Equipment & Systems Sustaining Engineer

How We Work At Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A, Inc. ('Chick-fil-A' or 'the Company') Staff members play a vital role in achieving our strategic goals by developing their skills, fostering inclusive teamwork, and embracing innovation. All Staff are expected to contribute to a compelling future by inspiring and motivating those around them. Growth and development are essential at Chick-fil-A. We want Staff to seek new perspectives and adopt new methods to drive continuous improvement and adaptation to evolving business needs. Lastly, we ask Staff to seek wisdom, expect the best, accept responsibility, respond with courage, and think others first.

Our Flexible Futures Model offers a healthy mix of working in person (currently a minimum of 8-10 days per month) and virtually,  strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community.

Overview

The Engineering Group within Chick-fil-A, Inc. focuses on innovating revolutionary restaurant system solutions to care for Operators, Team Members, and Customers in 3000+ restaurants. The average Chick-fil-A restaurant outsells the average McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, and Subway combined while simultaneously holding to the highest quality and care standards in the industry. This unique dichotomy is what makes the Chick-fil-A customer experience so special, but it also necessitates the innovation of new cutting-edge equipment, processes, and systems to solve challenges related to restaurant capacity and team member complexity while continuing to meet our rigorous quality standards.

In this role, you aren't just supporting the reliability and continuity of advanced equipment across thousands of restaurants; you are a critical link between our physical kitchen hardware and our next-generation Production Control Systems. The Equipment & Systems Sustaining Engineer is tasked with balancing urgent and critical field support with executing less urgent Engineering Change Requests and software update validations. This role requires an understanding of disciplined engineering principles including Root Cause Analysis, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Life Cycle Testing, and electro-mechanical troubleshooting. This entry-level role is expected to grow into an influencer within Chick-fil-A, utilizing engineering knowledge to identify predictive maintenance opportunities, improve equipment lifecycles, and effectively communicate these applications in the context of menu and operational strategies.

• Support urgent and critical field support initiatives related to food safety, people safety, and component supply continuity.
• Validate and help deploy Over-the-Air (OTA) software updates, firmware patches, and menu cook settings to ensure seamless equipment compatibility with the Production Control System.
• Partner with equipment suppliers to evaluate and validate Engineering Change Requests (ECRs) driven by regulatory changes, component obsolescence, reliability improvements, and cost-down efforts.
• Leverage equipment data, error codes, and field feedback as predictive indicators to identify reliability improvements, prevent component failures, and drive significant cost savings.
• Conduct laboratory testing, field testing, and accelerated life cycle testing to evaluate equipment designs against functional, quality, and reliability specifications.
• Utilize engineering tools such as DFMEA, PFMEA, and Root Cause Analysis to identify risks, solve complex electro-mechanical problems, and develop mitigation strategies.
• Collaborate with cross-functional internal teams and external OEMs to execute a backlog of projects.

• Knows and applies fundamental concepts, practices, and procedures of engineering. Performs varied work under moderate supervision.
• Solves a range of straightforward to moderately complex problems and analyzes possible solutions using standard procedures and data-driven insights.
• Possesses analytical, technical, and problem-solving skills and abilities.
• Cross-functional and supplier communication skills required.
• Some evaluation, originality, or ingenuity is required.

• Experience with electro-mechanical troubleshooting, IoT/connected devices, or systems validation is strongly preferred.
• Experience with hardware/software integration, reliability, or manufacturing is a plus