Sr Manager, Business Strategy

McDonald's Corporation • Chicago, IL

1d

About The Position

McDonald’s is proud to be one of the most recognized brands in the world, with restaurants in over 100 countries that serve 70 million customers daily. We continue to operate from a position of strength. Our updated growth strategy is focused on staying ahead of what our customers want and realizing further growth potential. Our relentless ambition is why McDonald’s remains one of the world’s leading corporations after almost 70 years. Joining McDonald's means thinking big and preparing for a career that can have influence around the world.
At McDonald’s, we see every day as a chance to create positive impact. We lead through our values centered on inclusivity, service, integrity, community and family. From support of Ronald McDonald House to our Youth Opportunity project and sustainability initiatives, our values keep us dedicated to using our scale for good: good for our customers, people, industry and planet. We also offer a broad range of outstanding benefits including a sabbatical program, tuition assistance and flexible work arrangements. Department OverviewAs part of the U.S. Marketing & Menu Strategy team, this role is responsible for shaping the future of McDonald’s menu by translating consumer, competitive, and marketplace insights into both short‑term actions and long‑term strategy. While facilitating the development of 1-year and 3-year category plans and goals, you will also manage the day‑to‑day needs of the category. This includes active performance monitoring and delivering clear implications cross-functionally.

Overall, this role bridges analytics and strategy, moving beyond reporting to uncover “who’s winning and why,” pinpoint whitespace opportunities, and guide forward‑looking decision‑making. This includes identifying category adjacencies, new use occasions, product line extensions, future innovation pathways, baseline building innovation, menu rationalization opportunities, and ensuring portfolio alignment with brand strategy. This requires synthesizing trends, insights, and data from multiple sources and as well as initiating and managing research where necessary.

To effectively execute in this role you will establish and nurture strong cross‑functional partnerships across Supply Chain, Finance, Corporate Strategy, Marketing, and Project Management. These relationships are essential to ensure alignment, buy‑in, and seamless execution to fuel McDonald’s future growth.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree and +8 years relevant work experience in insights, strategy, brand or category management or +5 years of corporate strategy management consultant work experience​
• Experience coaching direct report(s) and build strong team relationships and accountability
• Ability to drive cross-functional alignment and senior buy-in without authority
• Comfortable engaging senior leaders and franchisees
• Expert at developing polished materials for various levels of the organization (i.e., working team to SLT)
• Experience aggregating multiple sources of information, quickly distilling takeaways, and adapting plans to new information
• History of turning complexity into clear narratives in both verbal and written form
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, own complex projects, drive decisions, and delegate
• Demonstrates curiosity balanced with rigor to identify, incubate, and validate growth bets to inform roadmaps
• Expert in PowerPoint, Word, Outlook
• Willingness to live McDonald’s Values: Serve, Inclusion, Integrity, Community, Family.

Nice To Haves

• Category management, brand management, or new product development experience preferred

Responsibilities

• Support 3-year strategic category planning (i.e., Phase 1) including outlining the competitive, customer, and macro landscape to set business priorities, identify problems to solve, and set success metrics
• Facilitate annual strategic category planning (i.e., Phase 2) including how the plan comes to life, identifying jobs to be done, and tracking progress towards targets
• Translate the annual category plan into the business brief to steward execution and prioritization cross-functionally
• Development of an annual learning plan, in partnership with the Strategy, Insights, & Prioritization team (i.e., SIP), against category priorities, critical business priorities, and identified “dig sites” by initiating and managing research to deliver actionable consumer insights
• Partner with Marketing Integration on the development of annual marketing plans and category integration into tactics / marketing windows, advising on priorities to drive business and brand growth
• Assist with the orchestration and sell-in of strategies, tactics and business cases to leadership, owner/operator partners and field marketing
• Work in partnership with the global category team to nurture early-stage projects and drive alignment across Global and U.S. priorities
• Able to set and execute a portfolio-wide innovation strategy that drives distinct brand roles and scalable innovation
• Partner with Menu Innovation (i.e., Commercialization) to align product pipelines against strategic plans and identify synergies with the Dessert category
• Partner with the Strategy, Insights, & Prioritization team (i.e., SIP) to actively monitor category performance against annual plan KPIs, competitor performance, and industry trends
• Translate market dynamics, competitive shifts, category behaviors, consumer trends, and internal performance data into actionable strategies that shape assortment, brand decisions, innovation priorities, and in-market execution
• Lead any necessary mitigation plans (e.g., stem losses, food safety, supply constraint)
• Develop strong, transparent narratives to drive clear understanding across the organization and up to senior leadership teams
• Direct owner operator (i.e., franchisee) orchestration, leadership, and partnership to build advocacy across The System (i.e., employees, franchisees, suppliers)

Benefits

• health and welfare benefits
• comprehensive health insurance, which includes medical, prescription drug, mental health, dental and vision coverage, as well as, life insurance
• 401(k) plan
• adoption assistance program
• educational assistance program
• flexible ways of working
• time off policies (including sick leave, parental leave, and vacation/PTO)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior