Pura Vida Miami hires Chipotle alum as it eyes national expansion

Pura Vida Miami has added Chad Brauze as chief culinary officer, Andrew McCaughan as chief development officer and Bruno Cardinali as chief marketing officer as the 50-unit fast-casual chain moves toward national expansion after last year’s private-equity investment. For Chipotle workers, Brauze is the name that matters most: his path out of Chipotle and into Sweetgreen, and now Pura Vida, shows that the skills built on a burrito line can carry into higher-level roles at other brands.

The hires map cleanly onto the jobs that matter when a restaurant concept is trying to grow beyond its home market. Brauze brings culinary development experience from Sweetgreen, Burger King and Chipotle. McCaughan spent more than 16 years at Shake Shack, where he helped guide development from one New York City restaurant into a larger international chain. Cardinali arrived from Oakberry, where he served as global CMO, after earlier marketing leadership work at Popeyes. Pura Vida is not just filling seats in a leadership team. It is building a bench for menu, real estate and brand work that can be reused across markets.

That is the part Chipotle employees should read closely. Chipotle’s own careers page says a leadership path can take as little as 18 months and that 90% of restaurant management roles were internal promotions. It also lays out modeled total rewards of $45,900 for full-time Crew, $50,700 for Kitchen Leader, $54,100 for Service Leader, $73,100 for Apprentice, $93,100 for General Manager and $116,100 for Restaurateur, while noting actual compensation varies by performance and other factors. In other words, the company’s ladder is meant to be portable inside Chipotle, and, as Brauze shows, portable beyond it too.

Pura Vida’s move is a reminder that the most marketable Chipotle experience is not limited to speed on the line. Hiring, training, food execution, unit-level discipline and guest flow are the kinds of skills that fast-casual chains chase when they want to scale without losing control. Chipotle’s live job board still shows openings across markets from Brooklyn and Chicago to Houston and Los Angeles, which underscores how aggressively restaurant brands are recruiting in different labor markets at the same time they are fighting for guests. For crew members and managers watching the market, the message is clear: strong operators do not stay hidden inside one chain for long.