Air Category Manager

Festive Road • Atlanta, GA

10d • $125,000 - $130,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Festive Road is hiring an Air Category Manager to support a client’s Global Category Management Team in developing a best-in-class air travel program. The role focuses on airline supplier management and category strategy, helping transform the client’s travel and events program into an industry-leading solution. The successful candidate will take work from idea through design to completion with minimal oversight and work with a global team.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience.
• At least 5 years of experience in the business travel industry managing airline suppliers.
• Experience working with corporate travel management companies, online booking tools, travel and meeting suppliers, and other travel technologies.
• Strong understanding of the working parts of a global corporate travel team and the dependencies and downstream impacts of initiatives across the team.
• Strong understanding of airline data and analytics, airline savings, and related industry acronyms.
• Strong understanding of airline corporate contracting and the legal processes involved.
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Office and project management tools.
• Strong airline supplier management skills, including relationship management, governance, business planning, contract performance, and management of SLAs and KPIs.
• Strong analytical capability, including interpreting multiple data sources, identifying insights, and using data for commercial decision-making.
• Strong strategic sourcing and procurement skills, including using data and analysis throughout the end-to-end sourcing process.
• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to partner effectively and lead through influence.
• Ability to assess options, understand commercial implications, and identify opportunities to create value.
• Ability to collaborate across teams, identify synergies, and align people around shared outcomes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including building business cases, presenting recommendations, and influencing decisions.
• Experience establishing new ways of working through processes, tools, or technologies to improve information flow and engagement.
• Ability to prioritize and remain composed in a fast-paced, multi-project environment.

Responsibilities

• Participate in designing and creating category strategic plans, roadmaps, budgets, and resource plans.
• Use data, reports, and performance metrics to contribute to strategic plans, whitepapers, and business reviews, informing decisions and gaining leadership buy-in.
• Assess existing airline contract performance, identify customer service issues, recommend resolutions, and contribute data to global airline projects.
• Support sourcing events from market research and requirements development through implementation.
• Conduct cost and savings analysis, model alternative options, develop decision-making criteria, prepare cost estimates, and recommend suppliers.
• Develop and maintain relationships with preferred airlines and internal stakeholders across Procurement, Legal, and Finance; share best practices and help drive innovation.
• Support rollout of new technologies with the wider travel team, monitor adoption, and identify improvement opportunities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level