Staff Engineer, Applied AI

About Wingstop

We’re not in the wing business. We’re in the flavor business. Since opening in 1994, Wingstop’s mission has been to “Serve the World Flavor.” By 2002 we had served one billion wings, and today we are one of the fastest‑growing brands in the restaurant industry. Our success is driven by our people and our core values—The Wingstop Way—being entrepreneurial, service‑minded, fun, and authentic. We believe a strong people foundation creates a crave‑worthy culture, a talented team, and accelerated growth for the brand.

Role Overview

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, and sets the technical direction for building, shipping, and sustaining AI systems. The position is based at the Global Support Center in Dallas, TX.

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.
• Collaborate with Data Engineering and Business Intelligence 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, trade‑offs, and roadmap to senior leadership in business terms.
• Lead proofs of concept in emerging areas including generative AI, forecasting, computer vision, and intelligent automation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field (or equivalent practical experience); Master’s or PhD preferred.
• Cloud certifications (AWS preferred) are a plus.
• 10+ years of experience 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.
• Demonstrated ability to quantify business impact from AI investments.
• Restaurant, retail, or multi‑unit consumer experience is a plus.

Technical Skills

• 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.
• Designing and operating systems in AWS (SageMaker, Bedrock) or comparable cloud platforms.
• Strong SQL skills and experience with modern data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, or similar).
• Proficiency with MLOps tooling, CI/CD, and infrastructure automation.
• Experience working in Agile environments such as Scrum, Kanban, or SAFe.

People Skills

• Translate 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, iterate, or stop.
• Empathetic leadership with emotional intelligence.
• Effective collaboration, fostering trust and constructive feedback.
• Ability to embrace healthy conflict and drive continuous improvement.
• Belief that leaders create leaders and dedication to a culture of growth.

Benefits

• 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.
• 401(k) matching: dollar‑for‑dollar on the first 3 % and 50 ¢ on the dollar for the next 2 % (up to 5 % of eligible compensation).
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits.
• Basic life and AD&D insurance.
• Pet insurance.
• Education assistance.
• Wellness reimbursement program.
• Paid maternity and paternity leave.
• Lunch provided every Tuesday and Thursday in office.
• Discount on Wingstop gift cards.
• Onsite game room.