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Zach Sippl, Vice President – Data, Insights, and Analytics, Chipotle Mexican Grill

Zach Sippl, Vice President – Data, Insights, and Analytics, Chipotle Mexican Grill

Describe your career to date

I am the Vice President of Data, Insights, and Analytics at Chipotle, leading enterprise data, business intelligence and analytics across the company. My role is to empower Chipotle to make timely and impactful decisions by unlocking transformative insights everywhere, and my career has been characterized by an unwavering commitment to data-driven excellence.

My 20-plus-year career has been deeply focused on data, business intelligence and analytics across many industries. Prior to Chipotle, I held multiple senior leadership roles in data and analytics at leading organizations such as Target Corporation, General Motors, and Slalom Consulting helping create data-driven cultures and unlock transformative insights. I hold an Information and Decision Sciences master’s degree from the University of Minnesota along with an Information Systems undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado.

How are you developing the data literacy of your organization, including the skills of your data teams and of your business stakeholders?

One of my large commitments to Chipotle has been improving data literacy throughout the organization with data being instrumental in enabling the organization to extract valuable insights and drive impactful decision-making. This includes driving a transformative journey of making key performance indicators (KPIs) accessible to all levels of the company, from restaurant general managers to senior executives.

These KPIs are now ingrained in the daily operations of Chipotle, guiding team huddles, business reviews, compensation structures, and career growth measurements. The efforts have empowered Chipotle to harness the full potential of data, fostering a data-driven culture.

What role do you play in building and delivering conventional artificial intelligence solutions, including machine learning models? Are you also involved in your organization’s adoption of generative AI?

I have been privileged to be at the forefront of machine learning adoption and change management within Chipotle as artificial intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous in Chipotle’s tech strategy. Within data and analytics, this has included implementing AI techniques and algorithms, initiating tech-driven automation of machine learning workflows, and providing targeted training and educational resources for employees.

Each model and AI solution involved tech, data scientists, and business leaders working together as a cross-functional unit to shape the solutions to make them as effective as possible along with utilization of AI-driven insights seamlessly.

Have you set out a vision for data? If so, what is it aiming for and does it embrace the whole organization or just the data function?

The data and analytics vision for Chipotle is to empower the company to make timely, impactful decisions and super charge the digital experiences through trusted data, analytics and transformative insights. This is a vision that has been put forth for the entire organization from our senior executives to each of the general managers at over 3,400 restaurants and everyone in between.

Zach Sippl
has been included in:

100 Brands 2024 (USA)

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Zach Sippl, Vice President – Data, Insights, and Analytics, Chipotle Mexican Grill

Join our membership network of over 250 global senior data and AI leaders.

The trusted global collaboration and intelligence platform for data leaders.

Join our membership network of over 250
global senior data and AI leaders.