Manager, Agriculture, Allergens & Nutrition

McDonald's Restaurants Limited; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

McDonald’s UK & Ireland seeks a senior leader to head Nutrition, Allergens and Agriculture, shaping strategy from farm to menu and restaurant. You will partner with Impact, Menu, Marketing, Operations and Supply Chain to balance nutrition, safety, resilience and value, influencing decisions with evidence-based guidance.

The role requires enterprise leadership, external liaison with regulators and industry bodies, and a track record of cross-functional collaboration to deliver tangible

Qualifications

• Proven senior leadership in nutrition, agriculture, sustainability, or related field.
• Ability to set strategy and lead multidisciplinary teams through ambiguity and change.
• Strong integrator who connects technical, commercial, customer and operational perspectives.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Nutrition, Allergens and Agriculture strategy for UK & Ireland, aligning with brand priorities and long-term growth.
• Act as principal business partner to Impact, Menu, Marketing, Operations and Supply Chain, balancing nutrition, allergen safety, and affordability.
• Provide strategic leadership on emerging nutrition, agriculture, allergen and supply-chain issues and translate into practical plans.
• Drive responsible agriculture and farm-level resilience with suppliers and industry partners, including CO2e reduction.
• Represent the function externally with regulators, government, industry groups and NGOs.
• Ensure accurate nutrition, allergen information aligned with legislation and customer needs.
• Build governance across the McDonald’s System and engage senior leaders early in decisions.
• Lead and develop the Agriculture, Allergens & Nutrition team and collaborate across Global networks.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Cross-functional partnership

Nutrition & sustainability

Regulatory engagement

Stakeholder management

Data-driven decisions

Education

Degree in Nutrition/Agriculture/Sustainability

Job description

Job Description:

About Us

McDonalds has run its business in the UK since 1974 and currently operates over 1500 restaurants across the UK and Ireland, serving almost four million customers each day. McDonalds is one of the UKs largest private sector employers, employing over 170,000 people.

Role Overview

The Manager, Agriculture, Allergens & Nutrition is accountable for the leadership and development of the Agriculture, Allergens and Nutrition function, setting a clear direction, building capability and ensuring successful delivery of McDonald’s UK & Ireland priorities and the >NEXT strategy.

Reporting to the Head of Quality Assurance, Food Safety, Nutrition & Agriculture, the role leads the development and delivery of integrated Nutrition and Agriculture strategies and provides leadership for the allergen agenda. It translates long-term ambitions into practical plans and measurable outcomes, protecting brand trust while helping the business make balanced choices across agricultural resilience, environmental impact, menu ambition, customer experience, food safety, allergens, nutrition, quality, affordability and value.

This is a broad, enterprise-facing leadership role. Working in close partnership with Menu, Marketing, Business Insights, Operations, Supply Chain, Food Safety & Quality, Impact, Communications and Government Relations, the role helps shape choices from farm to menu to restaurant. It provides evidence, guardrails and constructive challenge early enough to influence decisions, recognising that the best business outcome will often require explicit and well-judged trade-offs rather than optimisation of any one measure in isolation.

The role is the business’s senior Nutrition, Allergens and Agriculture thought partner and leads the market response to relevant regulatory and policy developments. It represents McDonald’s externally with government, trade associations, industry groups, NGOs, academics and other stakeholders, building credibility and helping shape discussions on public health, allergen safety, responsible agriculture and resilient sourcing.

Given the breadth of the remit, the successful candidate is not expected to be the deepest technical expert in every discipline. They must be an exceptional integrator and leader who can deploy the expertise of the team and wider specialist network, recognise where additional expertise is required and bring multiple perspectives together into clear, evidence-based recommendations for the business.

What will my accountabilities be?

