Principal Software Engineer, Mobile – Chicago, IL

💼 Principal Software Engineer, Mobile

📍 Location: Chicago, IL (Hybrid)
🕒 Employment Type: Full-Time
💰 Salary: $168,350 – $218,860 per year
🎯 Bonus Eligible: Yes
💼 Long-Term Incentive Eligible: Yes

🌟 Company Overview

At McDonald’s, we’re redefining the future of the restaurant industry with our growth strategy, Accelerating the Arches. This strategy focuses on Delivery, Digital, and Drive-Thru, ensuring that over 65 million customers a day experience fast, seamless service across 25,000+ locations worldwide. We are at the forefront of technological innovation, utilizing AI, robotics, and emerging technologies to reshape the customer experience and our business. Our goal is to deliver exceptional customer experiences at a global scale while fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation.

🧑‍💼 Position Overview

McDonald’s is seeking a Principal Software Engineer, Mobile to join our Customer Technology team. In this role, you’ll be instrumental in shaping the future of McDonald’s Global Mobile App and Marketing technologies. You will drive innovation by leading mobile app development (iOS & Android) and cloud services, ensuring scalable, high-performing solutions that enhance the customer experience worldwide.

🔧 Responsibilities

• Strategize & Solve: Analyze McDonald’s business and technical environments to develop solutions addressing complex challenges.
• Innovate & Build: Lead mobile application design and development for iOS and Android, and contribute to cloud services to ensure scalability, availability, and performance.
• Set the Vision: Collaborate with architecture and engineering teams to define technology strategies and align platforms.
• Drive Best Practices: Champion agile, DevOps, and modern engineering practices to foster continuous improvement and collaboration.
• Lead & Inspire: Provide mentorship and technical leadership to high-performing engineering teams, nurturing top-tier technical talent.
• Experiment & Validate: Conduct POCs and prototypes to evaluate emerging technologies and their business impact.

📌 Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience. Ongoing learning to stay ahead of technology trends.
• 12+ years in software engineering, focusing on mobile app development.
• 4+ years in strategic planning and technical leadership.
• Proven success in solving complex technical challenges across multiple platforms.
• Experience leading enterprise-scale solutions in large organizations with multiple business units.

Technical Expertise

• Strong experience with mobile app development (iOS & Android) using Swift, SwiftUI/UIKit, Kotlin/Android Java, and Jetpack Compose.
• Hands-on knowledge of microservices and event-driven architecture with technologies such as Java, Kotlin, Spring Boot, Micronaut, and .NET.
• Expertise in databases and cloud technologies (MongoDB, Postgres, Elastic Search, Kafka, ReactJS).

Leadership & Collaboration

• Ability to influence partners and align teams on technical strategies.
• Strong communication skills to clearly convey technical concepts.
• Proven ability to break down silos and drive alignment across technical and business teams.
• A collaborative teammate who fosters innovation and problem-solving in dynamic environments.

💡 Benefits

McDonald’s offers an extensive benefits package, including:

• Health and welfare benefits.
• 401(k) plan with company contributions.
• Educational assistance program.
• Flexible working options and time-off policies (including sick leave, parental leave, and PTO).

🌍 Equal Opportunity Employer

McDonald’s is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to fostering an inclusive workforce. We prohibit discrimination based on sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, and other protected statuses. We offer reasonable accommodations during the application and hiring process.