Sr Manager, Engineering Tech Lead

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Date: Jan 12, 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

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, Conversational Commerce Platform & SRE, you will lead teams building and operating cutting-edge capabilities for ordering at the drive thru and beyond. You’ll shape the technical evolution of our platforms, working with external AI providers and internal teams to deliver best-in-class solutions. 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.

Duties

Platform & SRE Leadership

  • Lead internal and vendor engineering teams responsible for the Conversational Commerce platform, ensuring high-quality technical solutions, platform scalability, and reliability.
  • Oversee Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices, including deployment readiness, environment management, and incident response.
  • Define and maintain support processes, deployment playbooks, and continuous improvement cycles based on live feedback.
  • Lead war room support for real-time issue resolution and troubleshooting.
  • Ensure high availability, reliability, and scalability of all platform services.

DevOps & CI/CD Excellence

  • Plan and coordinate releases, defining scope, objectives, and timelines in alignment with business priorities.
  • Align stakeholders across development, QA, operations, and product teams for seamless delivery.
  • Implement and carry out version control, coding standards, and branching strategies.
  • Automate build, test, and deployment processes using industry-standard tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI).
  • Maintain consistent pre-production and production environments.
  • Drive Infrastructure as Code (IaC) adoption using tools like Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation.
  • Integrate pipelines with external tools and platforms (e.g., Sesame, HME, Edge).
  • Automate deployment processes and infrastructure management to ensure high availability and scalability.

Monitoring, Quality, and Security

  • Implement real-time monitoring and observability (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus, Splunk, New Relic).
  • Track performance, error rates, and system health post-deployment.
  • Enforce quality gates, integrate DevSecOps practices, and perform vulnerability scans and license compliance checks.
  • Define and automate rollback and recovery strategies for failed deployments.

Cloud & Automation Expertise

  • Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) for AWS and Google Cloud environments.
  • Lead automation initiatives to optimize deployment, monitoring, and operations.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Management

  • Collaborate with product management, operations, and market teams to create innovative solutions that elevate the customer experience and augment crew efficiency.
  • Serve as the technical liaison for integration partners and vendors, facilitating solution reviews, alignment meetings, and escalation management.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

  • At least 7 years of experience in hands-on technical roles with progressive growth in responsibilities, including software engineering, DevOps, and SRE.
  • At least 5 years of experience leading engineering teams in Agile environments.
  • Deep familiarity with CI/CD, DevOps, SRE, and cloud infrastructure best practices.
  • Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
  • Experience with monitoring, observability, and incident response in production environments.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud), Infrastructure as Code, and automation tools.
  • Experience with conversational commerce platforms or similar digital customer experience solutions.
  • Bachelor’s degree or higher in computer science, software engineering, or related technical fields.

Compensation

Bonus Eligible: YES

Long - Term Incentive: YES

Benefits Eligible: YES

Salary Range

The expected salary range for this role is $152,678.00 - $190,847.00 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