# McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium Meet the minds behind the tech. From AI to data design to cloud technology, McDonald's intrapreneurs are Digitizing the Arches -- reshaping how we serve customers, support crew, and run restaurants at scale. - Medium This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## Loyalty, Leveled Up: How We're Building the Next Generation of Rewards DevFeed: [Loyalty, Leveled Up: How We're Building the Next Generation of Rewards]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-09-15T13:14:46Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [Product Management](), [Mobile](), [personalization](), [App]() Tags: [app](), [customer-experience](), [loyalty-program](), [mobile](), [personalization](), [platform](), [product-management](), [technology](), [user-experience]() ### AI overview McDonald's describes how its teams redesigned the Rewards experience as a loyalty platform rather than a simple rewards list. The work focused on reducing friction, improving personalization, and integrating rewards into the mobile ordering journey. By September 2026, the redesigned experience was live across the company's lead Global Mobile App markets. ### Source excerpt From simpler experiences to smarter systems, this is how loyalty evolves at global scale. by Sara Robertson, Sr. Manager, Product Management Quick Bytes Loyalty operates at massive scale, but customer research showed that finding, understanding, and using rewards didn't always feel easy in the moments that mattered most By rethinking loyalty as a platform -- not just a rewards list -- teams reduced friction, introduced scalable personalization, and embedded value directly into the ordering journey The result is a simpler, more intuitive loyalty experience designed to grow with customers and support long-term global scale Loyalty at McDonald's operates at a scale few brands have ever achieved. Every day, millions of customers engage with McDonald's Rewards -- each with their own habits, preferences, and expectations. As the program grows, so does our ambition: deliver a loyalty experience that feels effortless, personal, and genuinely valuable for everyone. That ambition is tied to a clear leadership focus: continuing to grow our global loyalty customer base by making loyalty so intuitive, flexible, and valuable that it becomes a natural part of how customers use the app. As McDonald's continues its journey to build one of the world's leading loyalty programs, simplicity and customer value remain at the center of every decision. That's why teams across Product, Engineering, and Experience Design -- together with cross-functional partners across the Global team, segments, and markets -- collaborated to reimagine the loyalty experience. As of September 2026, the experience is now live across all of our lead Global Mobile App (GMA) markets. Designing for growth starts with reducing friction Customer research made one thing clear early on: loyalty was valuable, but engaging with it didn't always feel easy. Customers told us rewards could be hard to find, confusing to understand, or disconnected from the actual moment they were ordering food. Too often, rewards were remembered ## From Concept to Restaurant Pilot in Under a Year DevFeed: [From Concept to Restaurant Pilot in Under a Year]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-08-25T17:13:54Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [User experience (UX)](), [User interface design](), [Usability](), [Front end](), [Testing]() Tags: [collaboration](), [digital-transformation](), [frontend](), [innovation](), [product-development](), [prototyping](), [testing](), [usability](), [user-research](), [ux](), [ux-design]() ### AI overview The article describes how McDonald's used user research, rapid prototyping, cross-functional collaboration, and real-world testing to develop Sesame UX and move it from concept to a live restaurant pilot in under a year. The work addressed crew needs, operational complexity, and business priorities for the company's global POS system. ### Source excerpt How McDonald's combined user research, rapid prototyping, and cross-functional collaboration to bring Sesame UX from idea to reality. by: Ryan Bush, Sr Manager, UX Design & Kartik Patel, Software Engineer II Quick Bytes Bringing a new Point-of-Sale (POS) experience to life at McDonald's scale required balancing crew needs, operational complexity, and business priorities Research, prototyping, and real-world testing showed a new approach could improve speed, accuracy, and usability for crew members Sesame UX moved from concept to a live restaurant pilot in under a year, demonstrating measurable improvements and a new approach to innovation at scale Creating meaningful change at the scale of McDonald's means navigating deeply entrenched operational practices, specialized technology, and