Sr Manager, Data Operations & Management

McDonald's; Hyderabad; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

McDonald’s Hyderabad is building an advanced AI/ML platform to accelerate data science and AI initiatives across the enterprise. The AI/ML Platform Lead will shape strategy, architecture, and governance for scalable, secure services on Google Cloud, guiding engineers and data scientists to deliver secure AI solutions globally.

The role emphasizes platform automation, self-service capabilities, and strong collaboration with security, risk, and legal partners to ensure compliant, reliable

Qualifications

• 7-10+ years in AI/ML platform engineering or data & AI platform development.
• Strong expertise in GCP services including Vertex AI, BigQuery, Dataflow, IAM, and networking.
• Experience with IaC (Terraform), CI/CD, and cloud-native engineering practices.
• Hands-on with Vertex AI components and platform services, security, and governance.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive AI/ML platform strategy, roadmap, and architecture.
• Design scalable, secure platform capabilities on GCP and Vertex AI.
• Establish platform standards, reference architectures, and best practices.
• Build and manage core AI/ML platform services and automation.
• Enable standardized development and deployment patterns across AI teams.
• Ensure platform reliability, observability, and governance.
• Lead platform engineering initiatives and mentor engineers.

Skills

GCP Vertex AI

Python

Kubernetes

Terraform

CI/CD

GitHub Actions

BigQuery

Dataflow

Security & Compliance

AI Governance

Tools

Astronomer

Airflow

Docker

Kubernetes

GitHub

Job description

Job Description:

About McDonald’s:

One of the world’s largest employers with locations in more than 100 countries, McDonald’s Corporation has corporate opportunities in Hyderabad. Our global offices serve as dynamic innovation and operations hubs, designed to expand McDonald's global talent base and in-house expertise. Our new office in Hyderabad will bring together knowledge across business, technology, analytics, and AI, accelerating our ability to deliver impactful solutions for the business and our customers across the globe.

Position Overview

Position Summary:

AI/ML Platform Lead

We are seeking an experienced AI & ML Platform Lead to drive the strategy, architecture, engineering, and enablement of enterprise AI/ML platform capabilities on Google Cloud Platform. This role is responsible for building and managing scalable AI/ML platform services, governance controls, development standards, self-service capabilities, and platform automation that enable Data Science and AI/ML Operations teams to rapidly build, deploy, and manage AI solutions securely and efficiently.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Strategy & Architecture

• Define and drive the AI/ML platform strategy, roadmap, and architecture.

• Design scalable, secure, and reusable platform capabilities on GCP and Vertex AI.

• Establish platform standards, reference architectures, and engineering best practices.

• Evaluate and adopt emerging AI platform technologies.

AI/ML Platform Engineering

• Build and manage core AI/ML platform services, frameworks, and shared capabilities.

• Develop reusable templates, accelerators, and automation solutions.

• Enable standardized development and deployment patterns across AI teams.

• Ensure platform scalability, reliability, and maintainability.

Platform Governance & Controls

• Define platform governance, onboarding standards, and guardrails.

• Implement security, access management, compliance, and audit controls.

• Establish governance for AI agents, models, APIs, and platform services.

• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Security, Risk, and Legal teams.

Self-Service & Enablement

• Deliver self-service capabilities for AI engineers and data scientists.

• Create platform standards, documentation, and reusable assets.

• Drive platform adoption and improve developer experience.

• Promote consistent engineering practices across AI initiatives.

Platform Observability & Reliability

• Establish platform monitoring, logging, alerting, and operational dashboards.

• Drive reliability, resilience, performance, and capacity planning.

• Define platform SLAs, SLOs, and operational readiness standards.

• Partner with AI/ML Operations for production support readiness.

Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Lead AI/ML platform engineering initiatives and roadmap execution.

• Mentor engineers and foster platform engineering best practices.

• Collaborate with Data, AI, Security, Infrastructure, and Operations teams.

• Communicate platform strategy, progress, risks, and outcomes to leadership.

Required Qualifications

• 7-10+ years of experience in AI/ML Platform Engineering, Cloud Platform Engineering, or Data & AI Platform development, preferably on GCP.Strong expertise in GCP services including Vertex AI, BigQuery, Dataflow, Cloud Storage, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, IAM, Networking, and related platform technologies.

• 5+ years of experience designing, building, and managing enterprise-scale AI/ML platforms, reusable services, and self-service capabilities.

• Experience with platform automation, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform preferred), CI/CD frameworks, and cloud-native engineering practices.

• Strong proficiency in source code management, code quality, and DevSecOps practices using GitHub, GitHub Actions, pytest, SonarQube, or similar tools.Experience developing platform services, APIs, automation frameworks, and integrations using Python.Hands-on experience with Vertex AI platform capabilities, including Workbench, Model Registry, Feature Store, Vector Search, Generative AI services, and related platform components.

• Experience with workflow orchestration platforms such as Astronomer, Airflow, or equivalent technologies.Strong knowledge of containerization, Kubernetes, Docker, and serverless architectures.Experience establishing platform governance, security controls, access management, compliance standards, and auditability for AI/ML platforms.Understanding of Responsible AI, AI governance, and agent lifecycle controls, including onboarding, access, deployment, monitoring, and observability.

• Experience building developer tooling, reusable templates, accelerators, and self-service capabilities to improve engineering productivity and platform adoption.

• Strong understanding of platform reliability, observability, scalability, performance, and operational readiness.

• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across engineering, security, architecture, operations, and business teams.

McDonald’s is the world’s leading global foodservice retailer with over 40,000 locations in over 100 countries. Approximately 95% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local business owners. At McDonald’s, we lead through our values centered on inclusivity, service, integrity, community, and family. Here is your chance to get in on something special as we grow our corporate team in India and allow you to grow your career.