Software Engineer III

YUM! Brands, Inc.; Irvine (CA); Hybrid; USD 118,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Onsite childcare through BrightHorizns

Onsite dining center and game room

Onsite dry cleaning, laundry, carwash

Onsite gym with classes

Job summary

Taco Bell is hiring a Software Engineer III to join their Customer Middleware platform. The role focuses on building cloud-based APIs and event-driven services, aligning product needs with technical design, and maintaining reliable, scalable software within a distributed environment.

You will work with AWS services such as Lambda, API Gateway, AppSync, S3, and DynamoDB, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver high-availability solutions.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience in production apps, APIs, or integration platforms.
• Experience with REST or GraphQL APIs, asynchronous events, queues, and service-to-service integration.
• Experience building or operating applications on AWS with Lambda, API Gateway, S3, DynamoDB, and CloudWatch.

Responsibilities

• Build, test, deploy, and maintain cloud-based APIs and event-driven services.
• Translate product requirements into technical designs and API contracts.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify dependencies, edge cases, and risks.
• Participate in design reviews and uphold engineering standards for reliability, security, and observability.
• Support production issues and drive improvements across CI/CD and IaC.

Skills

REST APIs

GraphQL APIs

AWS Lambda

API Gateway

AppSync

S3

DynamoDB

EventBridge

SQS

CloudWatch

Git

GitLab CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code

Jira

Confluence

Observability tools

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

AWS CDK

CloudFormation

Job description

We believe everyone deserves the right to Live Más – and we're constantly inspired by the creativity it takes to get there.

Software Engineer III

Hybrid

Who is Taco Bell?

Taco Bell was born and raised in California and has been around since 1962. We went from selling everyone's favorite Crunchy Tacos on the West Coast to a global brand with 7,500+ restaurants, 350 franchise organizations, that serve 42+ million fans each week around the globe. We're not only the largest Mexican-inspired quick service brand (QSR) in the world, we're also part of the biggest restaurant group in the world: Yum! Brands. Much of our fan love and authentic connection with our communities are rooted in being rebels with a cause. From ensuring we use high-quality, sustainable ingredients to elevating restaurant technology in ways that haven't been done before... we will continue to be inclusive, bold, challenge the status quo and push industry boundaries. We're a company that celebrates and advocates for different , has bold self-expression, strives for a better future, and brings the fun while we're at it. We fuel our culture with real people who bring unique experiences. We inspire and enable our teams and the world to Live Más.

At Taco Bell, we're Cultural Rebels. Want to join in on the passion-fueled fun? Learn more about the career below.

About the Job

The SOFTWARE ENGINEER III is responsible for developing, testing, deploying, and supporting scalable software and integration services within Taco Bell's Customer Middleware platform, helping connect digital ordering, loyalty, customer identity, messaging, and restaurant experiences. In this role, you will contribute to technical design, implement solutions within established architecture and engineering patterns, and help strengthen the reliability and maintainability of Taco Bell's customer technology ecosystem alongside an experienced team of engineers. The SOFTWARE ENGINEER III will report to the Sr. Manager, Software Engineering as an individual contributor.

The Day-to-Day

Build, test, deploy, and maintain cloud-based APIs, event-driven services, integrations, and data-processing workflows that support customer identity, loyalty, digital ordering, messaging, customer care, and restaurant experiences.

Contribute to translating product and business requirements into technical designs, API contracts, implementation plans, and well-defined engineering stories, working with senior engineers, architects, and partner teams to identify integration dependencies, edge cases, and operational risks.

Partner with software engineers, quality engineers, product leaders, platform teams, vendors, and external delivery teams to coordinate implementation, testing, defect resolution, and production validation across connected systems (including E-Commerce, Braze, Akamai, and AWS).

Participate in code and technical design reviews, provide actionable feedback to peers, and apply and contribute to established engineering standards for reliability, security, maintainability, observability, automated testing, and deployment.

Investigate and help resolve complex production and non-production issues using application logs, metrics, traces, dashboards, and test results; collaborate with engineering and platform teams on remediation of environment-dependent behavior, rate limits, integration failures, and security findings.

Contribute to improvements in the engineering lifecycle by addressing technical debt, applying reusable software patterns, expanding automation, documenting system behavior, and supporting secure, dependable releases through CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code practices.

Is This You?

At least 5 years of professional software engineering experience developing and supporting production applications, APIs, distributed services, or integration platforms, with a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent years of experience.

Experience developing and integrating REST or GraphQL APIs, asynchronous events, queues, and service-to-service integrations, with an understanding of authentication, error handling, retry behavior, idempotency, and API-contract management.

Experience building or operating applications on a major cloud platform, preferably AWS, using services such as Lambda, API Gateway, AppSync, S3, DynamoDB, EventBridge , SQS, CloudWatch, or comparable managed services.

Experience with modern delivery and engineering tools and practices such as Git, GitLab CI/CD, infrastructure as code (AWS CDK or CloudFormation), Jira, Confluence, API specifications, and observability platforms.

Demonstrated experience collaborating with product, QE, platform, security, senior engineers, and partner engineering teams to move work from technical discovery and implementation through testing, production deployment, monitoring, and operational support in high-volume transactional systems.

Work-Hard, Play-Hard

Hybrid work schedule and year-round flex day Friday

Onsite childcare through Bright Horizons

Onsite dining center and game room (yes, there is a Taco Bell inside the building)

Onsite dry cleaning, laundry services, carwash

Onsite gym with fitness classes and personal trainer sessions

Up to 4 weeks of vacation per year plus holidays and time off for volunteering

Tuition reimbursement and education benefits

Generous parental leave for all new parents and adoption assistance program

401(k) with a 6% matching contribution from Yum! Brands with immediate vesting

Comprehensive medical & dental including prescription drug benefits and 100% preventive care

Discounts, free food, swag and... honestly, too many good benefits to name

Talent Acquisition Salary Range

$117,800 - $140,000 annually + bonus eligibility + equity (if applicable) + benefits The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we'll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors. At Taco Bell, we Live Más and invite you to do the same. Take a seat at our table. Bring your voice. Bring you, just as you are, a Cultural Rebel. We want you to be your best self! Taco Bell is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to equity, inclusion, and belonging for all dimensions of diversity. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other protected characteristic. Taco Bell is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities or special needs. US Job Seekers/Employees - Click here to view the 'Know Your Rights' poster and supplement and the Pay Transparency Policy Statement. Employment eligibility to work with Taco Bell in the U.S. is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for this position.

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