Senior AI Engineer - Computer Vision​/NLP

Job Description Company Description

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 3

Ds (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.

At McDonald’s, AI is reshaping how we operate and serve customers. From drive-thru management and kitchen automation powered by Computer Vision to customer care and voice ordering enabled by Natural Language Processing, AI is at the heart of how we deliver seamless, efficient, and personalized experiences across 100+ countries.

We are seeking a Sr. AI Engineer/Scientist with expertise in Computer Vision and/or Natural Language Processing to join our AI Labs team. You will help turn cutting‑edge research into production systems that streamline operations, improve crew efficiency, and enhance customer experience at global scale. This role sits at the intersection of advanced research, large‑scale deployment, and product innovation, ensuring that our AI roadmap delivers measurable business and customer impact.

• Design, develop, and refine advanced AI models in either Computer Vision (CNNs, Vision Transformers, Diffusion models) or NLP (Transformers, LLMs, seq2seq, RAG, embeddings)
• Implement solutions in Python/C++, leveraging frameworks such as PyTorch, Tensor Flow, Hugging Face, OpenCV
• Apply fine‑tuning and optimization techniques (transfer learning, LoRA, quantization, distillation)
• Stay current with CV and NLP research (e.g., NeurIPS, ACL, CVPR), introducing novel techniques like multimodal fusion or generative models into enterprise applications
• Translate research into production‑ready systems, ensuring scalability, reproducibility, and monitoring
• Develop AI pipelines and workflows across edge devices, kiosks, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Optimize for latency, cost efficiency, and restaurant‑specific constraints (drive‑thru, mobile, kiosk)
• Work closely with AI engineers, MLOps teams, and product/operations teams to deliver real‑world AI solutions
• Support enterprise AI governance, compliance, and risk management to ensure responsible, safe, and ethical AI deployments

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, or related field
• 5–9 years of experience in engineering, with 4+ years of hands‑on AI/ML development
• Strong programming skills in Python (C++ a plus)
• Deep understanding of transformer architectures, model optimization techniques, and core algorithms in either Computer Vision or NLP
• Experience with cloud AI services (AWS Sage Maker, Google Vertex AI, Azure ML), preferably GCP
• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to technical and non‑technical audiences
• Strong collaboration skills and ability to thrive in fast‑paced, cross‑functional environments
• Passion for innovation, with a track record of applying AI responsibly and at scale