Director of Client Delivery - Melville, NY

Accommodations Plus International•Melville, NY

50d•$90,000 - $110,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Assists leadership with leading/managing the Client Delivery team. This role will plan, manage, and coordinate Client Delivery activities to ensure goals and objectives are accomplished. This role will be the voice of the customer, making sure that all delivery functions – Contracting, Operations, Technology, Product, and Accounting - are consistent and in line with achieving our customer’s success. This position requires strategic vision to identify and interpret market trends and set appropriate hotel sourcing strategies. Along with excellent negotiation skills, extensive contracting experience and strong team management you coach and develop the team to deliver aggressive savings targets to provide maximum value to our customers whilst developing and maintaining progressive supplier relationships. A leader who is a strategic thinker with strong commercial acumen, a customer focus and the ability to engage effectively with a broad range of stakeholders and partners to drive business outcomes and the ability to communicate at a senior level as well as operational team members. Developing supplier continuous improvement and applying tools and techniques based on current knowledge of best practice strategic sourcing and the hotel marketplace.

Requirements

Established (at least 5 years) of experience in a category manager procurement role
Experience in the travel industry preferable.
Bachelor’s degree in business administration or similar
Strong governance, process and change management experience
Negotiated major strategic and complex deals, that delivered significant commercial outcomes.
Sound appreciation of category management principles and processes, with an advanced working knowledge of contract law.
Proven ability to effectively manage workload in a fast-paced environment relying on extensive experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals.
Problem Solving/Analysis
Detail-oriented
Relationship builder
Highly proficient in Excel and Powerpoint
Ability to multi-task and work under strict deadlines
Leadership
Excellent interpersonal and integrative negotiation skills
Develop and maintain budgets
Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
Ability to work with diverse cultures
Strong results focus, with a continuous improvement skill set.
Flexible schedule and travel availability needed based on business needs

Nice To Haves

MCIPS qualified preferred

Responsibilities

Establish and maintain relationships with key stakeholders at senior levels within the airline and hotel partners.
Communicate and meet with major clients on a regular basis to ensure that API deliverables are met.
Support Client Delivery Team to create client sourcing strategy based on solid market insights
Report on strategy and savings matrix for North America accounts
Lead Client Delivery Team to develop Strategic Account Plans for their Airlines and ensure that they deliver according to the plan and keep updated throughout the year
Suggest solutions and innovative ideas to meet client needs
Ensure Client Delivery Team handle complaints and problems in a timely and effective manner.
Support Client Delivery Team to prepare monthly, quarterly and annual reports and budget forecasts for client.
Train Client Delivery Team to thoroughly and effectively conduct site inspections domestically and international when required to ascertain suitability for airline in line with minimum requirements.
Undertake Site Inspections from time to time in key markets
Support the effective management of union relationships as part of the site inspection process
Provide strategic leadership to identify opportunities to expand products within North American accounts.
Communicate to the VP on client performance, strategies and needs.
Ensure Client Delivery team remain on track with sourcing deliverables and airline sign off approval processes are followed.
Ensure Client Delivery Team maintain action log to ensure all parties are aware of action points and follow up resolve points are understood, leading weekly meetings internally with Client Delivery Team to review so they are appropriately prepared for client meetings
Support and help prepare client communications ranging from weekly performance meetings to business reviews.
Review all details of a destination presentation to ensure they are accurate before being offered to the airline for review.
Document, trouble shoot and resolve operational and sourcing challenges
Become knowledgeable with API’s technology platforms for the Client Delivery department.
Ensure Client Delivery teams and maintaining and updating spreadsheets and databases as required
Support VP Client Delivery on assigned projects as requested in line with the growth of the business.
Support Client Delivery team to ensure the correct process, client focus, and communication is conveyed to create exemplary performance for the client.
Manage multiple projects and facilitate their success from the original concept to the final implementation.
Provide organization, direction and coordination for business reviews, ensure savings matrix is maintained accurately.
Support VP Client Delivery by providing coaching of Client Delivery team and identifying areas for growth and training opportunities.
Hold weekly planned individual meetings with team members to review current workload and ensure work is on track
Lead, grow and manage the North American Client Delivery team to ensure the correct process, client focus, and communication is conveyed to create exemplary performance for the client
Coordinate with Operations, Technology, Product and Accounting departments with the objective of raising, consolidating and prioritizing requests until the solutions are implemented or topics are addressed.
Relationship management: Develop and maintain strong relationships with the clients at all different levels.
Ability to manage multiple projects and facilitate their success from the original concept to the final implementation
Work closely Client Delivery team to coordinate project details and to ensure timely and effectively completion
Provide organization, direction and coordinate for business reviews, savings matrix, new client implementations and all other client specific initiatives
Develops people within the team and across capabilities by coaching, identifying areas for growth, celebrating successes, managing promotion process, keeping an open dialogue with the team, identifying training opportunities
Consistently provides team members guidance, goal setting and performance feedback on a regular basis
Become knowledgeable in all API technology platforms to ensure clients are aligned with appropriate software solutions.
Ensure Strategic Account Plans are implemented effectively for all North America Clients
Oversee the central repository for contracts (salesforce), including activity planning and the timely execution of contracts.
Obtain data from varied sources to identify and support fact-driven opportunities. Ensure analysis is accurate, comprehensive and robust.
Lead Client Delivery teams to conduct risk analysis to continually review contracts and market opportunities and take action as required.
Share market knowledge and experience with team members to support the success of all airline accounts.
Develop, implement and manage an appropriate SRM Strategy across Clients, hotel and ground transport supplier program.
Manage crew feedback specialist in managing crew member feedback via our online portal for all assigned accounts ensuring any complaints are addressed in a timely fashion accordingly with our hotel partners and documented.
Identify where supplier performance management is required and implement performance improvement plans where necessary
Ensure the team add new hotels to the system and ensure all information is accurate.
Ensure the clients using HotelExpress have an appropriate portfolio of contracted hotels available and the Client Delivery team are effectively managing the supplier and client relationships. Ensure they are loaded and maintained properly on HotelExpress for clients.
Ensure Client Delivery team are loading all hotel contract information correctly into ACES for OPS and for Accounting.
Ensure the Client Delivery teams are effectively managing ACES schedules monthly to ensure hotels are downloading their schedules and identifying any risk in advance. Ensure teams are assisting OPS department with follow up to the hotels to ensure that schedules are accepted, and trouble shoot any issues.
Ensure that client back up lists are accurate and loaded into ACES for OPS.
Ensure all opportunities (upcoming contract expirations and/or new destinations) are in Salesforce with accurate business start dates and revenue projections
Ensure contracts are entered into Salesforce prior to contract start date.