Communications Manager for Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

Smart Recruiters
Location:
Dublin 1, Republic of Ireland
Contract Type:
Full Time (UK)
Department:
Corporate Affairs
Pay:
Competitive
Apply
Four colleagues are seated around a small table, smiling and laughing in a modern, bright office setting.

Let's be part of something together

Overview

A little bit about us

McDonalds 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. McDonalds is one of the UKs largest private sector employers, employing over 177,000 people.

McDonalds 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.

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

McDonalds 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 McDonalds 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 McDonalds and, in the UK, and Ireland we are working hard to be the UK & Irelands best-loved restaurant company.
McDonalds 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

The opportunity

The Opportunity
A key role within the McDonalds UK and Ireland Impact (Corporate Affairs) department, we are recruiting for a Communications Manager for Ireland and Northern Ireland to join the team.

  • We are looking for a creative communicator who enjoys variety within their role and appreciates the value of relationship building and engagement. Strong knowledge and understanding of the external media and political landscape in Ireland is essential.
  • This diverse role spans corporate and consumer PR as well as public affairs and internal communications, so we are looking for a well-rounded comms professional from either a PR agency or inhouse background. This role leads the creation and delivery of the communications plan in Ireland, working closely to align with the strategy created at a central level. You will need to be agile to change, brilliant at building and maintaining relationships and ideally have experience managing agencies. You will actively partner with franchisees and suppliers to bring to life their stories at a community level as well as build positive relationships with journalists, elected representatives and industry stakeholders.
  • This role will suit a motivated, self-starting individual who will enjoy the autonomy and responsibility of managing and prioritising their time and resources and leading the development and implementation of their plan, but also who will work in close collaboration with the wider Corporate Affairs team.

What will my accountabilities be?

  • Develop and own the communications plan for Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, aligned to the wider communications plan and business objectives
  • Work closely with the Head of Impact & Corporate Comms, Head of Consumer PR, Head of Public Affairs, and Regional Communications to bring activations alive in Ireland
  • Partner with, advise and provide hands-on support to franchisees on their local engagement plans
  • Support the companys business strategy including growth plans, with communications support and local engagement for new restaurant applications, openings and extended hours licensing applications
  • Create briefing documents and messaging for internal stakeholders
  • Work with our ROI and NI agencies to ensure timely, relevant and tailored expertise and activation in support of all activates
  • Build positive relationships with elected representatives and other key influencers, stakeholders and journalists
  • Develop news and content that informs a range of key audiences
  • Support the press office function, and lead on reactive media enquiries relating to ROI and NI this will include out of hours support
  • Strong written and presentation skills are essential
  • A full Driving Licence is essential as there will be regular travel across Ireland

What Team will I be a part of?

  • Impact (Corporate Affairs) department
  • Franchisees, Restaurant Managers and Operations
  • Communications agencies
  • Office and field based departments
  • Elected representatives.
  • Media and social influencers

Who are my customers?

  • Franchisees, Restaurant Managers and Operations
  • Communications agencies
  • Office and field based departments
  • Elected representatives.
  • Media, political, industry and social influencers

What background do I need to have

What background do I need to have?

  • Demonstrate a genuine desire to learn
  • Process information quickly
  • Communications experience inhouse or at an agency level ideally with an understanding of the hospitality / food and drink industries
  • Proven media and stakeholder relationships across Ireland
  • Adapt quickly and easily to new or changing conditions
  • Demonstrate a genuine desire and capacity to understand and relate to others

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

At McDonalds we are People from all Walks of Life...

People are at the heart of everything we do and they make the McDonalds 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 McDonalds or elsewhere.

#LI-Hybrid

Location

23 Jervis Street
Dublin 1
Republic of Ireland

Plan commute
A Google Map Image of Job Location
A woman smiling, with arms crossed, standing outside a building.
A man smiling, with arms crossed, standing outside a building.

Meet the Team

My favourite thing about working at McDonald’s is the people…everybody from the restaurants up to exec, everyone is just brilliant.

