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McDonald's · 2 months ago

Senior AI Engineer - Computer Vision/NLP

Chicago, IL, US, 60607

Full-time

Onsite

Senior Level

$138K/yr - $173K/yr

5+ years exp

McDonald’s is a leading global omni-channel restaurant brand focused on technology innovation to enhance customer experiences. They are seeking a Senior AI Engineer/Scientist with expertise in Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing to develop AI models that improve operations and customer service across their global network.

Restaurants

H1B Sponsor Likely

Responsibilities

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, TensorFlow, 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

Qualification

Computer VisionNatural Language ProcessingPythonC++Cloud AI ServicesModel OptimizationPassion for InnovationCollaboration SkillsCommunication Skills

Required

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 SageMaker, 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

Preferred

Master's or PhD in AI, Computer Science, or related field

CV Focus: Experience with EfficientNet, ResNet, YOLO, SAM, or Diffusion models

NLP Focus: Experience with LLM fine-tuning, embeddings, prompt engineering, RAG, or pre-trained models (BERT, GPT, LLaMA, T5)

Experience deploying and monitoring AI models in production, including model versioning and reproducibility

Contributions to open-source CV/NLP frameworks (e.g., Hugging Face, PyTorch Lightning, OpenCV)

Benefits

Health and welfare benefits

A 401(k) plan

Adoption assistance program

Educational assistance program

Flexible ways of working

Time off policies (including sick leave, parental leave, and vacation/PTO)

Company

McDonald's

Glassdoor3.6

McDonald’s is the world’s leading global foodservice retailer with over 37,000 locations in over 100 countries.

Founded in 1955

Chicago, Illinois, US

10001+ employees

https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/

H1B Sponsorship

McDonald's 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

2025 (61)

2024 (77)

2023 (37)

2022 (31)

2021 (60)

2020 (12)