Senior Manager AI Enablement and Data Science

At CAVA we make it deliciously simple to eat well and feel good every day. We are guided by a Mediterranean heritage that’s been perfecting how to eat and live for four thousand years. We prioritize authenticity, curiosity, and the pursuit of excellence in everything we do. We are working towards something big, together.

We foster a culture built on five core values:

• Gener generosity First, Always: We lead with kindness. Our best work happens when we act in service of others.
• Constant Curiosity: We are eager to learn, grow, and explore beyond the obvious.
• Act with Agility: We welcome change; it’s the only constant. We embrace, adjust, and adapt.
• Passion for Positivity: We greet each day with warmth and possibility.
• Collective Ambition: We have high aspirations that are achieved when we work together with a shared purpose.

We are seeking an experienced and visionary leader to drive our AI Enablement and Data Science initiatives. This role will oversee the strategy, execution, and adoption of AI and data science solutions across the organization, empowering business teams through advanced analytics, scalable AI capabilities, and data-driven decision-making. You will build and lead a high-performing team, partnering with business stakeholders to unlock value from data and accelerate our AI maturity.

The Sr Manager of AI Enablement & Data Science will work with engineers to design, develop, and deploy AI-driven solutions tailored to the unique challenges of the quick-serve restaurant industry. This role requires deep technical expertise in AI, machine learning, and data science, combined with a practical understanding of QSR operations, such as supply chain management, customer behavior analysis, and operational efficiency.

The ideal candidate will bridge technical innovation with business impact, delivering scalable solutions that improve guest experience, streamline processes, and drive profitability.

What You’ll Do:

• Strategy and Leadership:
• Define and execute the AI/ML/Gen AI technical direction, vision, and roadmap ensuring alignment with strategic goals
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior executives, translating complex data science topics into business language
• Lead cross-functional AI Council to ensure compliance with data privacy, security, and ethical AI standards and identify high-value AI use cases and prioritize investments
• Establish frameworks, platforms, and reusable assets to democratize AI and make it accessible across business units
• Develop team strategy
• Model Development
  :
  Oversee the design, development, and deployment of machine learning models and algorithms to solve QSR-specific challenges, including:
• Predictive analytics for inventory and supply chain optimization.
• Customer segmentation and personalized recommendation systems for drive-thru, mobile apps, and loyalty programs.
• Real-time analytics for operational efficiency, such as staffing optimization and queue management.
• Natural language processing (NLP)
• Data Infrastructure
  :
  Collaborate with IT and engineering teams to build and maintain robust data pipelines, ensuring high-quality, real-time data availability for AI applications.
• Practical Application
  :
  Translate complex AI models into actionable insights and tools that non-technical stakeholders (e.g., restaurant managers, marketing teams) can leverage to improve decision-making.
• Stay at the forefront of AI and data science advancements, evaluating their potential applications to our business and presenting your findings to senior leadership.
• Oversee the entire data science lifecycle
  , from data collection and cleaning to model development, deployment, and performance monitoring on the Databricks platform.
• Develop and maintain a robust data infrastructure on AWS and Databricks to support our AI and data science initiatives.

The

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of hands-on experience in data science and machine learning.
• 5+ years people leadership experience with the ability to hire, develop, and build high-performing teams.
• Proven experience with the Databricks platform for large-scale data engineering, analytics, and machine learning.
• Excellent executive communication skills with the ability to…