Staff Engineer, Applied AI

WHO WE ARE

We’re not in the wing business. We’re in the flavor business. It’s been our mission to Serve the World Flavor since we first opened in 1994, and we’re just getting started. 1997 saw the opening of our first brand partner operated Wingstop location, and by 2002 we had served the world one billion wings. It’s flavor that defines us and has made Wingstop one of the fastest growing brands in the restaurant industry.

Above all else – our success is largely due to our people and our core values, or what we call The Wingstop Way of being entrepreneurial, service-minded, fun, and authentic. We believe having a strong people foundation centered on these collective values creates a crave-worthy culture and talented team, as well as ensures our brand is poised for accelerated growth. We all win together.

WHAT WE’LL NEED

Wingstop is seeking a Staff Engineer, Applied AI to lead the team that takes AI from prototype to production across the enterprise. You will own end-to-end delivery of applied AI solutions from problem framing with business partners through deployment, monitoring, and measured impact. This role leads a team of applied AI engineers and data scientists working across restaurant operations, digital ordering, supply chain, and guest experience. You will set the technical direction for how Wingstop builds, ships, and sustains AI systems, and you will be accountable for the business results those systems produce. This role is based at the Global Support Center in Dallas, TX.

Role Responsibilities

• Lead a team of applied AI engineers and data scientists

• Own end-to-end delivery of AI solutions: problem framing, modeling, deployment, monitoring, and iteration

• Partner with business stakeholders to translate operational problems into AI use cases with clear success metrics

• Set technical standards for model development, evaluation, deployment, and ongoing performance monitoring

• Prioritize the applied AI roadmap, balancing near-term wins against long-term platform and capability investment

• Partner with Data Engineering and BI to ensure solutions are built on reliable, production-grade data

• Establish MLOps practices, CI/CD for models, reproducibility, versioning, and automated retraining

• Govern responsible AI use: model risk, bias evaluation, data privacy, and third-party model decisions

• Drive build-vs-buy decisions across LLM providers, ML platforms, and AI vendors

• Communicate results, tradeoffs, and roadmap to senior leadership in business terms

• Lead proofs of concept in emerging areas including generative AI, forecasting, computer vision, and intelligent automation

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field (or equivalent practical experience)

• Master’s or PhD preferred

Certifications

• Cloud certifications (AWS preferred) are a plus

Tools & Technical Experience

• 10+ years in data science, machine learning, or applied AI engineering, including leadership roles

• 3+ years managing technical teams with a track record of shipping AI into production

• Deep hands-on experience with Python and the modern ML stack (scikit-learn, PyTorch or TensorFlow, pandas)

• Production ML experience: deployment, serving, monitoring, drift detection, and retraining

• Experience with LLM and generative AI applications — RAG, prompting, evaluation, and fine-tuning

• Experience designing and operating systems in AWS (SageMaker, Bedrock) or a comparable cloud

• Strong SQL and experience with modern data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, or similar)

• Experience with MLOps tooling, CI/CD, and infrastructure automation

• Demonstrated track record of quantifying business impact from AI investments

• Restaurant, retail, or multi-unit consumer experience is a plus

• Experience working in Agile environments such as Scrum, Kanban, or SAFe

People Skills

• Translates technical concepts into business language for non-technical executives

• Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional influence

• High ownership; operates well with ambiguity and shifting priorities

• Committed to developing people and building a durable team

• Sound judgment on when to ship, when to iterate, and when to stop

WHO YOU ARE 

No job is too small. You recognize that the real work happens in the restaurants, and everything we do should support their success. You stay humble, roll up your sleeves, and always look for ways to help. You learn from others and contribute wherever you can.

You care deeply about doing great work and driving results. You’re curious, ask questions, and seek out opportunities to improve. You don’t just point out problems—you bring solutions, ideas, and perspectives that move the team forward.

You take full responsibility for your work and see things through to completion. You aren’t afraid to fail because you know that failure is a part of learning and growth. You take action, move fast, and keep pushing forward.

You lead with empathy, respect, and emotional intelligence. You collaborate effectively, fostering a culture of trust and constructive feedback. You understand the importance of teamwork and ensure that your actions build others up rather than break them down.

You push yourself and others to be better. You embrace healthy conflict, knowing that great ideas and strong teams emerge from honest, constructive conversations. You believe that leaders create leaders and are committed to fostering a culture of growth, challenge, and continuous improvement.

BENEFITS

FLAVOR PERKS:

• Unlimited paid time off for exempt employees

• One paid volunteer day of your choice

• Competitive bonus structure for eligible roles

• Team member stock purchase plan

• Health savings or flexible spending account options

• 401k – (dollar for dollar on the first 3% and then 50 cents on the dollar for the next 2% for team member contributions up to 5% of eligible compensation)

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits

• Basic life and AD&D insurance provided

• Pet insurance

• Education Assistance

• Wellness reimbursement program

• Paid maternity and paternity leave

FUN IS THE BEST FLAVOR:

• Lunch provided every Tuesday and Thursday in office

• Discount on Wingstop gift cards

• Onsite game room

Wingstop provides equal opportunities for everyone that works for us and everyone that applies to join our team, without regard to sex or gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, any service, past, present, or future, in the uniformed services of the United States (military or veteran status), or any other consideration protected by federal, state, or local law.