Tropical Smoothie Cafe · 4 days ago
Director of Engineering
Atlanta, GA
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
10+ years expTropical Smoothie Cafe is seeking a future-focused Director of Engineering to mature and scale their engineering practices across various digital platforms. The role involves setting a bold engineering vision, leading high-performing teams, and integrating AI capabilities to enhance decision-making and drive business growth.
Food and BeverageFranchiseRestaurants
Responsibilities
Define and continuously evolve a TSC Engineering Vision & Playbook (principles, operating model, tech strategy, engineering ladder) that strengthens and matures our practices, with a sharp eye on what’s next in platform engineering, DevSecOps, SRE, data/ML, and product engineering
Establish a technology radar and architecture review cadence to adopt/retire tools intentionally and stay ahead of industry evolution
Lead the evolution of our platforms to reliably support high-volume digital transactions and rapid growth, architecting for peak traffic, low-latency experiences, cost efficiency, and fault tolerance. Embed capacity planning, performance engineering, multi-region resiliency, observability (SLOs/error budgets), and PCI‑aware security across mobile, web, kiosk, POS, and data services
Catalyze innovation in guest‑facing digital products (mobile, web, kiosk) and in‑cafe systems (POS/KDS), as well as the engineering system itself (CI/CD, test automation, platform reliability)
Incubate experimentation frameworks (A/B testing, feature flags) and rapid prototyping pipelines to shorten idea‑to‑impact
Model a learning mindset—set quarterly growth OKRs, publish “what we learned” notes, and run tech talks
Serve as a thought leader in a hot topic (e.g., AI/LLM, platform engineering, edge computing, or privacy‑preserving personalization) and represent TSC in the community (blogs, talks, forums)
Partner with product, marketing, and data teams to operationalize personalization—from data ingestion and identity resolution through ML‑driven recommendations and measurement
Champion data excellence by design: quality, lineage, governance, privacy, and responsible AI
Own outcomes for reliability, scalability, performance, and security across digital platforms; embed SLOs/SLA, error budgets, and blameless postmortems
Mature DevSecOps and CI/CD to enable frequent, low‑risk releases and automated quality gates
Lead work across a blended team of TSC engineers and strategic partners / SIs; set expectations, scorecards, and joint velocity/quality objectives; hold partners to outcome‑based SLAs
Embed security and privacy throughout the SDLC (threat modeling, secure coding, SAST/DAST, SBOM, dependency risk, secrets management). Partner with Infosec to meet standards without slowing flow
Hire, coach, and grow engineering leaders and individual contributors; nurture innovative culture, craftsmanship, and accountability
Promote inclusive practices and diverse perspectives in decision‑making and career development
Collaborate closely with Product, Digital Operations, Marketing, Enterprise Systems, and other functions, to align roadmaps and investment choices. Translate complex tech into crisp narratives for executive and non‑technical audiences
Modernize engineering system: 3× deployment frequency, 30% reduction in lead time for change, and >20% reduction in change‑failure rate; SOC2/PCI guardrails automated in pipelines
Reliability: Establish platform SLOs; improve mobile/web crash‑free sessions to industry‑leading benchmarks
Personalization: Launch at least two ML‑powered personalization features with demonstrable lift in conversion/AOV or guest retention
Tech Radar: Publish and socialize a TSC technology radar; retire 2–3 legacy tools/services; adopt 1–2 strategically relevant new capabilities (e.g., experimentation, observability, gen‑AI assisted development)
Talent & Culture: Build succession for key roles; create an engineering career framework and learning paths (e.g., AI/LLM upskilling)
Own engineering strategy, North Star architecture, and platform roadmaps across guest‑facing and in‑cafe systems; ensure coherence across mobile, web, kiosk, POS, KDS, loyalty, marketing tech, data, and analytics
Build platform capabilities (CI/CD, testing frameworks, IaC, observability, developer portals) that accelerate safe delivery
Advance practical adoption of AI/LLM in developer productivity (code/gen tests), operations (AIOps), and product features (recommendations, search, content). Align with TSC’s AI‑first direction
Lead the evolution of the data platform (pipelines, governance, privacy), enable experimentation/metrics, and productize personalization use cases end‑to‑end
Institutionalize test automation (unit/integration/E2E/API), non‑functional testing, chaos/DR drills, and SRE practices
Drive secure SDLC, vulnerability management, and compliance alignment in collaboration with Infosec leadership
Direct outcomes with strategic partners; enforce engineering standards, delivery health, and continuous improvement with SOW/MSA alignment
Shape multi‑year investment cases and quarterly planning; balance build/buy/vendor; manage budgets and capacity to maximize ROI
Provide transparent updates on progress, risk, and trade‑offs to executives and stakeholders
Qualification
Required
10+ years in software/platform engineering with 5+ leading multi‑disciplinary engineering groups (app dev, platform/DevSecOps/SRE, QA/automation, data/ML)
Demonstrated vision for maturing engineering practices (e.g., platform engineering, trunk‑based development, CI/CD, SRE, SDLC governance) and a track record of looking around the corner at industry evolution
Curiosity & research mindset: habitually explores emerging tech; translates insights into pragmatic pilots and scaled adoption
Proven innovation leadership across products/practices/process/technology; measurable improvements to reliability, speed, quality, or cost
Thought leadership in at least one contemporary domain (e.g., AI/LLM, platform engineering, cloud‑native, privacy‑preserving data, edge computing)—with public artifacts or internal evangelism to show impact
Experience enabling data & personalization (data pipelines, governance, model lifecycle, experimentation, guest 360)
Strong partner ecosystem leadership (systems integrators/MSPs), outcome‑based SOW governance, and cross‑functional influence
Excellent communication with executives and non‑technical stakeholders; evidence of building inclusive, high‑trust cultures
Preferred
Background integrating restaurant/retail technology stacks (POS, KDS, kiosk, loyalty, e‑commerce), or similar multi‑site, transaction‑heavy environments. Experience in QSR/retail is a plus, not a must
Company
Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Tropical Smoothie Cafe, is a restaurant franchise in the United States.
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Tropical Smoothie Cafe has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2023 (1)
2020 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$20M2024-04-24Acquired
2018-03-29Debt Financing· $20M
2014-11-03Seed
Leadership Team
Max Wetzel
Chief Executive Officer
P
Paul Marsden
Chief Financial Officer
Recent News
Food Business News
2026-01-09
2026-01-07
Company data provided by crunchbase