IT Director McDonald's

The IT Director will oversee all IT operations for McDonald's Netherlands, including those within the restaurants. This includes people leadership, planning, financials, strategic direction, deployment and operation of technology products and services.

Your role is a leadership position responsible for supporting the market with the selection, adoption, implementation and value realisation of technology solutions. The role provides:

• Leadership of market Technology resources and partners
• Strategic alignment between market business leadership and Segment/Global Technology
• Technology direction to market departments, partners and franchisee community (where applicable)
• Market technology prioritisation, planning, deployment and support
• Department finance, budgeting, procurement and administration
• Stakeholder management and communications
• Talent and performance management with succession planning
• Process management and improvement
• Engagement and collaboration across IOM BU Technology

 

Success in this role will result in:

• High levels of trust in Technology resources, products and services
• Positive business and franchisee partnerships with well managed expectations
• Well established relationships with Segment/Global Technology teams and partners
• Alignment to global technology strategy with broad adoption of standard products and services
• Operation of high quality, cost effective, technology products and services aligned to global standards
• Motivated and high performing Technology team
• Standardised approach to technology finances including budgeting, chargebacks and return on investments
• Ongoing collaboration between markets on technology products and services
  
   

PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Organisation and Resourcing

• Manage the day-to-day running of the market Technology department to deliver against the technology plan
• Build and maintain strategic partnerships with market leadership, local departments, and franchisees
• Develop robust, collaborative and mutually beneficial working practices between local and global resources
• Define job roles, recruit and train Technology resources, ensuring key roles have a succession plan in place
• Develop, motivate and performance manage team individuals
• Define and validate market resourcing, skills, capacity and capabilities
• Align organisation structure and people management processes to Segment/Global standards
• Maintain strong relationships with partners ensuring expected resource levels, knowledge and performance
• Work with Segment Technology teams to evaluate resources, partners, and working practices
   

Technology

• Lead the testing, localisation, deployment and support of restaurant and office technology
• Ensure the market consumes Global products where appropriate and deploy local solutions only as needed
• Manage requirements, business cases, evaluation and selection of technologies and services
• Align local solutions with corporate standards, service levels and strategy
• Ensure the use of technology best practices and standards
• Identify opportunities to leverage solutions and drive standardisation
• Recognise and communicate areas of opportunity for product and service improvement
• Ensure products and services are cost effective, deployable, sustainable, documented and fit for purpose
• Operate technology platforms to agreed service levels and standards
• Identify, communicate and partner as appropriate to mitigate any technology and information security risks

Finance & Planning

• Manage market department General & Administrative (G&A) and investment (CAPEX) budgets
• Participate in global and local budget and finance processes
• Conduct regular financial reviews to identify and implement opportunities to optimise costs
• Manage chargebacks to franchisees/restaurants/CoOp/other departments in a timely and transparent manner
• Build strong relationships with market finance organisations
• Partner with Segment Technology and business leadership to develop and agree annual market technology plan
• Ensure budgets, resources and partners are aligned to technology plan
• Own and track the technology plan, utilising standard change and communication processes to adjust as required
• Escalate plan challenges and remediation approach to Technology and market leadership as necessary

 

Prioritisation & Governance

• Engage market, franchisee and Segment Technology leadership in technology related discussions to and determine appropriate prioritisation of business requirements taking in to account resource and finance capacity
• Advocate for market needs ensuring market considerations (functional, non-functional, deployment, support) are considered upfront in product and service development
• Ensure effective deployment and service governance over internal and external resources
• Manage team capacity, ensuring resources deliver against priorities and stop work outside of the technology plan
• Partner with Global Sourcing during RFPs ensuring high quality business cases and due diligence of RFP responses
• Apply internal market governance across technology decisions, projects and processes

Communications & Change

• Keep all market functions, partners and franchisees up to date on technology matters through clear and timely communication and change management
• Present technology strategy and direction across all market functions and franchisees
• Prepare/coordinate/present briefings on the business, technical and financial benefits of technologies
• Ensure best practice, knowledge and standards are shared across all market technology users
• Drive project communications clearly describing issues, risks and opportunities
• Develop strong communication channels with all internal and external stakeholders, including segment peers
• Prepare the organisation for strategic change as required

 

KEY EXPERIENCE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

An individual fulfilling this role will be passionate about and demonstrate success in:

• Working with people across a global organisation
• Managing successful relationships with senior business leadership
• Evolving and modernising technologies and services to align with business priorities
• Gathering and interpreting business/technology requirements
• Financial acumen and detailed knowledge of corporate and market accounting practices
• Understanding of investment strategies, Capex/G&A preferences
• Data manipulation, analysis and reporting
• Applying a proactive and strategic approach to building technology services
• Articulating value of solutions
• Interacting with and influencing leadership, franchisees and partners
• Partner and stakeholder engagement and management
• Supporting change and technology transformation
• Seeking opportunities for continual service improvement
• Mentoring internal and external team members
• Strong verbal and written communication skills (local language and English)
• A solid knowledge and understanding of and ability to work effectively across multiple business functions
   

This role requires occasional business travel. The individual is required to be a holder of a current valid passport and have the ability to travel internationally, including to the USA.

The search and selection for the role of IT Director is conducted by HPW Executive Search. For your application or more information about the role please contact Caroline van der Beek on caroline@hpwexecutivesearch.com or +31-20-520 7599.