Quality & Deployment Lead

Company Description:

Who are McDonald’s? 

McDonald’s has run its business in the UK since 1974 and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The business currently operates over 1,450 restaurants across the UK and Ireland, serving almost four million customers each day. McDonald’s is one of the UK’s largest private sector employers, employing over 177,000 people.

McDonald’s UK & Ireland has a proven track record of investing in the development of its employees and offering flexibility as part of its dedication to being a modern and progressive company. Every year, it invests over £40 million in developing people, giving every one of its employees the opportunity to take part in structured training.

McDonald’s buys ingredients from over 23,000 British and Irish farmers and spends over £1.1billion annually on its food and packaging requirements. McDonald’s is committed to supporting British and Irish farmers to ensure it can continue to source many of its ingredients from the UK and Ireland.

McDonald’s is a market leader in its field, striving for the highest standard of quality, speed and restaurant experience. Re-generation of our restaurant infrastructure, covering digital ordering, re-imaging and dual-point service make working at McDonald’s more exciting than ever! 

We are dedicated to using our scale for good: good for people, our industry and the planet. From bold recycling initiatives and sustainable sourcing efforts to our partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities, we see every day as a chance to have a genuine impact on our customers, our people and our partners.

We're a people business just as much as we are a restaurant business. We strive to be the most inclusive brand in the world by building diverse teams who create delicious, feel good moments that are easy for everyone to enjoy. Joining McDonald's means thinking big every day and preparing for a career that can have impact around the world. 

Company Vision and Culture

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

McDonald’s 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

Hybrid Working
This role is based in our East Finchley office working 3 days in the office and 2 days remotely

Job Description:

The Opportunity
In this exciting opportunity you will be responsible for deployment of local software, updates, patches and activating the latest and greatest features for our restaurants from our global restaurant and digital platforms. You will also be accountable for the technology testing strategy and quality assurance process ensuring that testing and deployment is repeatable and ongoing continuous improvement and automation is in place.

What will my accountabilities be?

• Accountable for the UK&I technology quality assurance strategy and delivery.
• Accountable for feature activation within our global restaurant and digital product platforms ensuring we deploy quickly and efficiently with minimal restaurant impact.
• Responsible for the effective management of our managed test partners against all aspects of the contract and ensuring that projects are effectively resourced and that test environments are scheduled appropriately. 
• Maintain in collaboration with supplier management scorecards and other KPI’s to ensure that standards are maintained and an ongoing cycle of continuous improvement.
• Responsible for driving automation of our core services with our Managed Test Service (MTS) partner.
• Work with our partners and platform team to introduce a test approach and governance for Agile projects, local product releases and a continuous deployment model.
• Responsible for test labs (physical and virtual across the UK), tech seed restaurants, piloting and ensuring that testing is fully able to simulate restaurant environments across all restaurant topologies.
• Work closely with the wider Technology department to ensure that restaurants are appropriately configured for any new software deployments.
• Accountable for deployment readiness; ensuring restaurants &/or our partners complete the checks which need to be performed ahead of any deployment.
• Accountable for the scheduling, coordinating and managing of new local product software releases.
• Responsible for activating new features in existing software releases, this may include piloting, canary releases, or A/B testing.
•  Accountable for feature activation within our global restaurant and digital product platforms ensuring we deploy quickly and efficiently with minimal restaurant impact.
• Manage budgets associated with testing and that monthly utilisation is managed efficiently.
• Develop talent and career progression across the test function. Ensure that succession planning is in place and that there are no key person dependencies.
• Responsible for the resolution of issues/defects that impede testing across all portfolios and ensuring that defect tracking tools are fully documented and well maintained.
• Responsible for regular and effective management reporting for the test function.

What Team will I be a part?
You will work as part of the Deployment & Testing team which forms part of the wider Technology team for the UK&I and Global business. We are a high energy team, looking for an individual who can add their talent and personality to make us even better.

Who are my customers?

• Our Franchisees
• Global Technology colleagues in other McDonald’s markets and those working in global and
• segment functions.
• Our supplier partners.
• Work closely with Global tech planning in Change planning for instruction on when to activate specific features.
• Work closely with our wider Technology team on new Tech Hive initiatives for deployment and feature activation sequencing.
• Our restaurant teams of tech seed stores and pilot areas.

Qualifications:

What background do I need to have?

• Experience of project management using AGILE or PRINCE2 methodology (or equivalent) for medium to large sized projects.
• Experience with Jira, Confluence and other defect tracking tools and methodologies.
• Experience of previous software release management.
• Previous leadership experience of a test function or a product quality assurance team.
• Previous leadership experience deploying product releases into a diverse estate.
• Advanced knowledge of software development lifecycle.
• Efficient in resource planning and tasks assignment.
• Knowledge of benefits and dependency mapping, risk management and resource planning.
• Well versed in communicating and influencing at senior levels.
• Experience of delivering value through partners.
• Ability to build lasting relationships with key stakeholders.

Additional Information:

At McDonald’s we are People from all Walks of Life... 

People are at the heart of everything we do and they make the McDonald’s 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 give 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 McDonald’s or elsewhere.

#LI-Hybrid