Sr Manager, Engineering Tech Lead

Job Description:

Company Description:

McDonald’s growth strategy, Accelerating the Arches, encompasses all aspects of our business as the leading global omni-channel restaurant brand. As the consumer landscape shifts we are using our competitive advantages to further strengthen our brand. One of our core growth strategies is to Double Down on the 3Ds (Delivery, Digital and Drive Thru). McDonald’s will accelerate technology innovation so 65M+ customers a day will experience a fast, easy experience, whether at one of our 25,000 and growing Drive thrus, through McDelivery, dine-in or takeaway.

McDonald’s Global Technology is here to power tomorrow’s feel-good moments.

That’s why you’ll find us at the forefront of transformative technology, exploring new and innovative ways to serve our millions of customers and spread happiness one delicious Hot Fudge Sundae-dipped fry at a time. Using AI, robotics and emerging tech, we’re digitizing the Golden Arches. Combine that with our unparalleled global scale, and we’re reshaping all areas of the business, industry and every community that is home to a McDonald’s restaurant. We face complex tech challenges every day. But that’s where our diverse and talented teams come in. They’re made up of the best and brightest from all over the globe, and they thrive in the space where feel-good meets fast-paced.

Check out the McDonald’s  Global Technology Technical Blog to learn how technology and our global team are directly enabling the Accelerating the Arches strategy.

Department Overview

The Commercial Products & Platforms team develops digital experiences and global technology platforms that delight our customers and enable them to order on their terms—seamlessly, reliably, and conveniently across mobile, web, kiosks, and future channels.

As Senior Manager, Engineering Tech Lead, Conversational Commerce, you’ll lead teams on new cutting-edge capabilities for ordering at the drive thru, with a lens to expanding to other channels. You’ll inform the strategy for the technical evolution of our capabilities in the conversational commerce realm, working with external AI providers and internal AI teams to build best-in-class solutions that leverage the industry state of the art for LLMs and AI agents.

You will be a critical partner to product management, UX, architecture, and infrastructure stakeholders to ensure our solutions are performant, scalable, and built for the future.

This role is part of the Restaurant Technology organization and reports to the Director, Conversational Commerce. You’ll collaborate across teams to define the future of McDonald’s digital experiences and commerce platforms.

Reporting Structure Update: This Senior Manager role will have the Manager, Engineering – Drive Thru Orchestration Service and the Manager, Engineering – Menu Service & Model Context Gateway reporting directly to them, providing leadership and guidance for these critical foundational services.

Company Values As a leader, you are expected to embody McDonald's company values:

• Serve: Put customers and crew at the center of every decision, delivering experiences that delight and inspire.

• Inclusion: Foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment where every voice is valued and respected.

• Integrity: Uphold the highest standards of honesty, transparency, and ethical conduct in all actions and decisions.

• Community: Build strong relationships within our teams and with our partners, supporting the communities we serve.

• Family: Treat colleagues, partners, and customers with care, empathy, and respect, creating a sense of belonging for all.

• Growth: Champion continuous learning, innovation, and improvement—both for yourself and your team

Accountabilities & Responsibilities

Lead engineering teams:

• Lead internal and vendor engineering teams working on integrations into our restaurant and digital ecosystem.

• Growth: Champion continuous learning, innovation, and improvement—both for yourself and your team.

• Ensure high-quality technical solutions that deliver novel customer experiences while maintaining platform scalability and reliability.

• This responsibility includes guiding and overseeing the two Manager-level teams responsible for Drive Thru Orchestration and Menu Service & Model Context Gateway, ensuring their efforts align with the broader Conversational Commerce strategy.

Shape the future of ordering:

• Inform and support the technology vision for conversational commerce experiences and platforms.

• Ensure an architecture that supports rapid iteration, personalization, seamless integrations, and cross-channel applicability.

Technology partner to the business:

• Collaborate with product management, operations, and market teams to create innovative solutions that elevate the customer experience and augment our crew members’ efficiency.

Integration Leadership: This is a core focus, involving direct oversight and coordination of critical integration efforts.

• Lead and coordinate integration efforts for Point of Sale System, Audio System, and ODMBs.

• Ensure robust, scalable, and reliable connectivity between restaurant systems and digital platforms.

• Define solutions for integration challenges, including rapid troubleshooting and deployment of workarounds in collaboration with internal and external partners.

• Oversee the development and deployment of Docker containers for integration components to support virtualized testing and continuous delivery.

• Implement and manage feature toggles and overlay screens for integration endpoints, supporting dynamic enablement of new features.

• Design, document, and support APIs/events for operations across all integration points.

• Drive migration projects from legacy protocols to modern (e.g., Gstreamer to WebSocket), aligning with architecture and impacted teams.

• Serve as the technical liaison for integration partners and vendors, facilitating solution reviews and alignment meetings.

• This includes guiding the integration efforts led by the Manager, Engineering – Drive Thru Orchestration Service and the Manager, Engineering – Menu Service & Model Context Gateway, ensuring alignment and technical excellence

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in computer science, software engineering, or related technical fields.
• 7 plus years experience in hands-on technical roles showing progressive growth in responsibilities, with a strong background in software engineering, architectural design, and mobile application development.
• 5 plus years experience working in an Agile software development environment and leading software engineering teams.
• Deep familiarity with the state of the art for AI agents, working knowledge of LLM capabilities and the competitive landscape, and a point of view on integrating agentic experiences.
• Strong communication skills, experience with collaborator management and cross-functional partnership, with an interest in breaking down technical details and decisions for non-technical audiences.
• Working knowledge of continuous integration and deployment methodologies, test automation, and DevOps practices.
• Working understanding of security protocols and compliance standards (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS) for handling sensitive customer data.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for what you and your teams deliver, with high personal standards and an uncompromising attention to detail.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct hands-on experience with LLMs (like Gemini, Claude, or open-source models like Gemma or Llama), cloud AI platforms (like Bedrock and Vertex), and MCP (Model Context Protocol) strongly preferred.
• Direct hands-on experience with responsible AI guidelines, testing generative agents, and customer-facing AI applications (ideally domain-specific experience in a QSR or adjacent industry space) strongly preferred.
• Experience integrating with audio hardware and direct experience with voice-first interfaces preferred.

Compensation

Bonus Eligible: Yes

Long - Term Incentive: Yes

Benefits Eligible: Yes

Salary Range

The expected salary range for this role is $152,678 - $190,847 per year

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we may also consider your experience, and other job-related factors.

Additional Information:

Benefits eligible: This position offers health and welfare benefits, a 401(k) plan, adoption assistance program, educational assistance program, flexible ways of working, and time off policies (including sick leave, parental leave, and vacation/PTO). Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on job classification and length of employment.

Bonus eligible: This position is eligible for a bonus, calculated based on individual and company performance.

Long term Incentive eligible: This position is eligible for stock or other equity grants pursuant to McDonald’s long-term incentive plan.

McDonald’s is an equal opportunity employer committed to the diversity of our workforce. We promote an inclusive work environment that creates feel-good moments for everyone. McDonald’s provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities as part of the application or hiring process or to perform the essential functions of their job. If you need assistance accessing or reading this job posting or otherwise feel you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process, please contact [email protected]. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

McDonald’s provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy (including pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding), race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin, age, disability status, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, protected military or veteran status, citizenship status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Nothing in this job posting or description should be construed as an offer or guarantee of employment.

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