• Lead the development and delivery of the McDonald’s UK & Ireland Nutrition, Allergens and Agriculture strategy, ensuring it supports business priorities, brand trust and long-term growth.
• Act as the principal business partner to Impact, Menu, Marketing, Business Insights, Operations and Supply Chain, helping balance nutrition, allergen safety, agricultural resilience, environmental outcomes, affordability and great taste and quality within menu and sourcing decisions.
• Provide strategic leadership on emerging nutrition, agriculture, allergen and supply-chain issues, identifying risks, opportunities and future regulatory requirements and translating them into practical business and brand plans.
• Lead McDonald’s UK&I approach to responsible agriculture and farm-level resilience, working with suppliers, farmers and industry partners to strengthen long-term supply security, farm viability, animal health and welfare, and environmental outcomes, including CO2e reduction.
• Serve as the business’s senior Nutrition and Allergens lead, thought partner and spokesperson, providing credible guidance across the organisation and representing McDonald’s with regulators, government, industry and other external stakeholders.
• Ensure customer-facing nutrition, ingredient and allergen information is accurate, compliant, accessible and customer-focused, including the interpretation and implementation of relevant legislation and policy.
• Build effective relationships and governance across the McDonald’s System, ensuring the function is engaged early in decisions and that senior leaders, franchisees, suppliers and partners are aligned behind agreed priorities and outcomes.
• Lead and develop the Agriculture, Allergens & Nutrition team and represent UK&I within Global Nutrition, Agriculture and Sustainability networks, strengthening capability, collaboration and the sharing of best practice.

What Team will I be a part of?

• A manager within the UK&I Supply Chain Leadership Team, partnering with peers across sourcing, logistics, strategy, equipment, quality and food safety.
• Leader of the Agriculture, Allergens & Nutrition function within the wider Food Safety & Quality department, connecting upstream supplier and farm priorities with downstream restaurant and customer needs.
• A close partner to Global Supply Chain, Nutrition, Menu Strategy, Impact and Food Safety & Quality teams, ensuring alignment while representing UK&I requirements and opportunities.

Experience & Capability Required

• Proven senior leadership experience in nutrition, agriculture, sustainability, food science, menu development or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to set strategy and lead multidisciplinary teams through ambiguity, change and competing priorities.
• A strong integrator and enterprise leader who can connect technical, commercial, customer and operational perspectives and turn complexity into clear decisions and action.
• A strong track record of cross-functional business partnership and Executive influence across functions such as Menu, Marketing, Operations and Supply Chain.
• Strong experience of risk management, governance and regulatory engagement, with the judgement to recognise when deeper specialist expertise is required.
• Commercial and customer judgement with the ability to balance resilience, environmental impact, nutrition, allergen safety, taste and quality, restaurant experience, affordability and speed to market.
• Experience using data and evidence to support decisions and continuous improvement while making clear recommendations where perfect information does not exist.
• Credibility with external stakeholders and experience representing an organisation with government, regulators, industry bodies, NGOs, academics or the media.
• Strong people leadership with experience developing capability and delivering results through others.
• Degree or equivalent experience in Nutrition, Agriculture, Sustainability, Food Science or a related discipline. Professional registration or accreditation is desirable but not essential.

Company Vision and Culture

Our Global vision is to build a better McDonalds and in the UK and Ireland we are working hard to be the UK & Irelands best-loved restaurant company.

McDonalds is defined by its culture. Our culture shapes and informs everything we think and everything we do. Our culture influences the way we interact with each other, and how we interact with customers, franchisees and suppliers. Our culture motivates and inspires us to attract and retain great talent, creating positive, energising, exceptional working environment for us all.

Our values drive our culture and shape our beliefs, our priorities and our actions. They influence the decisions we make, how we treat one another and how we show up as a brand to the world.

Serve: We put our customers and our people first

Inclusion: We open our doors to everyone

Integrity: We do the right thing

Community: We are good neighbours

Family: We get better together

At McDonalds we are People from all Walks of Life...

People are at the heart of everything we do, and they make the McDonalds experience. We embrace diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive culture that means people can be their best authentic self in our restaurants and offices, which helps us to better serve our customers. We have a strong heritage of diversity and representation within our communities, which we are proud of. The diversity of our people, customers, Franchisees and suppliers gives us strength.

We do not tolerate inequality, injustice or discrimination of any kind. These are hugely important issues and a brand with our reach and relevance means we have a very meaningful role to play.

We also recognise our responsibility as a large employer to continue being active in our communities, helping to develop skills and drive aspirations that will help people to be more aware of the world of work and more successful within it, whether with McDonalds or elsewhere.