Director - Growth Strategy & Insights, The McDonald's Division

Lead the development and support the execution of growth strategies for The McDonald's Division (TMD) International Team, acting as a trusted strategic advisor to Business Development Directors (BDDs) working with other support functions and key McDonald's stakeholders. This role leads the synthesis and application of consumer, customer, and market insights to inform where to play, how to win, and how to effectively sell priority growth opportunities across global and regional markets. The role will primarily support key regional markets while contributing to global strategic initiatives, partnering closely with Marketing, Analytics, Finance, and OU teams to translate insights and performance inputs into clear strategic recommendations and sales-ready narratives that drive measurable commercial impact. This role is central to scaling Strategic Business Planning, Collaborative Business Planning, and strategy-led sales enablement across International markets, ensuring alignment from strategy through execution.

Function Related Activities / Key Responsibilities

Growth Strategy & Business Partnership

• Act as a trusted advisor to BDDs and cross-functional leadership, supporting growth strategy development, prioritization, and risk assessment.
• Inform and influence Market, OU and customer business plans by translating insights into clear strategic choices and trade-offs aligned with TMD growth objectives.
• Play a leading role in Long Range Planning (LRP), Annual Business Planning (ABP), and key strategic milestones with insight-backed strategy recommendations.
• Partner with Finance and Analytics teams to ensure strategies are grounded in performance realities while remaining focus on strategic implications rather than analytics production.
• Lead Beverage Strategy with priority markets, collaborating with McDonald's and support functions on multi-year strategies grounded in market, channel, and customer insights.

• Identify and frame consumer- and customer-led growth opportunities across beverages, channels, occasions, and packages, clarifying size of prize, strategic role, and commercial relevance.
• Translate growth strategies into clear, compelling, sales-ready narratives that articulate the 'why', 'why now', and customer value.
• Partner with Sales and Customer Leadership to ensure strategic initiatives are supported by fact-based selling stories and aligned success measures.
• Support senior-level customer engagements and joint business planning by providing strategic context and opportunity framing.

• Lead the identification, synthesis, and application of consumer, customer, category, and cultural insights relevant to McDonald's and the beverage portfolio.
• Lead custom research for McDonald's on priority strategic questions in top markets, ensuring outputs translate directly into strategic and commercial implications.
• Work closely with OU and Global Human Insights teams to leverage system insights for McDonald's-specific strategy needs.
• Translate qualitative and quantitative inputs into actionable insights that inform strategy, execution priorities, and selling implications.
• Serve as the voice of the consumer and guest in strategic discussions, ensuring alignment with evolving needs and behaviors.

• Enable alignment across TMD, OUs, Global Human Insights, Marketing, Sales, Analytics, and Finance through shared frameworks, narratives, and best practices.
• Support global and regional innovation agendas by identifying consumer-led opportunity spaces and clarifying their role within the broader portfolio and growth strategy.
• Partner with stakeholders to define success metrics and KPIs for strategic initiatives and track adoption and impact to inform continuous improvement.

• Insights Synthesis & Strategic Framing - Integrate diverse inputs into clear strategic and commercial narratives.
• Growth Strategy Development - Support where-to-play / how-to-win choices, portfolio strategy, and opportunity prioritization.
• Strategy-Led Sales Enablement - Translate growth strategies into sales-ready stories
• Business & Financial Acumen - Connect performance drivers to strategic and customer-relevant outcomes.
• Stakeholder Influence & Advisory Skills - Partner effectively with BDDs and senior stakeholders to shape decisions.
• Executive Storytelling & Communication - Deliver concise, compelling strategic narratives that drive alignment, commitment, and action.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration - Work seamlessly across Insights, Marketing, Analytics, Finance, and OU teams without duplicating capabilities.

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent work experience required.
• MB/MBA or advanced business degree preferred but not required.
• English written and verbal fluency required.
• Fluency in another language is a plus but not required.
• Minimum 7+ years of experience in growth strategy, commercial strategy, strategic insights, marketing strategy, or related roles.
• Experience working with complex customers and/or foodservice preferred but not required.
• Fluency in data manipulation to extract strategic direction and narrative, forecasting, and project future consumer and customer behavior
• Strong business orientation with the ability to connect consumer understanding to commercial outcomes.
• Experience operating in matrixed, international environments with multiple stakeholders.
• Proven ability to influence without authority and operate as a strategic advisor.