Commercial Placement 2027 @ McCain Foods

Position Title: Commercial Placement 2027

Position Type: Temporary - Full-Time

Requisition ID: 45508

Commercial Intern – 2027 Placement Opportunity

Scarborough

This is a placement year opportunity for 2027-2028, and not a grad scheme. This is only suitable for students who are due to finish their second year (doing a sandwich degree) and seeking a placement year opportunity!

In every role, McCainers are ambitious, curious, and passionate about creating exceptional work experiences - together. With a customer-first mindset, we make doing business with McCain easy.

About the role

Join our Major End Users team and see how McCain products reach millions of consumers through household names like Subway, Greggs, GDK and JD Wetherspoon. As a Placement Student, you'll get involved in a variety of projects, helping deliver trials, launches and customer activations while developing valuable commercial skills during your university placement year.

This placement will give you valuable hands-on experience and a strong foundation for your future career. You'll:

• Develop stakeholder management skills by working with cross-functional teams and supporting key customer relationships.
• Gain a behind-the-scenes understanding of how major customer accounts are managed within a leading FMCG business.
• Build practical commercial experience through customer projects, launches and business initiatives.
• Strengthen your data analysis, communication and project management skills.
• Gain exposure to senior leaders and customer-facing teams, helping you explore future career opportunities.
• Leave with real-world experience, a professional network and skills that will help you stand out when you graduate.

What you’ll be doing.

As our Placement Student, you'll get hands-on experience across a range of exciting customer projects, giving you real insight into how a leading FMCG business works. You'll:

• Support customer projects from initial concept through to launch and rollout.
• Visit customer outlets to see first-hand how our products perform and how they're brought to life in a fast-paced foodservice environment.
• Analyse sales, trial and commercial data, helping to identify trends, uncover insights and support recommendations.
• Follow menu cycles and support the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, helping us deliver high-quality responses to customers.
• Collaborate with teams across Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Technical and Culinary to keep projects moving forward.
• Bring fresh thinking and new ideas to discussions around products, menus, customer opportunities and market trends.
• Build valuable commercial experience while developing your professional skills during your university placement year.

This is a fantastic opportunity to gain exposure to some of the UK's most recognisable foodservice brands and see how ideas become reality in a global business.

What you’ll need to be successful.

We're looking for an enthusiastic and curious undergraduate who is keen to gain real-world commercial experience during their placement year. You'll be someone who:

• Brings energy, initiative and a hands-on approach, and isn't afraid to get stuck in.
• Has a genuine passion for food and an interest in how products make their way from concept to customer.
• Keeps up with brands, consumer trends and what's happening across the food and hospitality sector.
• Enjoys working with data and can turn information into meaningful insights and recommendations.
• Builds strong relationships quickly and thrives when working as part of a team.
• Is confident communicating with a variety of stakeholders and contributing ideas.
• Is currently studying towards a degree in any discipline and is looking to complete a year-long industrial placement as part of your course.
• This role would suit a proactive, commercially minded student who is excited by the opportunity to work with some of the UK's best-known foodservice brands while developing skills that will set you up for a successful career.

Benefits

Although we do encourage you to taste the goods, you'll be pleased to know we don't pay you in chips. Alongside your salary, you'll enjoy a range of benefits including:

• Sign on bonus additional to your annual salary – to help you get started!
• Private healthcare [single]
• An excellent salary sacrifice pension scheme where we'll contribute double what you do, up to a maximum of 12% of your salary
• 25 days' annual leave from day one plus bank holidays (increasing with service), giving you plenty of time to recharge with the opportunity to buy and sell up to 5 days holiday per year
• Life insurance cover providing peace of mind for you and your family
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay, because the moments that matter outside of work matter to us too
• Medicash health cash plan, helping you claim money back on everyday healthcare costs, with access to a virtual GP and wellbeing support
• TELUS Health employee and family assistance programme offering full wellbeing support - including a 24/7 confidential counselling line, legal and financial guidance, and a range of employee discounts.
• Salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme
• A paid 'Chips In' Volunteering Day, giving you the opportunity to support projects that make a positive impact in our communities
• Flexible/hybrid working arrangements where the role allows

And because you're joining a global business, your career opportunities don't stop at the factory gate. Whether you're looking to deepen your expertise, step into leadership, or even explore opportunities internationally, we'll support your growth. With ambitious plans for the future, there's plenty of scope to develop your career with us.

About McCain.

Click Here to learn more about McCain and how we provide you with opportunities to make an impact that matters.

Leadership principles.

At McCain, our leadership principles guide how we engage with customers, collaborate as a team, and achieve success. We focus on understanding customer needs, driving innovation, empowering people, and taking ownership to clear obstacles and deliver results.

AI & Digital Capabilities.

At McCain, AI and digital capabilities are part of how we work and innovate. We value curiosity toward emerging technologies and the thoughtful, responsible use of AI-enabled tools to improve outcomes as part of our future-ready culture.

The McCain experience.

We are McCain. This statement is a testament to our collective strength and our individual value. Your contributions play a vital role in our success. Our winning culture is rooted in authenticity and trust, empowering us to bring out the best in one another. Here, you’ll find opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Join us and experience why we’re better together.

Our purpose is grounded in building meaningful relationships. We’re big believers in the power of working together in person—it helps us stay connected, collaborate more effectively, and grow as a team. At the same time, we recognize the importance of flexibility. Most office-based roles follow a hybrid model, with the option to work remotely two days a week. There may be exceptions depending on the role and location, so we encourage you to speak with your recruiter for more details.

McCain Foods is an equal opportunity employer. As a global family-owned company, we strive to be the employer of choice in the diverse communities around the world in which we live and work. We recognize that inclusion drives our creativity, resilience, and success and makes our business stronger. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.

McCain is an accessible employer. If you require an accommodation throughout the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms), please let us know and we will work with you to find appropriate solutions.

Your privacy is important to us. By submitting personal data or information to us, you agree this will be handled in accordance with McCain’s Global Privacy Policy and Global Employee Privacy Policy, as applicable. McCain leverages AI in the hiring process, though all final decisions are made by humans. You can understand our approach to AI and how your personal information is being handled here.

Job Family: Sales

Location(s): GB - United Kingdom : England : Scarborough

Company: McCain Foods (G.B.) Ltd