Sustainability

The best advice I could give someone joining McDonald’s is be yourself, bring all the knowledge you have gained and share those experiences amongst the team.

Construction

Show transcript

[00:06] My name is Sasha.

[00:09] I am sustainability officer at McDonald's and I have

[00:12] been here for just under two years. My role is a really

[00:15] diverse one. My main focus is really about driving

[00:18] sustainability in the restaurants. How can we build

[00:21] our restaurants to a sustainable standard? How can we operate

[00:24] them to a sustainable standard whilst, you know also getting our

[00:27] crew involved. How can we sort of shift their behaviors? What can

[00:30] we do from that perspective? I also work a lot around greenhouse gas

[00:34] emissions and reporting. I think it's incredible that I work

[00:37] in a very small team. But when you

[00:40] think about the actual work that we do and the goals that we're sort of trying

[00:43] to achieve we're impacting around 1400

[00:46] restaurants that serve thousands of

[00:49] people every day. I think there's there's no other ways

[00:52] to describe the impact of my work. My favorite thing about working

[00:55] at McDonald's I'm sure everyone will say this but it's the people.

[00:59] Everybody from the restaurants all the way up to the

[01:02] exec everyone's just

[01:03] brilliant.

[01:04] My best memory would have to be

[01:07] COP 26 and as someone who dedicated

[01:10] my life to sustainability it felt like a

[01:13] once in a lifetime opportunity. It was

[01:17] really exciting just being in a room where I

[01:20] knew governments, leaders of countries, all

[01:23] these sort of officials were in a room deciding on

[01:27] policy around things that would actually dictate my career and

[01:30] the future of my career and I think I would never

[01:33] have had this opportunity if it weren't for actually being at McDonald's.

[00:00] My name

[00:07] is Evan. I'm a construction manager and I've been at McDonald's

[00:10] for four years.

[00:11] My role as a construction manager is to look

[00:14] after my team of project managers working

[00:17] with our franchisees and our own restaurants

[00:20] to make them a better place for our customers. I don't really have

[00:23] a typical day. I split my time between between running my

[00:26] own construction projects, managing my team and engaging with

[00:29] the franchisees and the business on how we're progressing

[00:32] against our program. The size of the organization is

[00:35] just, you just find something

[00:38] new in it every day. It's sounds really cheesy, but it's it's

[00:41] a big family. The people here are one of the reasons that I enjoy my

[00:44] role so much. So the best piece of advice I could give for

[00:47] someone joining McDonald's is be yourself. Bring all the

[00:50] knowledge that you've got and share those experiences amongst the team just

[00:53] because we've been doing something one way doesn't mean that we're doing

[00:56] it the best way. The culture at McDonald's is really inclusive.

[00:59] You always learning stuff off different people

[01:02] be it brand new starters or people that have been here 30 years.

[01:05] We're, we really keen to develop people to

[01:08] be the best that they can be. So as long as you as an

[01:11] individual,

[01:12] want progression and training there's there's plenty of

[01:15] opportunities to develop yourself professionally and

[01:18] there's loads of opportunities which can provide

[01:21] accredited qualifications, you know apprenticeships as

[01:24] well as externally if you want to pursue something like

[01:27] a chartership like I did last year to be a chartered construction

[01:30] manager. Being part of McDonald's team is really great,

[01:33] it's rewarding and the people just make every day

[01:36] really fun to be at work.

Benefits

What we offer

Holiday pay

All full-time office employees will receive 28 days’ paid holiday a year.

Employee Discounts

Discounts at hundreds of major high-street and online retailers.

Stakeholder Pension Scheme

As an office employee, you’ll have the opportunity to join the stakeholder pension scheme.

Performance reviews & bonus

We will review your performance formally every six months and your pay will be reviewed annually based on these. There is also potential to receive a bonus each year.

Private medical care

Office employees receive private medical care, either immediately or following 6 months’ service, depending on the level of your role.

