Senior Commercial Manager

About us

Gate Gourmet, a gategroup company, is the world's largest independent provider of catering and provisioning services for the airline industry. For the past 70 years, we have served over 250 carriers in more than 30 countries. Gate Gourmet combines culinary expertise with the highest standards of food safety and production to deliver delicious, healthy, and affordable meals to over 270 million travelers around the globe.

Job Summary

Reporting to the Commercial Services Director, the Senior Commercial Services Manager is responsible for the coordination, administration, analysis, training, and development of the Commercial Services organization. The Senior Manager is expected to ensure operational effectiveness and excellence by committing to the Company’s values while providing superior service to internal and external customers, communicating effectively, maintaining a high level of accuracy, and integrity and producing quality work products.

This role is responsible for day-to-day customer account management and collaboration with internal functional teams including ASG, Culinary, Finance, Procurement, OPC, IE, HR, Operations etc. to deliver excellent service.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

Manages the Company’s Commercial Services strategy by enhancing customer experience through collaboration and coordination with the internal functional teams.

Assists the Commercial Services Director in developing tactical and strategic Commercial Services initiatives to support the customer and business unit’s goals (financial, quality, production, customer service, operational efficiency, etc.).

Establishes and maintains communications with all levels of Airline/non-Airline teams and the Company’s internal functions which impacts customer relationships.

Ensures contract compliance with all customer and airline service requirements.

Manages a team of manager(s) and analysts whose focus areas include change management, financial analysis, performance analysis and account management.

Manages the customer change management process by leading and working collaboratively with all internal, stakeholders to develop business relationships which allow for timely execution of service changes requests and effective issue resolution.

Coordinates with internal departments, including pricing, billing, procurement, industrial engineers and data group, in matters pertaining to the customer to ensure data integrity, execution, appropriate and timely communication.

Coordinates minimum wage increases, cost recoveries and other finance related commercial activities, ensuring the timely completion

Supports ad-hoc financial analysis to recover additional costs and ensure proper revenue capture as specified in the contract.

Evaluates inquiries, tracks, and manages progress of works.

Supports successful launch of new business and new services, provides guidance and support to new locations during their start-ups.

Manages a system for customer evaluation, performance and communication.

Monitors team’s performance and takes a proactive approach in ensuring quality service standards are maintained at the highest level.

Develops and maintains tools to analyze the flight data and provides catering locations with flight statistics to drive more proactive and efficient plans and actions for the upcoming changes.

Streamlines the existing tools and increases efficiency of the data analysis.

Drives change communications between the Customer Services Group including pricing, billing and menu design specifications and culinary departments and the customer.

Participates in regular meetings with the Directors and Sales and Service to discuss commercial issues.

Prepares for and delivers regular reviews/reports with the internal and external customers about the activities and results of the project team.

Champions improvement initiatives on behalf of the customer

Works with gategroup colleagues to identify and implement best practices.

Liaises with the colleagues on all significant account issues

Develops standard operating procedures to ensure customer deliverables standards are met.

Qualifications

Education:

Bachelor’s Degree or relevant, equivalent work experience in Sales and Service is required

Masters degree a plus

Work Experience:

Minimum 7 years of experience in Sales, airline and/or airline catering required

Previous project management experience preferred

Experience in a food related industry is preferred with exposure to multi-ethnic cuisines.

Experience working with international clients is advantageous to the position.

A background in revenue management and/or pricing is preferred but not mandatory.

Technical Skills: (Certification, Licenses and Registration)

Must be able to obtain AOA access

Must have a valid driver’s license

Must have a valid passport

Job Skills:

Strong organization and/or project management skills

Account management

Strong analytical skills

Advanced Microsoft Excel skills

Large scale catering operations or logistics, airline catering experience preferred

Sales and/or customer service experience

Able to shift roles and responsibilities as business needs change.

Able to work effectively in a team environment.

Able to find innovative ways to solve problems

Language / Communication Skills:

Excellent verbal and written skills, ability to present proposals and performance data, comfortable interfacing with senior executives. Fluency in a foreign language is beneficial to the position, however not mandatory.

Job Dimensions

Geographic Responsibility: na

Type of Employment: Full-time

Travel %: Willing to travel domestically and internationally as required.

Gategroup Competencies Required to be Successful in the Job:

Thinking – Information Search and analysis & problem resolution skills

Engaging – Understanding others, Team Leadership and Developing People

Inspiring – Influencing and building relationships, Motivating and Inspiring, Communicating effectively

Achieving – Delivering business results under pressure, Championing Performance Improvement and Customer Focus

Demonstrated Values to be Successful in the Position

Employees at gategroup are expected to live our Values of Excellence, Integrity, Passion and Accountability. To demonstrate these Values, we expect to observe the following from everyone:

We treat each other with respect and we act with integrity

We communicate and keep each other informed

We put our heads together to problem solve and deliver excellence as a team

We have passion for our work and we pay attention to the little details

We foster an environment of accountability, take responsibility for our actions and learn from our mistakes

We do what we say we will do, when we say we are going to do it

We care about our coworkers, always taking an opportunity to make someone’s day better

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the individual(s) assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required. Management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties and to assign other duties as necessary. In addition, reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position.

gategroup is an equal opportunity employer committed to workforce diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status or other category under applicable law.

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