Sr Manager, Marketing

Company Description:

At McDonald's, we are committed to being the best, and that starts with finding the best people. We have built a team of extraordinary people from around the world. We are problem solvers, risk takers, innovators, and thought leaders that take our work seriously, but have fun doing it. We challenge ourselves to get smarter and sharper every day, we value personal and professional growth, and believe in rewarding and celebrating our successes.

The Opportunity

McDonald’s Canada is seeking a senior media expert to help shape the next era of how the brand connects with Canadians. This role is designed for a progressive media leader who brings fresh thinking, deep marketplace expertise, and a future-forward perspective across a rapidly evolving ecosystem. The ideal candidate will challenge assumptions, partner with agencies to deliver innovative recommendations, and ensure media decisions are tied to business growth, brand strength, customer relevance, and measurable performance.

This individual will serve as an expert advisor and strategic partner to internal cross-functional teams and agencies, bringing a clear point of view on media transformation, channel strategy, investment effectiveness, and modern measurement. Success requires both the credibility to influence senior stakeholders and the hands-on expertise to evaluate plans, identify opportunities, and raise the quality of media decisions across the business.

Duties

Media Strategy as a Business Driver:

• Lead external thinking on media strategy to ensure McDonald’s Canada makes the most effective use of paid media investment across brand, promotional, digital, social, retail, local, and performance channels.

• Translate business objectives, customer priorities, audience insights, and marketplace dynamics into clear media strategies that support measurable business outcomes.

• Strengthen agency recommendations by assessing strategic rationale, channel roles, audience approach, investment levels, buying quality, and measurement plans.

• Improve media effectiveness through sharper targeting, stronger creative-media integration, disciplined reach and frequency, and rigorous test-and-learn planning.

• Bring a current perspective on emerging media, retail media, connected TV, creators, social commerce, AI-enabled optimization, data clean rooms, audience segmentation, and new measurement capabilities.

• Support integration between media, creative, analytics, and business teams so that campaign ideas, channel choices, and measurement plans work together from the outset.

Planning, Buying, Measurement and Optimization:

• Review and advise on media plans, investment strategies, buying approaches, partner negotiations, and optimization opportunities across national and local priorities.
• Oversee media investment planning and stewardship of the national media budget, partnering closely with agency teams and Marketing Finance to optimize investment decisions.
• Assess performance reporting and measurement frameworks to ensure clear learning agendas, actionable insights, and stronger accountability for business and brand impact.
• Improve speed, discipline, and rigor in performance review, audience learning, channel mix refinement, and post-campaign learning application.
• Establish media principles, best practices, benchmarks, and governance that strengthen consistency and decision-making across the McDonald’s Canada marketing calendar.

Stakeholder Influence and Thought Leadership:

• Serve as a trusted advisor to marketing leadership by translating complex media topics into clear implications, choices, and recommendations.
• Participate in key planning, performance, and agency forums, bringing an independent perspective that drives stronger decisions.
• Cultivate and lead strategic relationships with key industry stakeholders, agencies, and vendors.
• Represent Canada on the Global Media Council, driving knowledge sharing and adoption of global best practices.
• Build internal understanding of marketplace shifts and new media capabilities through clear POVs, education, and practical recommendations.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure media strategy reflects broader business priorities, including customer growth, brand relevance, digital acceleration, value, and market-level needs.
• Model a curious, progressive, and constructively challenging mindset that helps the organization and its agency partners continuously improve.

Qualifications

Minimum requirements:

• 8-10 years of progressive media strategy, planning, buying, or investment experience, ideally with a mix of agency, client-side, consulting, or senior advisory experience.
• Deep expertise across traditional, digital, social, programmatic, retail, video, search, audio, out-of-home, local, and emerging media channels.
• Demonstrated ability to lead or advise on integrated media strategy, buying oversight, measurement, and optimization for large-scale consumer brands.
• Strong understanding of the Canadian media marketplace, including major platforms, publishers, retailers, buying models, audience behavior, and competitive dynamics.
• Proven ability to challenge agencies and senior stakeholders in a constructive, credible, and commercially grounded way.
• Strong analytical capability, with the ability to interpret performance data, identify implications, and translate insights into actionable media recommendations.
• Experience with modern measurement and data-driven media capabilities, including test-and-learn design, attribution, incrementality, marketing mix modeling, clean rooms, audience segmentation, and AI-enabled optimization.
• Excellent executive communication skills, including the ability to simplify complex topics, develop clear POVs, and influence decision-making.
• Highly curious, innovative, and independent, with a passion for helping brands stay ahead of marketplace change.

Salary Range

The expected salary range for this role is $112,000 - $160,000 per year

 The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we may also consider your experience, and other job-related factors.  This is for an exising role.

Additional Information:

McDonald’s Canada and Owner/Operators are committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace for all. Our workplaces have a long-standing policy of providing fair, equitable, and accessible opportunities for all employees and prospective employees. Accommodations during the application process are available upon request.

We do not use artificial intelligence (AI) or automated tools to screen, assess, or select applicants during our recruitment process