Paid sabbatical

To recognise your hard work and commitment, we will award you with up to two months’ paid sabbatical leave following every 10 years of consecutive service.

Life assurance

Should you contribute a minimum of 3% to your pension, you will be eligible for Life Assurance cover at 4x your basic salary.

Free Meal

You’ll be entitled to a free meal whilst in the office.
Tongs place a cooked egg on a sausage patty and cheese, all on an English muffin, in a busy fast-food kitchen.

Why work here

Our values show what matters most to us and tell the world what McDonald's stands for. We live by them every day. All across the world. From our restaurant-working colleagues, right through to the farmers in our supply chain. Our core values and commitment define who we are and guide everything we do. Making sure we can continue to evolve alongside a changing world.

Find out more

Apply

Application Process

  1. Get started by filling in the online application. This should take 5 minutes, just make sure you have your CV ready!
  2. If we think you’re suited to the role, we’ll invite you to a competency-based interview. These interviews are mostly virtual.
  3. You could then get invited back for a second interview, where you’ll be able to present or complete an associated task.
  4. If we love what we see, the job will be yours!

Hints & Tips

1.      STAR technique

When creating your application, the STAR technique is a way to keep answers concise and informative. When giving a real-life example that demonstrates a skill, use these key points:

  • Situation (your job/course at the time)
  • Tasks (what you needed to do)
  • Actions (how you did it)
  • Results (how it turned out)
2.      Make sure your spelling, punctuation, and grammar (SPAG) is correct

You’ve probably heard this before – but how do you make sure you can achieve correct SPAG without fail? If you want to send in a perfectly polished application, follow these simple steps:

  • Ask someone else to look over it (a fresh pair of eyes always helps)
  • Re-read it once a day for a week
  • Ask someone to look over it again (it’s better to be safe than sorry)
3.      Let your passion shine through

At McDonald’s, we want to make sure you can feel entirely at home. And when you feel at home, you can be entirely yourself. If you bring your personality and energy to our culture, you can make McDonald’s a more exciting, united place.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I apply for a vacancy at McDonald’s head office?

Either click on the 'Job search' page or the ‘Job search’ button on the page of the vacancy you’re interested in. Then select the role that suits you, and complete an online application form.

How long does the recruitment process take?

The recruitment process differs for each role, but someone from our Talent team will always aim to contact you within 7 days of receiving your application. If we think you’re a good fit, we’ll invite you to a competency-based interview and then onto a second interview with an associated task to complete or present.

How many days holiday do I get?

All full-time members of the Head Office team get 28 days paid holiday as well as bank holidays on top. For part-time workers, holiday will be determined on a pro-rata basis.  

What do I wear in the office?

At our Head Office, we have a Dress for your Day Policy - the bottom line is that we want you to be empowered to make the decisions that meet the needs of your day.

What are the pay rates at McDonald’s?

Our pay rates differ from role to role, but we always ensure that these rates remain competitive. Alongside this, we also offer a wide range of benefits including holiday and sick pay, and employee discounts that offer savings at over 1,600 retailers.

I want my pronouns to be known if I get this role, is this possible?

Yes. When you work in Head Office, you’ll receive a company email address and will easily be able to include your desired pronouns in the signature.

Can I get individual feedback on my application or interview?

Due to the high level of applications we receive not everyone will receive individual feedback. This depends on where you are in our process and this could potentially be written or over the phone.

Are there any wellbeing services I can access?

Yes! McDonald’s has a wellbeing hub on the staff website and our colleagues have access to the Employee Assistant Programme (EAP), which is run by AXA health care, offering a variety of services. 

I have a disability, what support can I get with my McDonald's job application?

During the application process, you can request for any reasonable adjustments to be made so you can find the right support needed during the application and onwards.

View all

Communications Manager for Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

Location:
Dublin 1, Republic of Ireland
Contract Type:
Full Time (UK)
Department:
Corporate Affairs
Pay:
Competitive
Apply