Consumer & Business Insights Expert

Who is McDonald’s?  

McDonald's Belgium HQ · Diegem, Brussels Area  

McDonald’s is the largest restaurant chain in the world and also the most people-oriented enterprise around the globe. We are constantly looking for ways to reinvent ourselves in order to serve our customers better, every single day. With over 40.000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, McDonald’s is the largest restaurant chain in the world.  

The recipe for success is a combination of a strong brand with a lot of freedom for local markets. Rooted in our Belgian society for more then 45 years, we feel particularly committed to our environment and partners. There are currently 128 McDonald’s restaurants in Belgium, run by 25 independent entrepreneurs. Because our business is growing fast-paced, we are looking for talented people to reinforce our head offices that provide support to all restaurants. 

About the Job

As Consumer & Business Insights Expert, you are the expert on consumer behaviour, competitive dynamics and market context. You translate deep consumer understanding into clear, actionable insights that inform business decisions and drive commercial impact.

While the role is strongly consumer‑led, you also bring a solid understanding of business data, performance indicators and commercial realities. You are able to connect consumer insights with sales, pricing, performance and brand metrics, ensuring recommendations are both strategically relevant and business‑grounded. Experience with creative effectiveness evaluation is considered a strong plus.

You actively support the CBI Manager by shaping strategic narratives, preparing insight‑driven recommendations, organizing workshops and developing clear decision options for leadership forums.

Ingredients of the Job

 Consumer Insights leadership

Consumer understanding, research & synthesis

• Build a clear strategic consumer framework for short‑ and long‑term growth
• Develop a deep understanding of consumer need states, attitudes, and behaviours
• Connect insights across multiple sources
• Lead recurrent and ad‑hoc local consumer research on key topics from briefing to reporting
• Coordinate and translate global research initiatives to local relevance”
• Vendor management
• Support long‑ and short‑term planning cycles
• Lead internal insight sharing sessions and workshops

Competitive & Market intelligence leadership

• Generate PESTEL insights and assess market impact on growth opportunities.
• Monitor market trends & track competitor moves
• Organise and participate in supplier visits, market safaris, and trend tours

Business Data & Insight Enablement

• Interpret and leverage business performance data (e.g. sales, pricing, traffic, campaigns) to enrich consumer insights
• Ensure alignment between consumer insights and commercial outcomes
• Contribute to the development and interpretation of dashboards, reports and KPI frameworks in collaboration with BI
• Support creative effectiveness evaluation

Your Menu

Key Competencies

• Strong consumer empathy combined with sharp market awareness
• Demonstrate a good level of curiosity
• Ability to synthesise complexity into clear recommendations
• Excellent storytelling power
• Strategic thinking and consultative influencing
• Project leadership across agencies and internal partners

Skills & experience

• Strong quantitative & qualitative research toolkit.
• Experience with competitive analysis and market intelligence
• Experience managing tracking and monitoring programs (platforms, questionnaires, reporting cadence).
• Excellent presentation and workshop facilitation skills
• 4–8 years in Consumer Insights / Market Intelligence / Strategy / Research