Strategic Partnerships Manager, Delivery Platforms

El Pollo Loco; Costa Mesa (CA); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Great Place to Work culture

Competitive pay + bonus potential

Medical + Dental + Vision + HSA

401(k) with company match

Paid vacation + sick pay + 12 holidays

Employee assistance program

Job summary

El Pollo Loco is seeking a strategic leader to drive revenue and profitability for third-party delivery and gift card programs. You will own relationships with DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub and ezCater, coordinating with Operations and franchisees to ensure successful launches and strong performance across marketplaces.

Qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree and 6–8 years in business development or digital commerce, with proven leadership and analytics skills to optimize campaigns and ROI.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• A minimum of 6-8 years in a business development, partnerships, or digital commerce role.
• Experience managing third-party marketplace relationships within the limited service restaurant space is required.

Responsibilities

• Lead annual business planning process with third-party marketplace platforms, aligning El Pollo Loco and marketplace promotional calendars, co-funding opportunities and product roadmaps.
• Serve as the primary day-to-day relationship owner for all three delivery platforms, managing joint business planning, quarterly reviews, and escalations.
• Lead advertising and promotional strategy across platforms including sponsored listings, promotions, and co-funded campaigns. Maintain a persistent focus on customer acquisition, incremental sales, and maximizing ROI.
• Develop test-and-learn strategies to drive continuous improvement of El Pollo Loco performance on the marketplaces.
• Improve El Pollo Loco’s visual presence on the marketplaces, using A/B testing to optimize product imagery across platforms.

Skills

Leadership

Partnerships

Digital commerce

Revenue growth

Analytical

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

POSITION PURPOSE:

The Manager, Third-Party Delivery is a strategic, commercially minded leader responsible for increasing revenue and profitability for our third-party delivery and gift card businesses end to end. This is a high-visibility role that sits at the intersection of revenue growth, restaurant operations, and partner relationships. You'll be the internal expert and external face for our partnerships with DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub, and ezCater. You'll lead a growing gift card program spanning in-restaurant, digital, and retail channels.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead annual business planning process with third-party marketplace platforms, aligning El Pollo Loco and marketplace promotional calendars, co-funding opportunities and product roadmaps.
• Serve as the primary day-to-day relationship owner for all three delivery platforms, managing joint business planning, quarterly reviews, and escalations.
• Lead advertising and promotional strategy across platforms including sponsored listings, promotions, and co-funded campaigns. Maintain a persistent focus on customer acquisition, incremental sales, and maximizing ROI.
• Develop test-and-learn strategies to drive continuous improvement of El Pollo Loco performance on the marketplaces.
• Improve El Pollo Loco’s visual presence on the marketplaces, using A/B testing to optimize product imagery across platforms.
• Identify and evaluate new business opportunities with platform partners, including exclusive features, co-marketing programs, and pilot initiatives.
• Work closely with restaurant operations teams to drive adoption of best practices across the system that improve delivery performance, including speed of service, order accuracy, and packaging.
• Lead the onboarding of new restaurants onto delivery platforms, coordinating with Operations, IT, and franchisees to ensure a smooth launch.
• Monitor platform analytics and build recurring reporting to track sales, conversion, customer ratings, and market share; translate data into action.
• Improve El Pollo Loco's presence and performance on the ezCater marketplace, including promotions, sponsored listings and operations.
• Develop and execute advertising and promotional strategies to grow catering order volume and capture new business occasions.
• Partner with Operations to ensure catering orders are executed at a high standard across participating locations.
• Own the end-to-end gift card business, including physical cards sold in-restaurant and digital gift cards on elpolloloco.com.
• Lead El Pollo Loco's retail gift card program through grocery, drug, convenience, and other third-party retail channels, including contract management, sell-through reporting, and merchandising coordination.
• Identify and develop new gift card revenue opportunities, including B2B gifting, incentive programs, and emerging digital channels.

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 will 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.

Education/Work Experience:

Bachelor’s degree required. A minimum of 6-8 years in a business development, partnerships, or digital commerce role. Experience managing third-party marketplace relationships within the limited service restaurant space is required.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Strong people leadership skills, including the ability to recruit, train & develop at least one direct report.
• Ability to provide both thought leadership and effective customer service to franchisees and company-operated restaurants.
• Confidence in execution of strategic initiatives.
• Must be decisive and able to make fact-based decisions.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset and skills; meticulous attention to detail
• Ability to effectively communicate with internal and external business partners.
• Ability to prioritize and plan work assignments and work under pressure of frequent and tight deadlines.
• Ability to read, write, and interpret complex reports, documents, and correspondence.
• Adept at managing and prioritizing competing time sensitive requests while working well in a team atmosphere that may be under pressure.
• Ability to exercise independent judgment on matters of significance to the company.
• Ability to work weekends and extended work schedules as needed.
• Must be willing and able to travel locally within Southern California and to out-of-state restaurant locations, as needed by car or airplane.