Sr Manager, Network Management

McDonald's Corporation•Chicago, IL

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 OverviewThe Sr. Manager, Network Engineering (Global) is a senior technical and people leader responsible for global engineering readiness, market onboarding, and deployment enablement for the Global Restaurant Network Transformation (GRNT). This role provides global design authority, technical governance, and engineering leadership, while enabling regional and market teams to successfully deploy and operate the global network standard. The Sr. Manager leads a globally distributed team of network engineers and remains effectively engaged in technical assessments, architecture validation, automation strategy, and complex problem management. The role partners closely with Global Network Operations, Product, Deployment, Security, and Regional IT teams to ensure global consistency, security, scalability, and operational excellence—while allowing for controlled local flexibility where required.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in Network Engineering supporting global or multi-market environments
5+ years leading engineering teams across regions or time zones
Strong hands-on experience with: Juniper networking platforms Palo Alto security platforms
Demonstrated experience leading global market onboarding, large-scale deployments, or transformation programs
Proven success delivering network automation for scale, reliability, and consistency
Strong ability to influence and lead across regions, cultures, vendors, and operating models

Nice To Haves

Experience operating within global standards / local execution models
Background in restaurant, retail, or branch-based global networks
Experience working with global managed service providers and multi-vendor ecosystems
Exposure to observability, AIOps, and platform-based network operations

Responsibilities

Lead and develop a globally distributed team of Network Engineers and senior technical resources, including: Global and regional workload planning and prioritization Performance management, coaching, and career development across geographies Succession planning and capability building aligned to GRNT and future network needs Establish global engineering standards, operating models, and ways of working.
Build a culture of global accountability, automation-first thinking, and continuous improvement.
Own global market onboarding and technical readiness assessments for GRNT adoption across regions.
Serve as global design authority to ensure market solutions align with: Global network architecture Security and compliance requirements Observability and operability standards Govern market exceptions, ensuring deviations are deliberate, documented, and minimized.
Enable early and ongoing engagement with markets to improve readiness, sequencing, and deployment success.
Provide global engineering leadership for GRNT deployment preparation and execution, including: Architecture and configuration validation Standard compliance and security readiness Risk identification and mitigation prior to deployment
Act as a senior customer concern point during critical or multi-market deployments.
Ensure deployment lessons learned are captured globally and fed back into: Standards and reference architectures Automation and tooling Market onboarding playbooks
Partner with Global Network Operations to lead problem management and systemic remediation across markets.
Own engineering responses to cross-market, recurring, or high-impact network issues.
Drive long-term corrective actions that improve global stability, resilience, and operational efficiency.
Define and lead the global network automation strategy, focused on: Zero-touch provisioning and configuration standardization Deployment and change automation Reduction of manual effort and error at scale
Ensure automation is embedded into global standards and operational workflows.
Partner with product, operations, and platform teams to prioritize automation that delivers measurable global impact.
Maintain active technical engagement in large-scale, globally distributed network environments, including: Architecture and design reviews Standards definition and technical decision-making Sophisticated troubleshooting and vendor engagement across regions
Provide senior technical leadership across: WAN, LAN, and SD-WAN Network security and SASE architectures Cloud-adjacent and edge networking