Job Description

Lead Architect

When our square shaped burgers made their first sizzle on the scene more than 50 years ago, people knew our approach wasn't like any other. Same goes for the way we support our employees. Our culture of openness, flexibility, and inclusiveness allows everybody to flourish in their own way. If you're looking for a career where you can be part of the action as we continue to grow our iconic brand - We got you!

We're seeking a hands-on, forward-thinking Lead Architect to help scale and stabilize Wendy's FreshAi platform and build the foundation for future AI-enabled restaurant systems. This role blends operational command with architectural visionbalancing real-time incident support, vendor coordination, and system design for a fast-moving, AI-powered environment.

This position is ideal for a senior technologist who thrives in both deployment scenarios and long-term platform planning, with a passion for system reliability, AI integration, and emerging tech at scale.

Responsibilities

Platform Operations & Support Leadership

• Serve as the technical leader during deployments and hypercare periods for FreshAi and future emerging tech initiatives.
• Own triage workflows: monitor production systems, lead incident resolution, coordinate hotfixes, and ensure uptime.
• Collaborate with engineering, QA, product, and vendor teams to deliver stable releases and reduce production defects.
• Proactively identify and mitigate risks through dashboards, alerting tools, and platform health metrics.

Architectural Vision & System Design

• Define the technical strategy and system architecture for scalable, modular AI-integrated platforms.
• Architect end-to-end solutions that span Angular frontends, Node.js services, Java backends, and cloud-based AI agents (e.g., Google Food Ordering AI).
• Integrate evolving platform components like VisionAI, Agent Space, and IoT edge solutions into a cohesive digital ecosystem.

Vendor & Cross-Team Integration

• Lead cross-functional integration between Wendy's teams and external partners such as Google Cloud, Acrelec, and HME/Nexeo.
• Manage vendor performance and alignment with product and system SLAs.
• Translate platform needs into partner-ready requirements and resolve cross-system dependencies.

Innovation & Technical Enablement (10%)

• Influence long-term technical roadmap for FreshAi and other high-impact initiatives across channels (drive-thru, kiosk, mobile, voice).
• Contribute to technical evaluation of LLM agent behaviors, model performance, and emerging frameworks like GenAI, edge computing, and real-time decision systems.
• Build documentation and playbooks to scale deployment success and operational support across multiple restaurant environments.

What We Expect From You

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering or platform architecture, including customer-facing and AI-powered applications
• Experience leading platform deployments and owning real-time operational response (hypercare, rollback plans, triage)
• Strong technical proficiency across: Angular, Node.js, Java, RESTful APIs, microservices, WebSocket, Cloud infrastructure (Google Cloud strongly preferred)
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-vendor and cross-functional teams
• Excellent communication and executive coordination skills
• Experience in QSR, retail, or high-availability SaaS environments
• Familiarity with LLM/AI system behavior, model lifecycle management, or MLOps
• Hands-on experience with deployment pipelines, observability tools, or incident automation
• Exposure to VisionAI, IoT, or edge compute architectures

Wendy's was built on the premise, "Quality is our Recipe," which remains the guidepost of the Wendy's system. Today, Wendy's and its franchisees employ hundreds of thousands of people across more than 7,000 restaurants worldwide with a vision of becoming the world's most thriving and beloved restaurant brand. The base pay range for this position is listed below. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and budget for the open position and also may vary depending on the candidate's job-related knowledge, skills, and experience, among other relevant factors. This range does not include an estimated value for any benefits, bonus, or other incentives that may be applicable based on position. The target annual bonus for this role is 20% of annualized base salary, based on actual company and personal performance. Our square burgers make us different and so do our benefits! Our restaurant support roles are eligible for a wide array of benefits, including things such as parental leave, free EAP sessions, company 401k match and other great offerings.

Education: High School Diploma/GED

Travel: 15%

Pay Range: $114,000 - $200,000 Annually

Wendy's is an equal employment opportunity employer who may provide reasonable accommodation to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

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