El Pollo Loco, the 500-unit fire-grilled chicken chain, has named Damon Thomas chief operating officer, a hire that signals the brand's push to scale operations across a larger, multi-market system.

Thomas arrives with a résumé built on high-growth restaurant brands. He held senior operations leadership roles at both Shake Shack and Raising Cane's — two chains that grew from regional footprints into national forces while keeping service models intact. That background maps directly onto what El Pollo Loco needs now: an operator who can standardize execution as unit counts climb and markets multiply.

The chain did not disclose Thomas's prior title at either burger chain, but the throughline is clear. Scaling a brand without degrading speed of service or food quality is the core operational challenge for any chain crossing from hundreds of units toward broader national density. Cane's in particular built its expansion on a narrow menu and tightly controlled kitchen execution — disciplines that translate to a chicken-focused chain managing fire-grill throughput.

Thomas is not the only addition. The company also confirmed changes involving its development office, where Chief Development Officer Tara leads real estate and growth strategy. The announcement, first reported by Foodservice Equipment Report sister coverage, framed the hires as part of a broader team expansion running in parallel with footprint growth — the headline itself pairing "grows team" with "footprint."

For a 500-unit chain, the sequence matters. Adding operational leadership ahead of unit expansion is standard playbook for brands that want company-level margin discipline — labor scheduling, supply chain, training pipelines — installed before new markets strain it. Chains that scale without that infrastructure typically see cost-of-goods and labor percentages drift upward as they enter distant markets where vendor relationships and labor pools must be rebuilt from zero.

El Pollo Loco's footprint remains concentrated in the West, with California as its anchor market. That concentration cuts both ways: it supports supply chain efficiency and brand recognition, but it also exposes the chain to regional labor-cost and real estate pressure. A COO with multi-market systems experience addresses the operational side of that exposure as the chain pushes outward.

The chain did not announce specific unit targets, timelines, or new-market entries alongside the personnel news, and it did not break out company-operated versus franchised counts in the announcement.

The hires position El Pollo Loco to pursue its next stage of growth with an operations bench built for scale.