Senior Manager, Enterprise Container Platform (Kubernetes) Engineering

McDonald's Corporation•Chicago, IL

1d•$152,678 - $190,847

About The Position

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 OverviewWe are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Manager, Enterprise Container Platform (Kubernetes) Engineering to lead the container solutions (Kubernetes) strategy, architecture, design and delivery of enterprise-scale. This role is responsible for driving Kubernetes platform maturity, reliability, security, and developer enablement while leading a high‑performing team of platform and SRE engineers. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of industry experience, with a strong background in cloud technologies, DevOps methodologies, and team leadership. The candidate combines deep technical expertise in Kubernetes and cloud-native platforms with strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills, and has experience operating container platforms at global enterprise scale. This is a great opportunity for an experienced technology leader to help build and champion the transformation of infrastructure practices and standards for the entire McDonald’s environment.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in cloud, infrastructure, or platform engineering roles.
5+ years of hands-on experience leading Kubernetes/container platforms at scale.
Deep expertise in Google Cloud Platform, with strong hands-on knowledge of GKE.
Working knowledge of AWS EKS and/or Azure AKS.
Strong expertise in cloud platforms like AWS (Amazon Web Services), Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Extensive experience in DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
Expertise in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, or similar.
Solid understanding of cloud-native application architectures and microservices.
Experience in managing cloud infrastructure cost optimization, monitoring, and performance tuning.
GCP Associate Cloud Engineer, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, or equivalent certification is mandatory.
Proven track record of leading and managing large, cross-functional teams in an agile and fast-paced environment.
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and build relationships with senior leadership.
Ability to think strategically, with a strong understanding of business needs and how cloud technologies can support organizational goals.
Decomposes significantly complex problems into straight-forward solutions. Consistently brings strong, data-driven business, and technical judgment to decisions.
Identifies core problems or opportunities within business processes. Understands the root cause and impacts for the project and other teams.
Removes bottlenecks to enable your team(s) to work independently. Drives team members to proactively identify gaps and opportunities (e.g., services, workflows, tooling) within or between markets and other parts of the organization.
Invests time to coach junior technical product managers to refine their capabilities and close skill gaps. Works closely with technical product managers and leads by example.

Nice To Haves

Additional certifications in DevOps, Kubernetes, or cloud security are a plus.

Responsibilities

Own the strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Kubernetes-based container platforms (with strong emphasis on GKE, including Autopilot and Standard).
Champion Container as a Service (CaaS), Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles, CI/CD pipelines, and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
Lead the design, deployment, and operations of highly available, secure, and scalable Kubernetes clusters across multiple cloud environments.
Establish and enforce platform standards, operational best practices, and governance for containerized workloads.
Architect and implement scalable, highly available, and cost-effective solutions on public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, preferably GCP).
Define and implement best practices for cloud security, cost management, and performance optimization.
Partner with cloud engineering, networking, and security teams to ensure seamless platform integration.
Embed security-by-design practices, including IAM, workload identity, policy-as-code, image security, and compliance requirements.
Ensure platform readiness for enterprise compliance frameworks (e.g., SOC, SOX, internal security standards).
Drive the automation of infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, and deployment pipelines using modern DevOps tools (Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, etc.).
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to streamline workflows and improve the software release lifecycle.
Champion SRE principles to enable self-service capabilities for development teams through standardized CI/CD, GitOps, and infrastructure-as-code patterns.
Drive adoption of GitOps (e.g., Argo CD), observability, and automation to improve developer productivity and release velocity.
Partner with application, DevSecOps, and product teams to modernize workloads and accelerate cloud-native adoption.
Lead, mentor, and grow a team of Kubernetes, platform, and SRE engineers.
Collaborate with senior technology leaders, architects, security, and business stakeholders to align platform capabilities with business objectives.
Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to executive and non‑technical audiences.
Work closely with product managers, architects, and business leaders to align cloud and DevOps strategies with organizational goals.
Manages a strategically important technology product, and/or suite of DevSecOps products with significant business impact. Owns the definition of the product(s) roadmap.
Drive cloud migration initiatives, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum operational efficiency.
Act as a subject matter expert (SME) for cloud technologies, providing technical guidance to senior leadership.