market-specific requirements. Any new idea must not only solve a meaningful problem but also demonstrate value that resonates across a broad and diverse set of stakeholders. Driving transformative innovation in an organization at this scale requires building shared alignment around the root problem, the opportunity it presents, and the value a proposed solution can create. It also requires using cost-efficient methods to prove to stakeholders the undeniable value of the change, along with a team of determined individuals who can get creative and who aren't deterred by obstacles or setbacks. McDonald's global Point-of-Sale (POS) system, Sesame, is actively used by over one million crew members worldwide. Markets, Owner/Operators, and managers have invested significant time and resources in training crew members to use the system, and thousands of crew members have mastered the POS experience. With this level of scale and investment, how could an organization evolve the frontend POS experience while building on the strengths of an already proven platform? How could the benefits outweigh the cost of the change? Building on a foundation used by millions The Sesame platform has evolved over ## Graceful Kubernetes Shutdowns Help Protect In-Flight Orders DevFeed: [Graceful Kubernetes Shutdowns Help Protect In-Flight Orders]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-08-12T14:03:07Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [Kubernetes](), [distributed-systems](), [Cloud]() Tags: [cloud](), [cloud-computing](), [devops](), [distributed-systems](), [infrastructure](), [kubernetes](), [messaging](), [operations](), [scale](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview This article explains how Kubernetes scaling, rolling updates, and cluster maintenance can interrupt in-flight requests and messages. It introduces graceful shutdown patterns in application code and infrastructure to reduce message loss and improve reliability for large-scale order processing. ### Source excerpt Why graceful shutdowns matter when millions of orders are in flight. by: Samuel Hapgood, Software Engineer III Quick Bytes At McDonald's scale, rare failures in distributed systems can impact real customer and crew experiences Graceful shutdown patterns in Kubernetes -- across application code and infrastructure -- help protect in-flight work during scaling and deployments With the right shutdown strategies, teams can reduce message loss, improve reliability, and ensure orders make it to the kitchen Imagine you're placing a mobile order at McDonald's during a busy lunch rush. You hit "submit," and the kitchen never gets the order. Now you're left waiting -- no food, no updates, and growing frustration. At first glance, it seems like an easy problem to avoid. How hard can it be to just keep track of the order? But in modern, large-scale distributed systems -- especially those that must scale continuously -- that's not always straightforward. Behind the scenes, platforms like Kubernetes (which orchestrate containerized applications in the cloud) are continuously rescheduling pods as part of normal operations such as scaling applications, performing rolling updates, and maintaining cluster health. During these transitions, in-flight requests or background messages can be interrupted in subtle ways. A pod might shut down before finishing a task, a request might be canceled mid-flight, or a message might be acknowledged by a receiving service, but never actually processed. Even with strong messaging platforms and best practices in place, application shutdowns can still interrupt in-flight work if they are not handled carefully. These are edge cases -- but at McDonald's scale, edge cases happen often enough to matter. In the US alone, our platforms support roughly one million orders per hour on a dynamically scaled cluster of hundreds of nodes. At that volume, reliability becomes critical to ensuring a seamless experience for customers, crews, and restaurant operations. Prevent ## From Unplanned Risk to Lasting Resilience: The Role of Immediate Risk Reduction DevFeed: [From Unplanned Risk to Lasting Resilience: The Role of Immediate Risk Reduction]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-06-30T14:14:45Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [Resilience](), [Cybersecurity](), [Security](), [audit]() Tags: [audit](), [cybersecurity](), [governance](), [resilience](), [risk-management](), [security](), [technology]() ### AI overview This article explains how McDonald's Immediate Risk Reduction (IRR) team addresses urgent, unplanned security risks through coordinated, cross-functional action. It argues that a repeatable response process can reduce exposure and business impact while strengthening long-term cybersecurity resilience. ### Source excerpt How Immediate Risk Reduction (IRR) brings teams together to tackle