Manager, Agriculture & Nutrition

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.