ML Engineer
Company Description
McDonald’s is proud to be one of the most recognized brands in the world, with restaurants in over 100 countries that serve 70 million customers daily. As the global leader in the food service industry, our legacy of innovation and hard work continues to drive us.
From drive thru updates to delivery to mobile order and pay, we are innovating quickly and growing. Joining McDonald's means thinking big and preparing for a career that can have influence around the world.
Department Overview
Company Description
McDonald’s is a global leader in the food service industry, committed to innovation, customer experience, and operational excellence. As we advance our digital and data capabilities, we are building a best-in-class team to power data-driven decisions at scale across all markets.
The Opportunity
We are seeking a strategic and customer-centric ML Manager to lead the design and delivery of our Machine Learning and AI Agent products. In this role, you will act as the bridge between business stakeholders, product design, and technical teams to translate business needs into scalable AI solutions. Your work will shape the way AI empowers decision-making, automation, and customer experiences across the organization.
Duties
Key Responsibilities
Partner closely with business stakeholders to deeply understand user pain points, operational challenges, and strategic objectives.
Define clear product strategies and roadmaps that align AI capabilities with business goals.
Lead end-to-end product design — including user journey mapping, workflow design, feature definition, and prioritization.
Translate complex AI/ML concepts into simple, actionable product requirements and use cases.
Collaborate with data science, ML engineer, and UX teams to ensure solutions are both technically feasible and business relevant.
Facilitate effective communication between business and technical teams to ensure alignment on priorities, timelines, and success metrics.
Define and track key product metrics to evaluate impact and guide iteration.
Stay informed on emerging trends in AI agents, generative AI, and ML applications to inspire innovative product solutions.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science or related engineering field and deep experience with Cloud computing
- 5+ years of professional experience in data engineering or related fields
- Proficiency in Python, Java, or Scala for data processing and automation
- Hands-on experience with data orchestration tools (e.g., Apache Airflow, Luigi) and big data ecosystems (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, NoSQL)
- Expert knowledge of Data quality functions like cleansing, standardization, parsing, de-duplication, mapping, hierarchy management, etc.
- Deep understanding of Data Product Lifecycle, Standards and Practices
- Ability to perform extensive data analysis (comparing multiple datasets) using a variety of tools
- Proven ability to mentor team members and lead technical initiatives across multiple workstreams
- Effective communication and stakeholder management skills to drive alignment and adoption of data engineering standards
- Demonstrated experience in data management & data governance capabilities
- Familiarity with data warehousing principles and best practices.
- Excellent problem solver - use of data and technology to solve problems or answer complex data related questions
- Excellent collaboration skills to work effectively in cross-functional teams.
Compensation
Bonus Eligible: Yes
Long - Term Incentive: Yes
Benefits Eligible: Yes
Salary Range
The expected salary range for this role is $129,800 - $165,490 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.
Competencies
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; 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). 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.