urgent risks quickly while strengthening the foundations for long-term resilience. by: Ebony Love, Director, Immediate Risk Reduction Quick Bytes IRR focuses on resolving meaningful, unplanned security issues quickly, without slowing down the business It's a deliberately cross functional effort, bridging across McDonald's to break down silos and drive coordinated action By standardizing the way urgent risks are handled, IRR helps embed resilience directly into McDonald's cybersecurity DNA In a global, fast-moving organization like McDonald's, unplanned risks aren't an exception; they're an expectation. As our technologies evolve, infrastructure modernizes, and platforms innovate, risks are continuously identified, ranging from foundational hygiene issues to more complex security challenges. These rarely arrive neatly scoped or conveniently timed. When they do show up, even manageable ones can stall, escalate, or compete with day-to-day priorities if there isn't a clear way to bring the right people together and address them. The Immediate Risk Reduction (IRR) team exists to close that gap. These risks can take many forms; it could be a market escalation, an internal audit finding, simple hygiene tasks, or a software update that introduces an unexpected risk. Regardless, by providing a clear, repeatable way to respond to urgent risks, we make sure they're addressed before they impact the business. To put it simply: IRR has changed how McDonald's handles unplanned risks, reducing exposure faster, limiting business impact, and making us better at cybersecurity over time. The result is a quicker resolution today, and stronger resilience for whatever comes next. Building a bridge across McDonald's IRR exists for one simple reason: real cybersecurity risks don't fit neatly in a box, aligning only to one team or function. On paper, we're part of Global Cyber Security, but in practice our team bridges across ## When Feature Flags Weren't Enough DevFeed: [When Feature Flags Weren't Enough]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-06-09T13:33:43Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [configuration](), [feature flags](), [Back end](), [version-control](), [pull-requests](), [ci](), [real-time](), [Tooling]() Tags: [backend](), [ci](), [configuration](), [configuration-management](), [devops](), [distributed-systems](), [feature-flags](), [infrastructure](), [pull-requests](), [real-time](), [software](), [software-architecture](), [tooling](), [version-control]() ### AI overview McDonald's engineers describe replacing a third-party feature-flag platform with a remote configuration system for structured, hierarchical restaurant settings. The system treats configuration like code through version control, pull requests, CI validation, peer review, and auditable live delivery to running backend services without redeployment. ### Source excerpt We rebuilt remote configuration because tooling must match the problem and working like code with review, validation, and live delivery without redeploys. By: Mikhail Baranov, Software Engineer III, & Erick Lopez, Software Engineer III Quick Bytes: Feature flags worked for tracking changes, but they fell short when we needed richer configuration across thousands of restaurants We rebuilt remote configuration to work like code -- version-controlled, validated in CI, and delivered live to running services without redeploys Teams now manage configuration by exception, ship changes safely in real time, and operate with far more confidence and control Runtime configuration carries real weight in a restaurant technology environment. Thresholds get tuned. Features roll out region by region. One location needs a special rule; another needs a noisy signal dialed down. These aren't hypotheticals -- they're everyday decisions that shape how our backend fleet behaves across thousands of restaurants. For a long time, we managed these decisions through a third-party feature-flag platform. It gave us auditability and a clear record of who changed what. But over time, an uncomfortable truth emerged: the tool wasn't built for the shape of our problem. We didn't need toggles and targeting rules. We needed rich, structured configuration -- hierarchical defaults, per-restaurant overrides, clear environment promotion, and real-time delivery to distributed backend services. Forcing that model into a flags-first product created friction: awkward workarounds, unnecessary cost, and extra operational steps for changes that should have felt routine. We wanted configuration changes to feel as safe and controlled as code changes, while still reaching running services immediately. So, we set out to build exactly that. Treating configuration like a managed product Our solution treats configuration with the same rigor as production code. Structured configuration lives in version control. Changes move ## Inside the