Lead Technology Operations Analyst - SONIC

inspirebrands; Georgia; On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Inspire Brands in Atlanta area seeks a Lead Technology Operations Analyst to oversee cross-functional teams, drive releases, and design automated workflows. The role improves operational outcomes within a defined tech domain by building processes and coordinating with engineering, help desk, and vendors.

Strong communication, vendor coordination, and ITIL/SDLC experience are essential to ensure reliable service delivery and real-time transparency for stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required and seven to ten years of relevant IT experience.
• Expert knowledge of IT applications and technical platforms.
• Expert experience with Microsoft Operating Systems and Office.
• Proficient knowledge of other OS such as iOS, Android, Linux.
• Expert knowledge with ITSM frameworks such as ITIL.
• Proven track record of supporting multi-modal, geographically dispersed locations.
• Experience building business and technical requirements.

Responsibilities

• Effectively design and improve tasks for successful execution with runbooks, automations, and AI.
• Identify gaps and opportunities; drive process improvements in your focus area.
• Own and influence the future of your area of focus with proactive leadership.
• Communicate with stakeholders to prevent errors and align on capabilities and roadmaps.
• Understand interactions across the organization and ensure coordinated success.
• Manage vendor performance and partnerships to meet SLAs and outcomes.
• Influence vendor roadmaps and participate in commercial negotiations.
• Refine future development and tool recommendations for success.
• Mentor junior team members to support growth and lifecycle success.
• Maintain high quality per company standards and suggest improvements.
• Manage and execute requests, projects, incidents, and problems via ITIL/SDLC.
• Triage defects and coordinate with help desk for ongoing support.
• Develop processes to ensure hardware, software, and integrations are ready for QA/UAT.

Skills

Vendor management

Automation mindset

Cross-functional collaboration

Scripting: PowerShell

Scripting: Python

Stakeholder communication

Troubleshooting

Process improvement

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

PowerShell

Python

Windows OS

ITSM tools

Job description

TheLeadTechnology OperationsAnalystoverseescross-functional teams to understand complex solutionsandintegrations,as well asdrive releases to improve solutions.This role focuses on deliveringhigh‑qualityoperational outcomes within a defined technology domain by designing, executing, and continuously improving processes, automations, and technical workflows.As a specialized subject matter expert, this positionsupports Inspire Brands’ technology ecosystem byidentifyinggaps, recommending enhancements, andoptimizingcapabilities within the assigned area of focus.

The role requiresstrong communicationskills, effective vendor coordination, and the ability to troubleshoot and resolve issues across hardware, software, and integrated solutions. It also contributes to ongoing process refinement, readiness for QA/UAT, and ITIL/SDLC execution, ensuring reliable service delivery andreal‑timetransparency for customers and stakeholders. Additionally, this rolementorspeers, partners with engineering and help desk teams, and supports the future evolution of tools and technologies to improve efficiency, quality, and business outcomes across the organization.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Effectivelydesign,continuously improve,coordinateand complete all tasks necessary for successful execution, ensuring all assigned work is delivered on time using runbooks, automations, artificial intelligence, and established processes.

• Specialize in your area of focus, including but not limited to identification and solutionrecommendationsfor potential gaps, process improvement areas,innovativeopportunitiesand continuous learningin your area ofsubject matterexpertise.

• Have an ownership mindset where you are actively supporting, influencing,driving,and/ordesigning the future of your area of focus.

• Effectively communicate with stakeholdersas a subject matter expert,to prevent errors, ensure success, and manage expectations. Clearly and accurately communicate with customers, stakeholders, engineering teams and leadersregardingsupported technology, capability optimization and future capabilities as defined by role; including partnership to drive business needs forward.

• Have a strongunderstandingof how these technologies interact with components across the organization andtake actions to ensuresuccess across the organization.

• Manage vendor performance and build vendor partnerships that result in positive outcomes for Inspire Brands throughout the business relationship.

• Influence,and/or own, asappropriatethe vendor’s roadmap, participation in commercialnegotiations,coordinatecommercial engagementsand ensurevendors meet contractual, operational, and service‑level commitments.

• Influence& refinefuture development/improvements,identifygaps and recommend areas for process improvements and/or new tools for success.

• Mentorroutinely both junior team members and peers, toensure theyare successfully prepared for growth opportunities and have success throughout the employee lifecycle.

• Maintain high qualityin accordance withcompany standards and best practices and proactivelyidentifyand suggest areas for improvement.

• Manage & execute Requests, Projects, Incidents/Cases, and Problems through designated ITIL/SDLC processes to ensure customers’ real-time visibility of service status.

• Performbasic and advancedtriage on reported defects tovalidateissues,identifyconfiguration errors, and gather necessaryand/or analyze necessarylogs fora resolution.Includespartnership with help desk teams for ongoing support.

• Developand executeprocesses that ensure thathardware,softwareandappropriate integrationsareready prior to being turned over for QA/UAT efforts.

L2/L3 Support

• Be able tocreate,write, debug and update scripts in a variety of languages, including, but not limited to PowerShell,Pythonand other brand-basedlanguages.

• Demonstratestrong, hands-on,understanding ofrestaurant technology including,networking,POS, BOS, System Integrations, Drive Thru, Audio/Visual, Payments etc.

• Recommend,designand managesoftware and integrationsupport after deployment to production.

• Actively source methodologies, platforms and scripts to “shift left”,moving support closer to the end user than specialized technicians.

• Haveastrongunderstanding of how these technologies interact with components across the organization andtake actions to ensuresuccess across the organization; proactively alertpossible issuespriorto full scale deployment of software and/or hardware.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE QUALIFICATIONS

Strongly Desired:Bachelor's Degree

• Seven to ten years of progressive, relevant IT experience such assystem configuration and implementation experience

• Expert knowledge of relevant applications and technical platforms.

• Expert experience with Microsoft Operating Systemsand associated software such as Microsoft Office

• Proficientknowledge of at least one other operating system such as iOS, Android,Linuxetc.

• Expert knowledgewith ITSM frameworks such as ITIL

• Proventrack recordof supportingmulti-modal and geographical disparate locations

• Expertexperience in building business and technical requirements

REQUIRED NOWLEDGE, SKILLS, OR ABILITIES

• Excellent customer service skills. Must be empathetic and continually solving problems through the eyes of the user

• Proventrack recordof providing effective team leadership

• Excellent verbal and written communication, with an emphasis on being able to present technical topics in an easy-to-understand way for non-technical customers

• Extremely well organized (including good project and time management skills) and high attention to detail

• Collaborate strongly withbusiness partners,generally acombination of individual contributors, managers, directors, vicepresidentsand executives,through a service mindset

• Strong partnering skills and a service leadership mindset arerequired

• Proventrack recordof team member development outside of formal channels

This position is based in our Atlanta Support Center, with an expected on-site presence of 80%.

Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 33,000 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide.

We’re made up of some of the world’s most iconic restaurant brands, but we’re much more than just a restaurant company. We’re a team of hundreds of thousands who individually and collectively are changing the way people eat, drink, and gather around the table. We know that food is much more than a staple—it’s an experience. At Inspire, that’s our purpose: to ignite and nourish flavorful experiences.