Engineer principal - Global Technology Strategy Enablement, Nashville TN; Hybrid

From the beginning, Starbucks set out to be a different kind of company. One that not only celebrated coffee and the rich tradition, but that also brought a feeling of connection. We are known for developing extraordinary leaders who share this passion and are guided by their service to others.

Starbucks is a global system of more than 42,000 stores across 90 countries, operated by Starbucks and by our licensee partners. Much of the technology behind those stores and our digital experiences is developed in-house in the US, where our largest investment is focused. As principal engineer, Global Technology Strategy & Enablement, you will lead the engineering work to extend those US systems for broader global use: designing how they are configured, localized and integrated for international markets, building integration approaches and solutions that scale across countries and licensees, and defining the technical standards that sit within our Global Licensing Framework.

You will bring deep software engineering knowledge to that challenge and ultimately help leverage Starbucks scale and US-focused investment for the benefit of every market we serve.

You will be one of a small global core team sitting between US-based Starbucks Technology, Starbucks Digital Solutions and our regional technology teams in Asia Pacific, EMEA and Latin America and the Caribbean. The team’s mandate is "build once, adopt widely": defining the technical standards and reference architectures within the Global Licensing Framework that markets and licensees build against, designing the integration approaches that connect US platforms with market and licensee systems at scale, and providing hands‑on engineering to land global capability in region without overburdening the core teams focused on North America.

Near‑term priorities include refreshing the technical standards in the Global Licensing Framework, extending our observability platform to cover our international regions, and scaling select Starbucks Technology capabilities out of North America.

This position reports to the director, Engineering – Global Technology Strategy & Enablement, based in Nashville, within the Global Experience Technology organization. The team is being formed now, so you will shape how it works rather than inherit it, with direct exposure to CTO-level strategy and to Starbucks Technology, Starbucks Digital Solutions and regional leadership around the world.

• Extend US systems for broader global use. Assess Starbucks Technology and Starbucks Digital Solutions platforms built for North America, design the extension points, configuration and localization approach that let them serve international markets, and lead the hands‑on engineering to prove the approach in real markets.
• Build integration approaches and solutions that scale. Design the API, event and data integration patterns that connect US platforms with market and licensee systems, including automated data ingestion from markets so that Starbucks becomes an increasingly data‑led organization, and make sure they hold up across dozens of countries rather than one.
• Define technical standards as part of the Global Licensing Framework. Own the engineering standards, reference architectures and integration requirements that international markets and licensees build against, and lead the architecture and solution reviews that ensure they are adopted consistently.
• Evolve how teams work together. Shape the engagement model between the core teams focused on North America, the global core and regional engineering, so that international requirements are designed in early and delivered without pulling core teams away from…