Geofence: Faster Pickups Start Here DevFeed: [Inside the Geofence: Faster Pickups Start Here]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-05-12T13:14:04Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [Testing](), [Mobile](), [real-time](), [Wi-Fi](), [data](), [App]() Tags: [app](), [automation](), [geofencing](), [gps](), [location](), [location-based](), [mobile](), [notifications](), [push-notifications](), [quality-assurance](), [real-time](), [technology](), [testing](), [wi-fi](), [workflows]() ### AI overview The article explains how McDonald's integrates geofencing into mobile field testing to evaluate digital features under real-world conditions such as drive-thru lanes, parking areas, and restaurant environments. It reports that this approach improved accuracy, timing, and reliability for experiences including Ready on Arrival, curbside pickup, loyalty, notifications, and order-preparation workflows. ### Source excerpt Geofencing field testing turns noisy GPS signals into reliable arrivals for drive-thru, curbside, and beyond. By Chandrani Gupta Chowdhury, Sr. Manager, Quality Assurance Engineering Quick Bytes: Lab testing alone can't fully capture the real-world conditions that shape mobile experiences inside McDonald's restaurants As customers drive toward a restaurant, pull into a parking spot, or move through a drive-thru lane, geofencing-enabled field testing shows how digital features respond in real time This approach improved accuracy, timing, and reliability -- strengthening customer experiences like Ready on Arrival (ROA), curbside, and loyalty Mobile experiences don't happen in perfect conditions -- they happen in cars, parking lots, drive-thru lanes, and busy restaurants where signals fluctuate and customer behavior is unpredictable. For McDonald's, ensuring digital features work reliably in these real-world environments is critical to delivering fast, seamless experiences at scale. To meet that challenge, teams began integrating geofencing into field testing, allowing them to observe how mobile features perform as customers approach, arrive, and move through restaurant spaces. Inside the digital boundary of the restaurant Geofencing is a location-based technology that leverages GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular data to create virtual boundaries around physical locations, enabling applications to trigger predefined actions when users enter or exit those zones. The benefits of incorporating geofencing into field testing are significant. From an operational standpoint, it helps ensure restaurants are prepared to receive and fulfill digital orders efficiently, reducing customer wait times and improving order accuracy. From a customer experience perspective, geofencing enables timely, relevant, and seamless interactions, reinforcing trust in the digital journey. Within the McDonald's ecosystem, geofencing can be applied across restaurant footprints -- including parking areas and drive ## What Happened When We Treated AI Like an Engineering Teammate DevFeed: [What Happened When We Treated AI Like an Engineering Teammate]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-04-28T13:23:51Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](), [AI Engineering](), [maintenance](), [Security](), [Cloud](), [test-coverage](), [Documentation](), [Framework]() Tags: [agent](), [ai](), [ai-agent](), [ai-engineering](), [autonomous](), [cloud](), [development](), [documentation](), [maintenance](), [platform-engineering](), [security](), [software-engineering](), [test-coverage](), [the-result](), [velocity]() ### AI overview The Restaurant Topology Management team used an AI-powered, agent-based engineering assistant within its development workflows to handle repetitive maintenance work, including configuration updates, security patches, framework modernization, test coverage, and documentation. The article reports 20% faster sprint velocity, security updates completed twice as fast, and modernization delivered up to 10 times faster. ### Source excerpt How an AI engineering assistant boosted sprint velocity by 20% and modernized services up to 10x faster. by: Sumedha Shenoy, Director, Engineering Tech Lead, and Kamal Jackson, Sr Manager, Engineering Tech Lead Quick Bytes: A growing backlog of essential but repetitive "glue work" was slowing the Restaurant Topology Management (RTM) team's ability to modernize and deliver new features By treating an AI engineering assistant as an autonomous teammate -- not a chatbot -- the team offloaded end-to-end maintenance tasks at scale The result was 20% faster sprint velocity, security updates completed twice as fast, and modernization work delivered up to 10x quicker without sacrificing quality In fast-moving software environments, critical but repetitive "glue work" like configuration updates, security patches, and documentation often compete with