Data Specialist, CrunchTime

Position Title :                 Data Specialist, CrunchTime

Reports to :                      Manager, Data Operations / Director, CrunchTime

Department :                   CrunchTime / Analytics / Operations

Status :                               Full-Time, Exempt (see discussion below)

Date :                                  October 2025

Broad Functions : As a Data Specialist in the CrunchTime Department at Areas, you will play a critical role in ensuring the integrity, consistency, and usability of data fed into our CrunchTime software systems. You will review and validate recipes, menu items, ingredient data, yield values, cost data, and other operational inputs to make sure they comply with company standards and are “clean” (i.e. free of errors, inconsistencies, duplication, or missing values). Your work will help optimize the performance, reporting accuracy, and decision-making capabilities of the CrunchTime platform across our restaurants.

Main Duties and Responsibilities :

• Review and validate recipe submissions, ingredient specifications, yield / yield factors, portion sizes, cost components, and related operational data before ingestion into CrunchTime.
• Compare submitted data against company standards, reference libraries, and historical norms to flag anomalies, inconsistencies, or missing values.
• Clean, correct, and augment data entries (e.g. fix formatting, fill missing fields, standardize units) or coordinating with submitters (restaurants, culinary, vendors) to obtain corrected input.
• Develop and maintain business rules, validation scripts, checklists, or data quality workflows to automate or streamline checks.
• Document data boundaries, exceptions, logic rules, and data dictionaries.
• Perform periodic audits of data after ingestion to detect drift, anomalies, duplication, or regression.
• Liaise with IT / data engineering to escalate systemic issues or enhancements (e.g. input form validations, system constraints).
• Support training and onboarding of downstream users (e.g. operations, analysts) on proper data input practices.
• Assist with basic reporting / summary of data quality issues (volume of exceptions, trends, resolution status) to management.

Skills and Qualifications :

1.      Preferred bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Business, Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, Operations Management, or a related field.

2.      2–3 years of professional experience in data entry, data quality, operations support, analytics, or similar (preferably in a restaurant, hospitality, or operations environment).

3.      Comfortable working with structured data (spreadsheets, relational tables).

4.      Strong attention to detail, ability to find and reason about anomalies.

5.      Basic SQL proficiency (or willingness to learn) to query underlying tables for cross-checks.

6.      Experience with Excel (advanced functions, pivot tables, data cleaning) is a must.

7.      Good communication skills — both to ask clarifying questions and to push back or escalate when data is problematic.

8.      Ability to document processes, exceptions, and decision rationale.

9.      A mindset of continuous improvement and process thinking.

10.  Familiarity with restaurant operations (recipes, yields, cost structures).

11.  Experience with data quality frameworks or tooling.

12.  Exposure to business intelligence tools (Tableau, Power BI, etc.) or data visualization.

13.  Basic scripting / programming (Python, R, etc.) for data cleanup or validation.

14.  Percentage of submissions passing first-pass validation (i.e. “clean” without requiring manual correction)

15.  Number and severity of data exceptions or errors flagged / corrected

16.  Turnaround time for data fixes or clarifications

17.  Reduction in repeated / recurring data issues

18.  Quality audit results (post-ingestion accuracy)

19.  Stakeholder satisfaction (culinary, operations) with data responsiveness

Physical Demands :

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee operates in an office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines. This is largely a sedentary role and requires color determination vision (no color blindness) and to sit for extended periods of time in front of the computer. This position would require the ability to lift files, open filing cabinets and bend or stand on a stool as necessary. This position requires the ability to occasionally lift office products and supplies, up to 20 pounds. Some bending and / or lifting of supplies and mail in / out materials from time to time may be required.

EEOC Statement :

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse team and fostering an inclusive environment where employees feel empowered to bring their authentic selves to work. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability status, or veteran status.

Benefits :

We offer full-time eligible employees affordable medical insurance, dental and vision benefits, along with a variety of voluntary insurance options. Our benefits package includes company-sponsored life insurance, a free employee assistance program, competitive paid time off, company holidays, and a 401k retirement plan with company match. Plus, enjoy access to discount programs for travel and entertainment and a location meal program. In addition, this position is bonus eligible.