Director, Sourcing Strategy

McDonald's Corporation; Chicago, Northern (IL, KY); Hybrid; USD 178,000 - 223,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Life insurance

Job summary

McDonald’s in the United States is seeking a senior leader to drive the EPR strategy across the supply chain, legal, government relations, sustainability, and operations. This temporary role focuses on aligning policy, strategy, and execution to reduce risk and ensure compliance.

You will lead cross-functional teams, influence industry groups, and prepare McDonald’s for regulatory changes with a proactive, data-driven approach.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in matrixed organizations across sustainability, supply chain, regulatory, or policy roles.
• Strong understanding of packaging systems, packaging materials, environmental regulation, or circularity concepts.
• Experience working across multiple functions and translating strategy into execution.
• Experience representing a company in external industry groups or coalitions (e.g., Circular Action Alliance) is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of the U.S. EPR prevention strategy across upstream policy influence and packaging options.
• Coordinate with Government Relations for policy education and advocacy preparation; liaise with regulators as needed.
• Build and maintain an integrated EPR roadmap across functions, ensuring alignment and execution.
• Act as internal hub for EPR work, coordinating workstreams and decision-making.
• Own end-to-end EPR compliance lifecycle including registration, reporting, audits, and submissions.

Skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Public speaking

Analytical thinking

Problem-solving

Stakeholder management

Job description

Job Description:

Company Description:

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 ofoutstanding benefits including a sabbatical program, tuition assistance and flexible work arrangements.

Department Overview

This newly created role will sit within the U.S. Supply Chain organization and be responsible for leading the strategy and orchestrating the multiple McDonald’s internal functions and external partners to support the company’s response to rapidly evolving Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations. EPR presents significant business risk, including compliance obligations, financial exposure, operational complexity, and reputational implications. Benchmarking shows that multiple global companies have created dedicated EPR roles given the timeliness and importance of this topic. In the envisioned new structure, the role will report into the Senior Director of Supply Chain and work across Supply Chain teams (including Packaging Sourcing, Sustainability, suppliers and third party resources), Legal, Government Relations and Global Policy to ensure alignment of policy, strategy, and execution. The position will support development and execution of EPR-related strategies while managing operational, financial, and compliance implications for the U.S. business

Duties

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A TEMPORARY ROLE

Prevention

• Lead the development of McDonald’s U.S. EPR prevention strategy, focusing on upstream policy influence, packaging options, and business planning that reduce future risk before regulations are finalized or implemented.
• Partner with Government Relations by providing EPR subject matter expertise, key points, business context, and broader education to support policy understanding and advocacy preparation; Government Relations will lead any direct engagement or advocacy with government officials, legislators, and regulators.
• Build and maintain an integrated EPR roadmap that connects prevention, legislative and regulatory advocacy, compliance readiness, packaging optimization, and future-focused strategy across the U.S. business.

Execution

• Serve as the central lead and source of truth for EPR-related work across the U.S. business, ensuring workstreams are coordinated and decision-making is aligned.
• Serve as McDonald’s primary day-to-day representative to Circular Action Alliance (CAA), and the voting member on the board, leveraging opportunity to influence and strategically shape industry direction through board position on CAA, holding CAA accountable for representing producer interests, advancing recycling progress, and identifying allies for broader system solutions. Interface with working groups and committees as well as board meetings.
• Act as the internal hub connecting Supply Chain, Government Relations, Sustainability, Legal, Restaurant Solutions, TMS, Packaging, suppliers, field teams, business leaders, and Owner/Operators to ensure EPR work is coordinated and not fragmented across functions. Become US leadership point person for all things EPR.
• Lead rapid deployment once EPR laws are in place, ensuring McDonald’s is prepared to meet packaging compliance obligations, manage required reporting, and support implementation across affected states.
• Own the end-to-end EPR compliance lifecycle, including registration, reporting, audit management, and submission accuracy across all applicable jurisdictions

Mitigating Impact

• Provide centralized oversight for EPR compliance fees, reporting requirements, and related business impacts, including helping the business understand financial exposure and operational implications.
• Partner with Supply Chain, Packaging, Sustainability, TMS, and suppliers to embed EPR requirements into packaging design, sourcing decisions, and supply chain strategies to balance compliance, cost, and operational feasibility
• Be aware and weigh in on pilots and other practical initiatives that support compliance, reduce fee exposure, improve packaging performance, ensures packaging meets EPR requirements and strengthen McDonald’s position in a changing regulatory environment.
• Support field and Owner/Operator engagement by developing clear materials, talking points, updates, and guidance that help explain EPR developments, business impacts, and McDonald’s response. Lead the EPR Owner/Operator Taskforce: prepare material, answer questions and keep team on track.
• Prepare leadership updates, recommendations, and decision materials that help senior leaders understand EPR risks, trade-offs, resource needs, and opportunities to strengthen McDonald’s influence and impact.

Qualifications

Experience and Knowledge:

• - 5+ years of experience working in matrixed organizations across sustainability, supply chain, regulatory, or policy-related roles
• - Strong understanding of packaging systems, packaging materials, environmental regulation, or circularity concepts
• - Experience working across multiple functions and translating strategy into execution
• - Experience representing a company in an external industry group or coalition, such as Circular Action Alliance (CAA), or other Producer Responsible Organization, strongly preferred

Competencies and Mindset:

• - Strong problem-solving, critical thinking, and analytical skills
• - Ability to translate complex regulatory requirements into clear actions
• - Effective communication and stakeholder management skills, experience working cross functionally internally.
• - Ability to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic environment

-Strong public speaking experience

Compensation

Bonus Eligible: TBC

Long - Term Incentive: TBC

Benefits Eligible: TBC

Salary Range

The expected salary range for this role is$178,121.00 -$222,651.00per yearThe above represents the expectedsalaryrange for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining yourpay, we may also consider your experience, and other job-related factors.

Additional Information:

Benefits eligible: This position offers health and welfare benefits, including but not limited to comprehensive health insurance, which includes medical, prescription drug, mental health, dental and vision coverage, as well as, life insurance.

McDonald’s is an equal opportunity employer committed to the diversity of our workforce. We promote an inclusive work environment that creates feel-good moments for everyone. McDonald’s provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities as part of the application or hiring process or to perform the essential functions of their job. If you need assistance accessing or reading this job posting or otherwise feel you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process, please contact [e-mail]. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

McDonald’s provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy (including pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding), race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin, age, disability status, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, protected military or veteran status, citizenship status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Nothing in this job posting or description should be construed as an offer or guarantee of employment.