Sr. Manager, AI/ML Engineering

Company Description:
McDonalds is scaling its global data platform to deliver real-time, actionable insights that enhance operations and elevate the customer experience. Through Enterprise Data, Analytics, and AI (EDAA), were enabling a smarter, more connected ecosystemdriven by cloud technology, automation, and intelligent data engineering.

The Opportunity:
We are looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer with strong technical expertise to design, build, and deploy scalable ML/AI solutions. In this role, you will be responsible for developing robust machine learning pipelines, optimizing model performance, and contributing to the design of ML/AI products that drive real business impact. You will collaborate closely with data scientists, product managers, and platform engineers to bring advanced ML capabilities into production.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of ML engineers, guiding technical decisions, best practices, and development processes.
• Develop and train machine learning models, including feature engineering, model selection, hyperparameter tuning, and evaluation.
• Drive the transition of ML models from proof-of-concept to production deployment.
• Design, build, and maintain model deployment pipelines, including CI/CD workflows, model versioning, and automated testing.
• Develop and maintain robust monitoring systems to track model performance, data drift, feature quality, and system health.
• Design and develop backend services and APIs to integrate ML models with product systems and user-facing applications.
• Apply strong MLOps principles to ensure reliability, reproducibility, and operational excellence of ML systems.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (engineering, product, data, analytics) to deliver impactful, high-quality ML solutions.

Qualifications

Required:

• Masters degree in computer science, Machine Learning, Data Science, or related field.
• 10+ years of experience in ML engineering, model development, or related technical roles.
• Proven experience training, developing, and deploying ML models in real-world production environments.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineering teams and driving complex ML projects to successful production deployment.
• Strong experience with API development (e.g., FastAPI, Flask, Django) and backend service design.
• Proficiency in Python and standard ML frameworks (Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch).
• Strong understanding of MLOps tools and practices, such as MLflow, Kubeflow, Airflow, Prefect, Docker, Kubernetes.
• Experience building feature pipelines, data processing workflows, and optimizing model performance.
• Experience with monitoring tools and performance alerting (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, custom monitoring).
• Preferred:
• Experience with distributed computing frameworks (Spark, Ray, Dask).
• Familiarity with microservices, event-driven architectures, or message queues.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS/GCP) or platform-agnostic orchestration tools.
• Experience working in a fast-paced, experimentation-driven environment.

McDonalds Values:
Our shared values create the foundation for how we work:

• Serve: Customers and people come first
• Inclusion: All are welcome
• Integrity: We act with honesty
• Community: We support and uplift each other
• Family: We learn and grow together

Equal Opportunity Statement:
McDonalds believes in equal opportunity and a workplace where everyone belongs. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and are committed to creating a diverse, inclusive environment where everyone can thrive.