time that could be spent delivering new features. For the Restaurant Topology Management (RTM) team -- who build and maintain the cloud-based platform that enables markets to create and deploy consistent restaurant device configurations -- this maintenance workload had grown quietly over time and began to limit the team's ability to innovate. To regain momentum and address mounting operational debt, the team turned to an AI-powered, agent-based engineering assistant embedded into our standard development workflows, capable of handling complex, repetitive tasks. The challenge: The "un-fun" backlog Before piloting the AI assistant, the RTM team was managing maintenance tasks that had persisted across multiple sprints: Security updates: Enhancing automated scanning workflows to maintain a strong security posture Framework modernization: Updating services to align with the team's current application framework Test coverage improvements: Strengthening unit test consistency across services Documentation updates: Refreshing internal service documentation to support smoother onboarding and troubleshooting This maintenance work was important b ## A Collaborative Tech Innovation Day: Where Big Ideas Begin DevFeed: [A Collaborative Tech Innovation Day: Where Big Ideas Begin]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-04-14T17:16:21Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](), [Automation](), [Cloud](), [systems]() Tags: [ai](), [automation](), [cloud](), [collaboration](), [innovation](), [systems](), [technology](), [transformation]() ### AI overview McDonald's Enterprise Products and Platforms team hosted a Tech Innovation Day that brought business and technology teams together to identify more than 35 actionable ideas. Sessions examined how AI, automation, and cloud solutions could address real enterprise challenges. ### Source excerpt Behind-the-scenes of a day built for bold thinking, big questions, and breakthrough ideas -- and what it revealed about innovating at scale through partnership. by: Henry Lyles, Director, Operations Excellence & Kris Heller, Manager, Operations Excellence Quick Bytes: McDonald's Enterprise Products and Platforms (EPP) hosted a Tech Innovation Day that brought together Business and Tech teams to surface 35+ actionable ideas Teams found opportunities for AI and automation to make a big impact across enterprise systems When given the space, intentional collaboration models can shape the future of innovation When McDonald's signed a strategic partnership to accelerate the transformation of our global enterprise systems through AI and cloud solutions, the goal wasn't just to deploy new technology. It was to rethink how we solve problems together. For the McDonald's Domain Automation team, that partnership represented a meaningful inflection point in a journey more than seven years in the making: using automation to simplify complexity, improve processes, and rethink how work gets done across the enterprise. That partnership came to life this year when the Enterprise Products and Platforms (EPP) team hosted a Tech Innovation Day, a collaborative event designed to spark creativity, empower our employees, challenge assumptions, and explore how new technology can add value to the systems we rely on every day. Thinking beyond the status quo The day was built around a simple but powerful set of questions: What if? Imagine the possibilities. How might we do this differently together? Across focused sessions within key EPP Domains -- Supply Chain, Finance, People, and Corporate Systems -- participants explored how AI, automation, and intelligent solutions could be applied to real challenges they face today. These sessions were structured like a job fair or convention floor, with booths dedicated to major business categories such as People, Finance, Corporate, Supply Chain, Operatio ## Why Waiting Feels Slow -- and How We're Using Real-Time Signals to Change That DevFeed: [Why Waiting Feels Slow -- and How We're Using Real-Time Signals to Change That]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-03-31T14:17:27Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [iOS](), [User Experience](), [user experience design]() Tags: [customer-experience](), [digital-experiences](), [ios](), [ios-development](), [mobile-development](), [real-time](), [technology](), [user-experience](), [user-experience-design]() ### AI overview McDonald's product, design, and engineering teams describe using iOS Live Activities to provide real-time order updates on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. The backend-driven platform aims to reduce uncertainty during waits and support reusable trackable experiences across the digital ecosystem. ### Source excerpt A look into how our team turned uncertain wait moments into confident, glanceable experiences for guests in iOS using Live Activities. by: Maitree