Food Management Systems & Data Manager

Job Summary

This role owns El Pollo Loco’s recipe and food inventory systems and serves as the single source of truth for recipe and inventory data. The Manager keeps that data accurate, turns it into insights that improve food cost and profitability, and makes sure menu items are built and maintained consistently across all El Pollo Loco locations.

Key Focus Areas

• Data cleanup and integrity
• Recipe and prep optimization
• Actual vs. theoretical variance analysis
• System maintenance and new item setup
• Vendor integration (Supply Chain partners/vendors)
• Operations and franchise partner support
• Reporting cleanup, access management, and analytics

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Data Integrity

• Audit recipe and inventory data to find and fix inconsistencies, errors, and outdated entries.
• Clean the recipe database: remove duplicates, standardize formatting, and verify ingredient quantities across all locations.
• Clean inventory data: fix discrepancies, standardize units of measure, and archive inactive items.
• Monitor data daily so small errors don’t compound.

Cost Control & Profitability

• Keep recipe costing current in Recipe & Food Inventory System, updating for vendor price changes.
• Standardize portion sizes, build efficient prep schedules, and roll out digital checklists to reduce waste.
• Calculate actual vs. theoretical food cost and find root causes of loss, such as portioning, spoilage, or theft.
• Implement new platform features that improve ordering, waste tracking, and food cost performance.

Supply Chain & Operations

• Own new item and recipe setup, with clear protocols for accurate and timely entry, working with Supply Chain and Culinary.
• Support consistent inventory practices at restaurants, including physical counts, FIFO/FEFO, and usage-rate monitoring to right-size stock levels.
• Manage the Supply Chain partners/vendors integration: secure FTP data exchange, GDSN product data and images, and troubleshooting of transmission errors.

Operations Partnership

• Act as the go-to resource for company and franchise operators on recipe & food inventory system questions, data validation, and system inquiries.
• Work with restaurant teams to troubleshoot recipe, inventory, and costing issues, and resolve them quickly.
• Validate operator-reported discrepancies against system data and follow through on corrections.
• Gather operator feedback to improve system setup, training, and day-to-day usability.

Reporting & Platform Administration

• Audit and clean up existing reports: retire outdated or duplicate reports and consolidate the rest into a clear, usable set.
• Streamline the data points operations sees so restaurant and field leaders get the metrics that matter, without clutter.
• Manage platform access and user roles so company, franchise, and corporate users have the right access levels, and review them regularly as people change roles.
• Build and maintain food cost, variance, and inventory reports for Operations, Finance, and franchise partners.
• Spot trends and opportunities, and bring clear, actionable recommendations to leadership.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of restaurant back-office experience in inventory, costing, or finance; multi-unit QSR preferred.
• Hands-on experience with food management systems (e.g., CrunchTime, Restaurant365).
• Proven track record of data cleanup and data integrity work.
• Working knowledge of FTP (File Transfer Protocol), GDSN (Global Data Synchronization Network), and POS systems; advanced Excel.
• Experience supporting field or franchise operators, with the ability to explain technical issues in plain language.
• Analytical, detail-oriented, and proactive, with strong communication skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, hospitality, or a related field preferred, or equivalent experience.