Senior Manager, Platform Engineering
Columbus, Ohio 500 Neil Ave, 43215CULTIVATE A BETTER WORLD
Food served fast does not have to be a typical fast-food experience. Chipotle has always done things differently, both in and out of our restaurants. We are changing the face of fast food, starting conversations, and directly supporting efforts to shift the future of farming and food. We hope you will join us as we continue to learn, evolve, and shape what comes next on our mission to make better food accessible to everyone.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The Senior Manager, Platform Engineering leads the function responsible for Chipotle’s core infrastructure platforms and reports to the Director of IT Infrastructure. In this role, you are responsible for building and driving the strategic roadmap, cross-team dependencies, and alignment with enterprise strategy. You oversee the design, implementation, and operation of a secure and scalable technology platform that supports our restaurants and enterprise systems. You are accountable for platform reliability, scalability, and optimization across your scope. You will translate strategic objectives (such as resiliency, reliability, automation and cost optimization) into team projects and priorities, ensuring our platform services (Azure cloud, on-prem servers, containers, etc.) are robust and future-ready. This senior manager balances daily operational excellence with forward-looking improvements, guiding the Platform Engineering function to deliver on Chipotle’s modernization and growth initiatives through innovation and best practices.
LOCATION
This position will be based in our Columbus, OH office 4 days per week (with work from home on Friday). Remote work is not available for this role.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
Manage the Platform Engineering function, setting clear goals and work plans for initiatives like cloud infrastructure builds, environment automation, and performance tuning. Directly manage the team of engineers and prioritize the team’s efforts to align with Chipotle’s infrastructure roadmap and ensure on-time, quality delivery of projects. This position is both strategic and tactical.
Make strategic decisions on platform architecture, technology direction, multi-year roadmap, and tactical decisions on teamwork prioritization, sprint planning, and technical trade-offs. Co-represent Infrastructure as part of enterprise architecture review board and other decision forums. Influence strategy and cross-departmental initiatives.
Solves enterprise-scale, multi-domain problems involving platform strategy, cross-IT dependencies, business impact trade-offs, and long-term technology evolution. Ensure the reliability and scalability of Chipotle’s core platforms: oversee proactive maintenance (patch management, backups, capacity planning), implementation of high-availability and disaster recovery strategies, and rapid restoration of service when incidents occur. Set and track KPIs for platform uptime, system performance, and cloud costs, taking corrective action as needed to meet targets.
Accountable for overall Platform Engineering function outcomes: platform reliability and uptime, defining SLA's, cloud cost management and optimization, platform security posture and compliance, delivery of strategic roadmap initiatives, team capability and talent development, and alignment with Infrastructure and business objectives.
Identifies, assesses, and mitigates platform-related risks; Maintains risk register and escalates appropriately. Establishes and enforces platform governance frameworks in alignment with Chipotle's overall governance strategies and policies.
Provides technical leadership for Platform Engineering: sets direction, conducts design reviews for critical initiatives, and serves as escalation point for complex technical issues. Works closely with Lead Engineers to translate technical vision into execution. Maintains deep technical credibility while balancing leadership responsibilities.
Champions function-level innovation and transformation: platform modernization roadmap and emerging technology adoption. Also drives team-level continuous improvement by working directly with Lead Engineers on automation, technical debt reduction and process optimization. Balances innovation with risk and business value.
Manages vendor relationships and contract negotiations for platform technologies.
Provides regular executive reporting on platform health, project status, and strategic initiative progress.
WHAT YOU’LL BRING TO THE TABLE
Bachelor’s Degree (BA/BS) in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline preferred.
Master’s Degree in a relevant field (e.g. Information Technology Management) or advanced certifications in cloud/infrastructure (AWS/Azure, etc.) preferred.
10+ years of technical experience and 4+ years of management experience.
Extensive technical expertise in infrastructure and cloud services, complemented by leadership experience in driving large-scale platform initiatives (e.g. cloud migrations, data center consolidations, or major architectural redesigns). You can dive deep enough to guide and challenge your engineers, while keeping a strategic view of platform evolution.
Strategic planning and execution skills – you’ve translated business and IT strategy into a clear infrastructure roadmap and delivered results (higher reliability, improved performance, cost savings, etc.) through well-managed projects and agile iteration.
Strong people management and team-building ability: adept at recruiting top talent, cultivating a culture of innovation and accountability, and mentoring engineers across all levels. You actively promote continuous learning (e.g. via the Infrastructure Academy and certifications) to keep the team’s skills current.
Excellent stakeholder management and communication – capable of articulating complex technical concepts (like cloud architecture, DevOps improvements, or disaster recovery plans) in business terms for senior leadership and ensuring alignment and buy-in for key decisions. You also maintain close collaboration with peer managers in Security, Apps, and Data to ensure platform initiatives support broader company goals.
Proven ability to manage vendor relationships and negotiate contracts for platform technologies.
Experience in risk management, governance frameworks, and compliance for enterprise platforms.
Strong executive presence with the ability to deliver executive level reporting and presentations.
Results-driven mindset with emphasis on operational excellence and innovation: you use data and KPIs (uptime, MTTR, cost, etc.) to guide decisions, enforce rigorous operational standards, and encourage adoption of new technologies (automation, AI, etc.) to continuously modernize Chipotle’s infrastructure.
PAY TRANSPARENCY
A reasonable estimate of the current base pay range for this position is $130,000.00–$193,000.00. You are also eligible for annual cash bonuses and equity awards based upon performance and other factors. Actual compensation offered may vary depending on skill level, experience, and/or education. Chipotle offers a competitive total rewards package, which includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401k, sick leave, vacation time, and much more. Visit https://jobs.chipotle.com/benefits for more details.WHO WE ARE
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Chipotle has restaurants in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany and is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants in North America and Europe. With employees passionate about providing a great guest experience, Chipotle is a longtime leader and innovator in the food industry. Chipotle is committed to making its food more accessible to everyone while continuing to be a brand with a demonstrated purpose as it leads the way in digital, technology and sustainable business practices. For more information or to place an order online, visit WWW.CHIPOTLE.COM
Chipotle Mexican Grill is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity at all levels. As a people-first company rooted in values, our purpose extends beyond serving nutritious food using real ingredients. It means hiring world-class individuals and fostering a culture that champions diversity, ensures equity, and celebrates inclusion. All qualified applicants, regardless of personal characteristics, are encouraged to apply.
Qualified applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act and/or certain state or local laws. Please contact ADAaccommodations@chipotle.comif you need an accommodation due to a disability to complete an application, job interview, and/or to otherwise participate in the hiring process. This email does not respond to non-accommodations related requests.