Director, Software Engineering, ServiceNow

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Date: Aug 31, 2026

Location: Chicago, IL, US, 60607

Company: McDonald's Corporation

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

Behind McDonald's digital transformation is the Global Technology Enterprise Products & Platforms (EPP) team, a group of innovators leveraging cloud, platform architectures, and emerging technologies to create scalable business solutions. Within EPP, our Enterprise Service Management (ESM) team is committed to being a people-led, product-centric, and trusted technology partner.
We are seeking a highly skilled and strategic Director, Software Engineering, ServiceNow to join our team in a hybrid capacity at our Chicago headquarters. In this role, you will lead the global engineering strategy and delivery for our ServiceNow platform, ensuring the technology scales seamlessly to support our global network of employees, franchises, and corporate functions. You will have direct oversight of our custom virtual assistant, Otto, and ServiceNow native generative AI technologies like Now Assist. Working closely with cross-functional leadership, you will drive modern engineering practices (including API-driven integrations, robust CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing) to unlock the full potential of ServiceNow Employee Workflows and broad Enterprise Service Management capabilities.

Duties

  • Lead Global Engineering Delivery: Oversee the software engineering lifecycle for theServiceNow platform, ensuring the stable, secure, and scalable delivery of complexenterprise workflows.
  • Drive AI Strategy and Governance: Architect and scale AI capabilities on the platform, including predictive intelligence, ServiceNow Now Assist, conversational virtual agents, and the continuous enhancement of our custom assistant, Otto.
  • Scale Employee Workflows: Lead the technical design, deployment, and optimization of ServiceNow Employee Workflows (including HRSD, Workplace Services, and unified onboarding) to elevate the digital employee experience globally.
  • Promote Modern Engineering Standards: Champion robust software engineering practices including test-driven development, Automated Test Framework (ATF) adoption, automated deployment pipelines, and strict code quality standards.
  • Direct Integration Architecture: Establish secure, high-performance integration patterns utilizing IntegrationHub, REST/SOAP APIs, and middleware to connect ServiceNow with external corporate technologies.
  • Enforce Platform Governance: Govern the platform architectural integrity, ensuring all global development teams adhere to 'Golden Instance' standards, minimize technical debt, and build upgrade-safe solutions.
  • Manage Technical Talent and Partners: Lead, coach, and inspire a global team of software engineers and technical architects, while managing deliverables from strategic system integrators and vendor partners.
  • Optimize Platform Health and Security: Monitor system performance, direct resolution of high-severity technical incidents, and enforce rigorous security and compliance standards (such as data privacy and edge encryption).

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a proven track record of growing technical responsibility.
  • 5+ years of dedicated experience leading large-scale, global ServiceNow implementations within a large-scale, multi-national enterprise.
  • Deep technical understanding of the ServiceNow platform architecture, including experience with scoped applications, client/server scripts, flow designer, and database structures.
  • Proven experience leading the technical rollout of ServiceNow AI tools, Now Assist, and conversational virtual agents (such as Otto).
  • Extensive background implementing and scaling ServiceNow Employee Workflows (such as HRSD) at an enterprise scale.
  • Strong experience establishing modern engineering tools and processes (such as Git,CI/CD, and ServiceNow Automated Test Framework).
  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • Exceptional leadership, communication, and collaboration skills, with a proven ability to influence executive stakeholders and guide highly technical teams.
    Highly valued certifications include:
  • ServiceNow Certified Application Developer (CAD): Highly Preferred.
  • ServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA): Highly Preferred.
  • ServiceNow Certified Implementation Specialist (CIS): Highly desirable in HRSD, ITSM, or Platform Architecture.
    Technical & Leadership Skills
  • Strategic Technical Leadership: Ability to define and execute an enterprise-grade technical roadmap that balances immediate business needs with long-term platform health.
  • AI and Automation Expertise: Strong knowledge of NLP, LLM capabilities, and generative AI patterns (such as Now Assist) within enterprise software architectures.
  • Collaboration and Influence: Exceptional capability to align engineering teams, business partners, and external vendors around technical designs and product roadmaps.
  • Operational Excellence: Passion for performance diagnostics, code optimization, security compliance, and mitigating platform technical debt.

Compensation

Bonus Eligible: Yes

Long - Term Incentive: Yes

Benefits Eligible: Yes

Salary Range

The expected salary range for this role is $195,371.00 - $244,214.00 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, including but not limited to comprehensive health insurance, which includes medical, prescription drug, mental health, dental and vision coverage, as well as, life insurance. 

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 mcdhrbenefits@us.mcd.com. 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. 


Nearest Major Market: Chicago