Senior AI Engineer/Scientist - Computer Vision/NLP

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Date: Sep 25, 2025

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.  

Role Overview

At McDonald’s, AI is reshaping how we operate and serve customers. From drive-thru management and kitchen automation powered by Computer Vision to customer care and voice ordering enabled by Natural Language Processing, AI is at the heart of how we deliver seamless, efficient, and personalized experiences across 100+ countries.

 

We are seeking a Sr. AI Engineer/Scientist with expertise in Computer Vision and/or Natural Language Processing to join our AI Labs team. You will help turn cutting-edge research into production systems that streamline operations, improve crew efficiency, and enhance customer experience at global scale. This role sits at the intersection of advanced research, large-scale deployment, and product innovationen, suring that our AI roadmap delivers measurable business and customer impact.

 

Primary Responsibilities

  • Design, develop, and refine advanced AI models in either Computer Vision (CNNs, Vision Transformers, Diffusion models) or NLP (Transformers, LLMs, seq2seq, RAG, embeddings
  • Implement solutions in Python/C++, leveraging frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face, OpenCV
  • Apply fine-tuning and optimization techniques (transfer learning, LoRA, quantization, distillation)
  • Stay current with CV and NLP research (e.g., NeurIPS, ACL, CVPR), introducing novel techniques like multimodal fusion or generative models into enterprise applications
  • Translate research into production-ready systems, ensuring scalability, reproducibility, and monitoring
  • Develop AI pipelines and workflows across edge devices, kiosks, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
  • Optimize for latency, cost efficiency, and restaurant-specific constraints (drive-thru, mobile, kiosk)
  • Work closely with AI engineers, MLOps teams, and product/operations teams to deliver real-world AI solutions
  • Support enterprise AI governance, compliance, and risk management to ensure responsible, safe, and ethical AI deployments

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, or related field
  • 5–9 years of experience in engineering, with 4+ years of hands-on AI/ML development
  • Strong programming skills in Python (C++ a plus)
  • Deep understanding of transformer architectures, model optimization techniques, and core algorithms in either Computer Vision or NLP
  • Experience with cloud AI services (AWS SageMaker, Google Vertex AI, Azure ML), preferably GCP
  • Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences
  • Strong collaboration skills and ability to thrive in fast-paced, cross-functional environments
  • Passion for innovation, with a track record of applying AI responsibly and at scale

 

Preferred Qualifications

  • Master’s or PhD in AI, Computer Science, or related field
  • CV Focus: Experience with EfficientNet, ResNet, YOLO, SAM, or Diffusion models
  • NLP Focus: Experience with LLM fine-tuning, embeddings, prompt engineering, RAG, or pre-trained models (BERT, GPT, LLaMA, T5)
  • Experience deploying and monitoring AI models in production, including model versioning and reproducibility
  • Contributions to open-source CV/NLP frameworks (e.g., Hugging Face, PyTorch Lightning, OpenCV)

Compensation

Bonus Eligible: YES

Long - Term Incentive: YES

Benefits Eligible: YES

Salary Range

The expected salary range for this role is $129,800.00 - $165,490.00 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, 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 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