Head of Technology Deployment & Testing

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Company Description

McDonald's is the largest family restaurant in the world, serving approximately 69 million customers across 36,000 restaurants a day: in more than 100 countries. The UK & Ireland market is one of the most successful entities across the wider business, serving on average 4 million people a day. It has operated in UK since 1974 and the business is growing continuously with more than 1,400 restaurants and over 154,000 employees.

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 17,500 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

Job Description

Hybrid Working
This role is based in our East Finchley office working 3 days in the office and 2 days remotely
The Opportunity
In this exciting opportunity you will lead on ensuring the restaurant's software deployments are tested, planned and sequenced to minimise restaurant disruption. You will achieve this by frequent communication and engagement with our restaurants and deployment partners. The Head of Technology Deployment and Testing role will operate as a strategic leader within Technology and will ensure that there is a smooth deployment of all software and file management into our restaurants. The role holder will sponsor and provide leadership around continuous platform development and release management as well as adhoc programmes and projects in support of McDonald's growth plans. The role holder will also provide commercial leadership with a number of key partners in order to drive business value and appropriate governance.

What will my accountabilities be?

• Provide senior leadership within the Technology & Change function to foster a high-performing culture aligned with the company values
• Stay close to the business by building and maintaining strong franchisee relationships, particularly with those in the Technology Committee
• Provides ongoing coaching and mentoring to members of the Technology Deployment and Testing team, ensuring that the team have strong development plans and career progression and succession plans.
• Accountable for the smooth deployment of new platform/ product software into our restaurants
• Accountable for the scheduling, coordinating and management of software releases across McDonald's UK&I for multiple applications and portfolios. Releases can be inclusive of application updates, security patches, operating systems updates
• Ensure that all restaurants software deployments are planned and sequenced to minimise restaurant disruption
• Accountable for communication and engagement with restaurants about the status and timing of their deployments
• Accountable for deployment readiness; ensuring restaurants &/or our partners complete the checks which need to be performed ahead of any deployment and accountable for ensuring these have been complete
• Works closely with the asset & configuration team to ensure that restaurants have the appropriate hardware and configuration for any new software deployments.
• Works closely with service operations to ensure there is a full feedback loop with regards any new software deployments to ensure ongoing continuous improvements in deployment quality and process
• Works closely with Global tech planning to ensure that any required defects are included and prioritised in overall market platform/product backlogs
• Works closely with the Digital team in marketing around feature and capability enablement that supports the overall digital strategy
• Accountable for all market-focused test activities and working with our partners to ensure we receive quality builds and releases
• Provides oversight for all LIT and MUAT testing across all projects and initiatives in the UK&I market
• Responsible for establishing and executing a testing strategy for the UK that:
  - Maintains sufficient labs (physical and virtual) and which caters for full end-to-end integration
  - Enables ongoing test improvement, automation and optimisation
  -That appropriate tools and techniques are in place to support full functional and no-functional testing (including performance testing)
• Supports the development of talent and succession planning
• Set standards and hold our testing partners to account for their delivery
• Manage the Deployment & Testing G&A workbook and ensure robust financial governance is in place for segment and franchisee spend.

What Team will I be a part?
The Head of Technology Deployment & Testing operates as part of the Technology Leadership team.

Who are my customers?
Customers of this role will include:

• Our Franchisees
• Department Heads and Directors from across the market
• Global Technology colleagues in other McDonald's markets and those working in global and segment functions.
• Our partners & suppliers

Qualifications

Essential requirements

• The role holder will have senior Technology leadership experience with a broad remit
• Significant experience of leading and developing diverse teams
• Experience working in a global diverse team
• Excellent track record creating credible, effective partnerships with third parties &/or in a matrixed organisation
• Well versed in communicating and influencing at senior levels
• Advanced knowledge of software development lifecycle
• Extensive experience of software release management and testing
• Significant leadership experience in information systems operations environment in systems analysis or development
• Highly efficient in resource planning and tasks assignment
• Knowledge of benefits and dependency mapping and risk management
• Excellent written/oral communication skills for reports and presentations
• Strong presence and influence and ability to operate effectively at all levels of the business
• Strong and demonstrated ability to build lasting relationships with key stakeholders
• Experience of Programme and project level financial management Highly proficient IT skills in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and MS project
• Formal training in project management practices preferred

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."

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