Sr Manager, Data Engineering

McDonald's Corporation; Chicago, Northern (IL, KY); Hybrid; USD 167,000 - 209,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus eligible

Long term incentive

Benefits eligible

Job summary

McDonald’s Global Technology is seeking a highly experienced Senior Engineer to serve as the technical lead for the mCDP and mParticle ecosystem. This role focuses on architecture, reliability, and scalable data ingestion across digital and restaurant channels.

The candidate will design real-time pipelines, define data models, and establish governance, observability, and platform operations while collaborating with Product, MarTech, Loyalty, Security, Privacy, and Engineering teams to enable

Qualifications

• Experience with customer data platforms and real-time processing.
• Proficiency in large-scale distributed systems and streaming data frameworks.
• Hands-on cloud experience and modern software engineering practices (CI/CD, IaC, DevSecOps).

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and evolution of the mCDP and mParticle ecosystem, delivering scalable, secure data capabilities.
• Design real-time data pipelines and low-latency services for personalization and activation across channels.
• Lead enterprise-scale audience/segmentation development with governance and privacy compliance.
• Own data products, ensuring quality, reliability, and observability across platforms.

Skills

Distributed systems

Event-driven architecture

Streaming data platforms

Real-time processing

Cloud-native architectures

DevOps practices

CI/CD

Observability

Reliability engineering

Microservices

Tools

Kafka

Spark

Flink

Dataflow

Beam

GCP

AWS

Azure

Cloud-native

Job description

Job Description:

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

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Engineer to serve as the technical lead for McDonald's Customer Data Platform (mCDP) mParticle ecosystem. This role is a senior engineer responsible for the architecture, engineering direction, scalability, reliability, and evolution of customer data ingestion, identity, audience management, and activation capabilities across digital and restaurant channels.The ideal candidate is both a hands-on engineer and technical leader who can design complex distributed systems, influence architectural decisions across teams, and establish engineering standards that enable scalable, privacy-compliant customer data products globally.

Duties

Customer Data Platform Architecture & Engineering

Lead the architecture and evolution of the mCDP and mParticle ecosystem, delivering scalable, secure, and reliable customer data capabilities. Define standards for data models, event governance, APIs, observability, and platform operations while driving performance, resiliency, and technology innovation.

Real-Time Customer Data Processing

Design and optimize real-time data pipelines for customer, transactional, and behavioral data. Build scalable streaming architectures, identity resolution frameworks, and low-latency services that enable personalization, audience activation, and cross-channel customer experiences.

Audience & Segmentation Platform Engineering

Lead the development of enterprise-scale audience and segmentation capabilities. Establish scalable data models and governance standards, optimize audience performance, and create reusable frameworks that support real-time activation while ensuring privacy and consent compliance.

Customer Data Products & Platform Quality

Own the engineering of customer data products, including profiles, audiences, preferences, and consent records. Establish standards for data quality, reliability, observability, testing, and documentation to ensure scalable and maintainable platform solutions.

Technical Leadership & Engineering Excellence

Serve as the technical authority for mParticle and customer data platforms. Drive architecture reviews, platform modernization, engineering best practices, and adoption of DevOps, CI/CD, cloud-native, automation, and reliability engineering principles.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Partner with Product, MarTech, Loyalty, Security, Privacy, and Engineering teams to deliver scalable customer data solutions. Define integration patterns, ensure compliance by design, and represent the platform in strategic architecture and technology initiatives.

Qualifications

Preferred Technical QualificationsDeep experience with Customer Data Platforms (mParticle, Segment, Adobe RTCDP, Tealium, or similar).Expertise in large-scale distributed systems, event-driven architecture, and streaming data platforms.Strong experience with Kafka, Spark, Flink, Dataflow, Beam, or related real-time processing frameworks.Experience designing high-volume APIs, microservices, and cloud-native applications.Hands-on expertise with cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, or Azure.Strong understanding of customer identity, profile unification, consent management, and audience activation patterns.Experience implementing observability solutions, monitoring frameworks, distributed tracing, and reliability engineering practices.Proficiency in modern software engineering practices, including CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, automated testing, and DevSecOps principles.Proven ability to influence technical direction across multiple engineering teams

Compensation

Bonus Eligible: Yes

Long - Term Incentive: Yes

Benefits Eligible: Yes

Salary Range

The expected salary range for this role is$167,366.00 -$209,207.00per year
The above represents the expectedsalaryrange for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining yourpay, we may also consider your experience, and other job-related factors.

Additional Information:

Benefits eligible: This position offers health and welfare benefits, including but not limited to comprehensive health insurance, which includes medical, prescription drug, mental health, dental and vision coverage, as well as, life insurance.

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 [e-mail]. 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.