Micah Madru

Manager, Software Engineering

Summary

Software Engineering Manager with 8+ years of experience designing and building scalable menu platform systems with real-world impact across 8,000+ restaurant locations. Expert in API integrations, legacy system migrations, and cross-functional technical leadership, delivering multi-million dollar business outcomes through strategic platform modernization initiatives.

Experience

Manager, Software Engineering

Taco Bell Corp. | Feb 2025 - Present

Oversee Menu Management platform development across Taco Bell's digital ecosystem, enabling Byte Platform integrations and coordinating cross-functional delivery of capabilities.

Built MPM Phase 1 technical foundation, designing **pilot implementation architecture, validation frameworks and risk mitigation systems** for EDM/Hybris-to-Byte Portal transition.
Provided technical **expertise on menu and order specifications** to cross-functional engineering teams, ensuring **consistent implementation** and **integration standards** across POS, Voice AI, digital channels, and middleware systems.
Ensured new functionality continuity during platform transitions, providing **technical guidance for Project Fresco** and managing **new experience requirements** while coordinating **multiple overlapping dependency projects** in parallel.

Assoc. Manager, Software Engineering

Taco Bell Corp. | Sep 2022 - Feb 2025 (2 years 5 months)

Provided technical leadership for strategic platform modernization initiatives and enterprise architecture decisions across Taco Bell's digital ecosystem.

Managed a team of 14 engineers (6 FTE, 8 contractors) specializing in **API integrations, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure**, conducting weekly 1:1s and bi-annual performance reviews to drive individual growth and team alignment.
Architected Byte Portal migration strategy from legacy Hybris/EDM systems, defining technical roadmap with **GraphQL API integrations** for event-driven Pricing App and Product/Menu Master phases across **domestic US market**.
Delivered critical data integrations for **Annspire POS system rollout**, enabling menu generation and pricing updates across 8,000+ locations while supporting **legacy Xenial migration**.
Facilitated and coached cross-team migration from **legacy platform to event-driven cloud systems** for restaurant master data, implementing solutions while **developing team expertise in AWS stack** (Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, EventBridge, Serverless Framework).
Supported the successful **national rollout of Touch Kitchen Display System (TKDS)** by delivering and validating **product data and Order Ready Engine (ORE) integrations**, enabling enhanced kitchen workflows and accurate order routing across **8,000+ Taco Bell locations**.

Sr. Software Engineer I

Taco Bell Corp. | May 2021 - Sep 2022 (1 year 3 months)

Expanded organizational influence through mentoring, cross-team collaboration, and strategic partnerships.

Served as **technical liaison between operations and engineering teams**, translating franchise feedback into actionable enhancements for menu systems that aligned with the marketing experience calendar.
Mentored team member who delivered the **Next Generation POS Menu System** using **.NET/C# AWS Lambda** modernizing architecture across **7,500+ restaurants**.
Led consultant coordination and integration design for a **store hours modernization project** featuring **temporary scheduling capabilities**, identifying system gaps during **legacy-to-event-based architecture** migration.
Organized cross-team design sessions and knowledge-sharing, fostering collaboration and encouraging junior engineer participation to strengthen technical communication across the organization.
Established platform monitoring and alerting with **Lumigo** while **influencing PS/SRE support team expertise** through strategic partnership with team leads to improve operational support and incident response.

Software Engineer III

Taco Bell Corp. | Nov 2019 - May 2021 (1 year 6 months)

Took on a technical lead role, architecting key solutions and overseeing a contractor team's implementation and quality.

Acted as the **technical lead** for a team of up to 5 contractors, partnering with product owners to **translate ambiguous business goals** into **actionable architecture designs** and **detailed implementation plans**.
Directed the development workflow and **led code reviews** for the contractor team to enforce **engineering best practices** and **code quality**.
Spearheaded the technical integration of **new nationwide delivery platforms (DoorDash, Postmates, and Uber Eats)**, directly enabling a major corporate strategy that conrtibued to **a record-breaking 45% year-over-year increase in digital sales** in 2020.
Shipped a full-stack inventory availability application using **React, Python, SQL, and AWS services** that reduced help desk call volume and delivered **over $2 million in cost savings and revenue increase**.
Contributed to **Diablo serverless ETL framework** using **AWS (S3, Lambda, DynamoDB, SNS/SQS, and Step Functions)** to build highly scalable pipelines that **replaced costly Talend infrastructure**.

Systems Engineer II

Taco Bell Corp. | Aug 2018 - Nov 2019 (1 year 2 months)

Developed and supported high-availability data systems to power the enterprise cloud migration and new digital commerce platforms.

Developed, maintained, and supported the data pipelines for the new **Menu Middleware (MMW) system** (the **single source of truth**) that powered the **Grubhub** and **Kiosk** platforms, contributing to **9% system-wide sales growth** and **over $250 million** in first-year digital sales.
Optimized the reliability and performance of the MMW data pipeline by resolving **Talend** job defects and tuning **AWS Lambda** (C#) code and configurations.
Engineered and supported the backend systems and APIs for the **Grubhub** integration project, ensuring reliable **menu distribution** and **order processing**.
Supported the expansion of **Kiosk 2.0** to include **alcohol ordering for the first time**, coordinating with **product stakeholders** while resolving critical integration issues.

Systems Engineer I

Taco Bell Corp. | Oct 2017 - Aug 2018 (10 months)

Advanced FOH system performance and efficiency by championing L3 stability initiatives and developing key software solutions.

Designed and developed a **Selenium** automation tool using **Python**, **Pytest**, and the **Page Object Model (POM)** to automate payment device transfers, **reducing processing time by over 90%**.
Authored comprehensive training materials and technical documentation for kiosk system rollout, **conducting training sessions** and enabling standardized deployment to over 7,000+ stores nationwide.
Drove significant stability improvements across mission-critical FOH systems (**POS**, **Kiosk**, **Payment Systems**) by leading L3 initiatives in **root cause analysis**, **PVT**, and proactive **dashboard monitoring**.
Executed regular maintenance and updates to maintain system health and security across the FOH technology stack.

IT Intern

Taco Bell Corp. | Mar 2017 - Oct 2017 (6 months)

Drove key technology initiatives to improve system performance and reduce operational costs.

Independently architected and developed a **data pipeline** using **Python**, **AWS S3**, and **Athena** to collect and analyze storage drive health data from the Back of House (BOH) PCs of **over 6,500 restaurants** nationwide.
Reduced unnecessary drive replacements by **over 30%** and identified 40+ faulty drives that vendors were reintroducing into the field, prompting a process overhaul and improving diagnostic accuracy for service desk analysts.
Refactored the full-stack codebase (**Python**, **SQL**, **JavaScript**, **HTML/CSS**) for the Food Cost Analysis app (a menu pricing and profitability tool) on **AWS EC2**, resolving critical production issues to improve its stability for Operations
Delivered key code updates (bug fixes, security patches, and features) and built **software releases** to improve Back of House (BOH) system stability.

Contact

Education

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Micah Madru

Manager, Software Engineering

Summary

Experience