Shukla, Product Manager, Menu Browse, Alex Timmler, Director, Product Management, Nick Wilczynski, Sr Manager, Engineering Tech Lead, and Connor Sheehan, Software Engineer Quick Bytes: Digital transparency directly shapes perceived speed -- and uncertainty can make even fast experiences feel slow Live Activities provide customers with real-time order updates directly on the iOS Lock Screen and Dynamic Island Built as a reusable, backend-driven platform, this work unlocks future innovation across McDonald's digital ecosystem In a digital experience, speed isn't just about how fast an order is prepared -- it's about how fast it feels. When customers lack visibility into what's happening with their order, uncertainty creeps in, and even short waits can feel longer than they are. Our Product and User Experience Design teams set out to reduce that uncertainty by delivering real-time, glanceable updates through iOS Live Activities. The concept of Live Activities stemmed from one guiding question the team asked ourselves: How might we make the ordering experience feel as frictionless as possible? From there, that question naturally led to others. How do we make waiting feel faster? How can we be more transparent with customers? And how can we reduce moments of uncertainty along the way? To address those questions, we turned to Live Activities -- a capability built into iOS -- that enables real-time order updates on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, using premium screen real estate to provide reassurance without opening the app. It's a simple but powerful way to reinforce McDonald's reputation for leadership in convenience and speed, across both physical and digital experiences. To deliver this experience, we needed strong foundations: updates must be timely, flows can't disrupt restaurant operations, edge cases must be handled gra ## McDonald's Pilots Real-Time Automation for Ice Cream Product Availability DevFeed: [McDonald's Pilots Real-Time Automation for Ice Cream Product Availability]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Global Technology Published: 2026-03-12T16:13:47Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [McDonald's Technical Blog - Medium]() Topics: [Automation](), [Availability](), [Internet of things](), [ordering](), [data]() Tags: [automation](), [availability](), [customer-experience](), [digital-transformation](), [efficiency](), [engineering](), [internet-of-things](), [iot](), [mobile](), [ordering](), [outages](), [technology]() ### AI overview McDonald's piloted a real-time automation pipeline that connects ice cream machines to Sesame POS. At a Global Tech pilot restaurant, the system automatically removes products during machine downtime and re-enables them when the machine becomes operational, updating kiosks, mobile apps, and POS systems. The solution has not yet been rolled out broadly. ### Source excerpt A process that once required a multi-click manual process is now fully automated in real time, with a Global Tech pilot restaurant testing the solution to boost efficiency and enhance the customer experience. by: Chloe Tominac, Manager, Engineering Tech Lead & Lauren Adamonis, Manager, Engineering Tech Lead Quick Bytes: Crew members had to manually mark ice cream items unavailable through a multi-click process, and later use the same process to restore items, which often led to missed updates and customer frustration A real-time automation pipeline was piloted to connect the ice cream machine to Sesame POS, instantly updating product availability The solution launched in McDonald's Global Tech pilot restaurant, improving restaurant efficiency and ensuring customers see accurate menus across all ordering channels In restaurant operations, every second counts -- especially when equipment goes offline. That's why McDonald's tech teams set out to automate the ice cream product outage process, transforming a manual workflow into a seamless, real-time system as part of our ongoing digital transformation. To explore how this could work in a live environment, we put the solution to the test in one of our Global Tech pilot restaurants. This pilot is helping us learn how real-time equipment data can improve restaurant efficiency and customer experience. While it's not yet rolled out broadly, the insights from this test are shaping how we think about scaling automation across restaurant operations. Previously, a multi-click process was required to take ice cream items off the menu during machine downtime. Without automatic recovery, items often remained unavailable even after the machine was back online until a crew member restored them, resulting in customers hearing that the ice cream machine was "broken." Automation now ensures menu items are immediately re-enabled as soon as the machine is operational. Now, thanks to a collaboration between the Internet of Things (IoT) team