
• Experience with loyalty, customer, or transactional data preferred.

Responsibilities

• Frame business problems with Marketing, Finance, Operations to translate data needs.
• Design and deliver end-to-end data solutions for loyalty, customer, and transaction data.
• Own data pipelines, ingestion flows, and analytical models.
• Define data architecture and governance aligned with security and cost.
• Collaborate with vendors and external data providers for integrations.
• Establish data contracts and reusable transformation patterns.
• Improve pipelines with monitoring, alerting, and self-healing processing.
• Apply AI/ML techniques and LLMs to expand analytics capabilities.
• Modernize ingestion frameworks to support growth.

Skills

SQL

ETL/ELT

Snowflake

Data pipelines

Data modeling

LLMs

AI integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS

Tools

Snowflake

Airflow

Job description

What's in it for you!

• STRONG office culture recognized as a Great Place to Work® and driven by our core values: Simple. Together. Relentless. Ownership. Nimble. Growth
• Career growth opportunities
• Competitive pay and bonus potential
• Medical + Dental + Vision Insurance + HSA Savings Account
• 401(K) Retirement Plan with company match and immediate vesting
• Paid Vacation + Sick Pay + 12 Paid Holidays
• Employee Assistance Program
• Free El Pollo Loco food + restaurant discounts
• PerkSpot discounts program

POSITION PURPOSE:

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.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND 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.

QUALIFICATIONS – EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, LICENSE/CERTIFICATIONS:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to satisfactorily perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job. The requirements listed below are representative of the education and/or experience required.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 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.
• Experience with loyalty, customer, or transactional data in restaurant, retail, or consumer businesses is strongly preferred.

LEADERSHIP & BUSINESS SKILLS:

• 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.

IMPACT:

This is a strategic role. The engineer will directly influence how EPL leadership makes decisions by ensuring customer and loyalty data is available, accurate, and actionable.

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field preferred, or equivalent professional experience.