diff --git a/early-init.el b/early-init.el
index 277eeecb0..97d21e0f6 100644
--- a/early-init.el
+++ b/early-init.el
@@ -78,22 +78,20 @@
        ;; FIX: Discard the switch to prevent "invalid option" errors later.
        (push (cons "--profile" (lambda (_) (pop argv))) command-switch-alist)
        ;; Running 'doom sync' or 'doom profile sync' (re)generates a light
-       ;; profile loader in $EMACSDIR/profiles/load.el (or
+       ;; profile loader in $XDG_DATA_HOME/doom/profiles.X.el (or
        ;; $DOOMPROFILELOADFILE), after reading `doom-profile-load-path'. This
        ;; loader requires `$DOOMPROFILE' be set to function.
        (setenv "DOOMPROFILE" profile)
-       (or (load (expand-file-name
-                  (format (let ((lfile (getenv-internal "DOOMPROFILELOADFILE")))
-                            (if lfile
-                                (concat (let ((suffix ".el"))
-                                          (if (string-suffix-p suffix lfile)
-                                              (substring lfile 0 (- (length lfile) (length suffix)))
-                                            lfile))
-                                        ".%d.elc")
-                              "profiles/load.%d.elc"))
-                          emacs-major-version)
-                  user-emacs-directory)
-                 'noerror (not init-file-debug) 'nosuffix)
+       (or (load (let ((windows? (memq system-type '(ms-dos windows-nt cygwin))))
+                   (expand-file-name
+                    (format (or (getenv-internal "DOOMPROFILELOADFILE")
+                                (file-name-concat (if windows? "doomemacs/data" "doom")
+                                                  "profiles.%d.el"))
+                            emacs-major-version)
+                    (or (if windows? (getenv-internal "LOCALAPPDATA"))
+                        (getenv-internal "XDG_DATA_HOME")
+                        "~/.local/share"))
+                   'noerror (not init-file-debug) 'nosuffix))
            (user-error "Profiles not initialized yet; run 'doom sync' first"))))
 
    ;; PERF: When `load'ing or `require'ing files, each permutation of
diff --git a/lisp/doom-profiles.el b/lisp/doom-profiles.el
index 89df57272..171cac3e1 100644
--- a/lisp/doom-profiles.el
+++ b/lisp/doom-profiles.el
@@ -33,9 +33,15 @@ Can be changed externally by setting $DOOMPROFILELOADPATH to a colon-delimited
 list of paths or profile config files (semi-colon delimited on Windows).")
 
 (defvar doom-profile-load-file
-  (if-let (loader (getenv-internal "DOOMPROFILELOADFILE"))
-      (expand-file-name loader doom-emacs-dir)
-    (file-name-concat doom-emacs-dir (format "profiles/load.el" emacs-major-version)))
+  ;; REVIEW: Derive from `doom-data-dir' in v3
+  (expand-file-name
+   (format (or (getenv-internal "DOOMPROFILELOADFILE")
+               (file-name-concat (if doom--system-windows-p "doomemacs/data" "doom")
+                                 "profiles.%d.el"))
+           emacs-major-version)
+   (or (if doom--system-windows-p (getenv-internal "LOCALAPPDATA"))
+       (getenv-internal "XDG_DATA_HOME")
+       "~/.local/share"))
   "Where Doom writes its interactive profile loader script.
 
 Can be changed externally by setting $DOOMPROFILELOADFILE.")