Lead Technology Operations Analyst - SONIC

Lead Technology Operations Analyst

The Lead Technology Operations Analyst oversees cross-functional teams to understand complex solutions and integrations, as well as drive releases to improve solutions. This role focuses on delivering high-quality operational outcomes within a defined technology domain by designing, executing, and continuously improving processes, automations, and technical workflows. As a specialized subject matter expert, this position supports Inspire Brands' technology ecosystem by identifying gaps, recommending enhancements, and optimizing capabilities within the assigned area of focus.

The role requires strong communication skills, effective vendor coordination, and the ability to troubleshoot and resolve issues across hardware, software, and integrated solutions. It also contributes to ongoing process refinement, readiness for QA/UAT, and ITIL/SDLC execution, ensuring reliable service delivery and real-time transparency for customers and stakeholders. Additionally, this role mentors peers, partners with engineering and help desk teams, and supports the future evolution of tools and technologies to improve efficiency, quality, and business outcomes across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Effectively design, continuously improve, coordinate and complete all tasks necessary for successful execution, ensuring all assigned work is delivered on time using runbooks, automations, artificial intelligence, and established processes.
• Specialize in your area of focus, including but not limited to identification and solution recommendations for potential gaps, process improvement areas, innovative opportunities and continuous learning in your area of subject matter expertise.
• Have an ownership mindset where you are actively supporting, influencing, driving, and/or designing the future of your area of focus.
• Effectively communicate with stakeholders as a subject matter expert, to prevent errors, ensure success, and manage expectations. Clearly and accurately communicate with customers, stakeholders, engineering teams and leaders regarding supported technology, capability optimization and future capabilities as defined by role; including partnership to drive business needs forward.
• Have a strong understanding of how these technologies interact with components across the organization and take actions to ensure success across the organization.
• Manage vendor performance and build vendor partnerships that result in positive outcomes for Inspire Brands throughout the business relationship.
• Influence, and/or own, as appropriate the vendor's roadmap, participation in commercial negotiations, coordinate commercial engagements and ensure vendors meet contractual, operational, and service-level commitments.
• Influence & refine future development/improvements, identify gaps and recommend areas for process improvements and/or new tools for success.
• Mentor routinely both junior team members and peers, to ensure they are successfully prepared for growth opportunities and have success throughout the employee lifecycle.
• Maintain high quality in accordance with company standards and best practices and proactively identify and suggest areas for improvement.
• Manage & execute Requests, Projects, Incidents/Cases, and Problems through designated ITIL/SDLC processes to ensure customers' real-time visibility of service status.
• Perform basic and advanced triage on reported defects to validate issues, identify configuration errors, and gather necessary and/or analyze necessary logs for a resolution. Includes partnership with help desk teams for ongoing support.
• Develop and execute processes that ensure that hardware, software and appropriate integrations are ready prior to being turned over for QA/UAT efforts.

L2/L3 Support

• Be able to create, write, debug and update scripts in a variety of languages, including, but not limited to PowerShell, Python and other brand-based languages.
• Demonstrate strong, hands-on, understanding of restaurant technology including, networking, POS, BOS, System Integrations, Drive Thru, Audio/Visual, Payments etc.
• Recommend, design and manage software and integration support after deployment to production.
• Actively source methodologies, platforms and scripts to "shift left", moving support closer to the end user than specialized technicians.
• Have a strong understanding of how these technologies interact with components across the organization and take actions to ensure success across the organization; proactively alert possible issues prior to full scale deployment of software and/or hardware.

Education and Experience Qualifications

Strongly Desired: Bachelor's Degree

• Seven to ten years of progressive, relevant IT experience such as system configuration and implementation experience
• Expert knowledge of relevant applications and technical platforms.
• Expert experience with Microsoft Operating Systems and associated software such as Microsoft Office
• Proficient knowledge of at least one other operating system such as iOS, Android, Linux etc.
• Expert knowledge with ITSM frameworks such as ITIL
• Proven track record of supporting multi-modal and geographical disparate locations
• Expert experience in building business and technical requirements

Required Knowledge, Skills, or Abilities

• Excellent customer service skills. Must be empathetic and continually solving problems through the eyes of the user
• Proven track record of providing effective team leadership
• Excellent verbal and written communication, with an emphasis on being able to present technical topics in an easy-to-understand way for non-technical customers
• Extremely well organized (including good project and time management skills) and high attention to detail
• Collaborate strongly with business partners, generally a combination of individual contributors, managers, directors, vice presidents and executives, through a service mindset
• Strong partnering skills and a service leadership mindset are required
• Proven track record of team member development outside of formal channels

This position is based in our Atlanta Support Center, with an expected on-site presence of 80%.

Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 33,000 Arby's, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin', Jimmy John's, and SONIC restaurants worldwide. We're made up of some of the world's most iconic restaurant brands, but we're much more than just a restaurant company. We're a team of hundreds of thousands who individually and collectively are changing the way people eat, drink, and gather around the table. We know that food is much more than a stapleit's an experience. At Inspire, that's our purpose: to ignite and nourish flavorful experiences.