Director - Sales Strategy

United Airlines•Chicago, IL

16h•$159,790 - $207,998

About The Position

At United, we strive to provide only the best travel experiences – to our customers and our clients. Our Sales team works closely with travel agencies, United travel departments, corporate clients and more to provide phenomenal customer solutions that lead to fruitful business relationships. And through valued customer feedback, optimized partnerships, and innovative sales strategies, Sales continues to be the largest revenue-generating department at United. The Director of Sales Strategy will set direction of United’s B2B commercial dealings, by generating new ideas, carefully prioritizing strategic projects and analyses, and anticipating future needs of the business. The Director will deliver high quality insights, recommendations, and tools, informed by broad travel industry expertise and a bias toward innovating ideas new to the airline space. The Director will lead 3 Sales Strategy teams (Channel, Corporate, and Strategic Initiatives) and be the primary owner of Sales-led presentations in executive forums. Productive collaboration with other Commercial leaders, along with effective coaching of the sales strategy teams, are critical for this role.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree
Bachelor’s: Economics, Finance, Business, Engineering, Statistics, Natural Sciences, or similar
8+ years experience in roles equivalent to “management & administrative” at United
5+ years of leading a team
Strong analytical and unstructured problem-solving skills
Innovative and creative mindset, open to building new processes and methods
Ability to coach members of an analytics/strategy team to develop new capabilities within the team
Excellent business acumen and strategic thinking abilities, especially as it relates to airline revenue and cost drivers
Ability to make recommendations under uncertainty, with limited or no data
Ability to efficiently guide development executive-level communication materials (e.g. PPT decks), and to provide high-quality, actionable feedback that advances materials to a standard facilitating productive discussion
Ability to professionally drive toward consensus among disparate stakeholders with sometimes competing priorities
Communication skills allowing comfort with necessary engagement with executive leadership and stakeholders at all levels
Ability to manage leaders of others
Ability to manage multiple-interrelated priorities in a fast-paced environment
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship
Successful completion of interview required to meet job qualification
Reliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position

Nice To Haves

Master’s: Business Administration or similar
7+ years in management consulting, banking, private equity, and/or business strategy
5+ years in airline commercial functions e.g., network planning, revenue management, sales, or loyalty
Track record of successfully leading complex projects, working with cross-functional teams, and leading other leaders (not only individual contributors)
Wide range of knowledge and experience in the B2B travel landscape, including in airlines, hotels, rental cars, cruise, tour, and OTA
Ability to bring in ideas from outside the airline industry, to help United innovate in B2B commercial space
Proficient understanding of travel content distribution landscape including GDSs, aggregators, OBTs; and commercial aspects of NDC and EDIFACT
Knowledge of United’s data sources used by Sales and by Commercial groups
Knowledge of relevant analytical tools e.g. Python, SQL, PowerBI
Knowledge of statistical analysis techniques
Demonstrated understanding of the capabilities and limitations of generative AI tools and effectively leverages them to support research, analysis, content creation, and problem-solving. Application of critical thinking to validate AI-generated outputs while adhering to organizational policies for responsible AI use, data privacy, and security

Responsibilities

Set and adjust priorities for the 3 Sales Strategy teams (Corporate, Channel, Initiatives) and ensure successful delivery
Drive projects and ad-hoc analytics, to generate insights and/or tools to evaluate, design, measure, and deliver on B2B commercial programs
Lead and coordinate executive presentations, including owning material development and modeling a high standard for the quality of materials produced by the team
Drive rationalization and improvement in strategically-important processes and artifacts necessary to run Sales, including Salesperson Incentive Program design, reporting architecture and master data approach, and select strategic training efforts; often in concert with the India Knowledge Center (IKC), International Sales Resource Groups, Digital Technology, Sales Effectiveness, and others
Coach team members to develop in key areas e.g. unstructured problem solving, business acumen, executive messaging, influence, etc
Stay abreast of commercial and tech developments, and building relationships, in B2B space