Born and raised in Sacramento, California, Sarah grew up with California sunshine and a love for Taco Bell.
Long before she officially joined Taco Bell, Sarah built a remarkable 17-year career at a leading theme park and media company. After nearly two decades, she felt the pull to stretch herself in new ways. As fate would have it, a former colleague from the company recommended her for a role in Operations.
And just like that, the next chapter began.
When Sarah joined Taco Bell eight years ago, she stepped into the role of Operations Lead for the Cantina concept, a unique and re-imagined dining experience. From there, her journey zig-zagged in the best possible way as she moved to the Menu Readiness team, helping bring new products and experiences to life in restaurants.
“In both of those roles I got to work so much with our amazing field leaders who taught me what it means to run the best restaurants. After being on that team, I got to work on the Roles and Routines team, figuring how to make the Team Member experience easier in their role.”
This led to her stepping into her current (and fourth) role at Taco Bell as Manager of the Delivery Operations team, where she works with technology and third-party aggregators to deliver the Taco Bell experience in a different way.
“The role I’m in is a great blend of learning new technologies and leveraging my operations experience. When the opportunity was first presented to me, I wasn’t sure if I would be a good fit since my background is mostly in operations. But we have such an amazing culture of sharing and helping each other at Taco Bell that I was able to learn a new side of the business and teach others how it affects day-to-day operations.”
The environment and culture at Taco Bell are something that continues to excite Sarah.
“No matter what role I have been in, everyone has always been so helpful. People always take the time to go out of their way to help anyone with questions they have. We all want to see each other and the brand to be successful.”
If Sarah could give one piece of advice to anyone looking to grow across functions or explore operations and restaurant evolution, it would be the following:
“Get out there and talk to people! Set up 1:1s to ask what people do in their roles and how they got to where they are. Sometimes it is hard to know exactly where you want to go, but the more people you meet, the more you’ll see that everyone has a zig-zag path to where they are today. Don’t be afraid to say yes to a new opportunity here at Taco Bell, because the culture of support will help you be successful.”
Sarah’s story is proof that growth comes to those staying open to the next adventure.