This role is hybrid, based in Weybridge, UK.
Journey with us!
Combine your career goals and sense of adventure by joining our exciting team of employees! Royal Caribbean Group is pleased to offer a competitive compensation & benefits package, and excellent career development opportunities, each offering unique ways to explore the world.
Summary
The Senior Manager Commercial Support, UKI & EMEA leads the commercial operations supporting Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises across the UK, Ireland, and EMEA.
The role is embedded within the Royal Caribbean Commercial department and acts as a strategic business leader to brand commercial teams, ensuring the integrity and compliance of commercial agreements and systems across diverse markets are in place.
You will have high levels of autonomy and will business partner with Managing Directors, Sales Directors, Commercial Teams and Brand leads to drive the development of partner agreements and market structures that enable the Sales teams to deliver growth whilst effectively managing ROI and COS.
The role will engage leadership regularly and provide commercial insight summaries relating to effective distribution management performance.
About the Team
The Commercial Support team plays a pivotal role in managing the operational and contractual backbone of Royal Caribbean Group’s partnerships with third-party trade partners across the UK, Ireland, and EMEA. Their work ensures that all commercial agreements are properly executed, tracked, audited, and aligned with brand strategy and legal compliance.
The team operates within the Commercial department and collaborates closely with Sales, Finance, IT, Legal and Trade Support teams.
Team Responsibilities
1. Contract lifecycle management Commercial Terms Agreements, Business Partnership Agreements, Trade Partner Agreements
2. Audit and compliance: SOX audits, financial validations, internal controls
3. Commission planning and payments: Override schemes, tactical bonuses, invoice processing
4. System integrity and partner setup: AS400/E2K, SalesForce, Tungsten
5. Strategic support for brand commercial teams and field sales
6. Cross-functional coordination with internal and external stakeholders
The team supports over 250+ trade partners across multiple jurisdictions and ensures financial accuracy and legal compliance in all commercial dealings.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Team Leadership & Management
7. Lead and motivate the team to ensure high standards of work and organisational engagement are achieved on a consistent basis.
8. Ensure the commercial team has presence and representation within the organisation
9. Coach and develop the team and strengthen business partnering whilst ensuring regular outputs are visible to the wider organisation
Commercial Effectiveness
10. Provide continuous challenge and recommendations to the business leads relating to commission schemes, tactical schemes and trade agent booking incentives.
Contract Management
11. Owns the creation, distribution, tracking, and legal filing of Commercial Terms Agreements (CTAs), Business Partnership Agreements (BPAs), and Trade Partner Agreements (TPAs) across UKI & EMEA
Lead Strategic Oversight of Business Partner Reporting and Data Governance
12. Provide strategic leadership in managing Business Partner reporting and data governance, ensuring accuracy, integrity, and timely insights to support decision-making and operational efficiency
13. Oversee weekly reporting processes, BPA lifecycle management, and Trade Partner profile administration, driving continuous improvement in onboarding, compliance, and system access across the organisation
Audit & Compliance
14. Oversees SOX audit processes including weekly and quarterly validations of agency profiles and commission plans
15. Ensures no commission payments are made to partners without signed agreements
16. Maintains audit-ready documentation and liaises with internal audit teams
Commission Oversight
17. Manages tactical bonus schemes and override commission payments
18. Validates performance results and ensures accurate invoice processing via Tungsten
19. Maintains a comprehensive override commission tracker
20. Provides ongoing assessments of success / failure and provides recommendations to the commercial functions for future schemes
System Integrity
21. Ensures correct setup and maintenance of agency profiles in AS400
22. Leads territory code management for Field Sales Teams
Stakeholder Communication
23. Coordinates tactical scheme communications to trade partners
24. Acts as liaison between Legal, Sales, IT, and Finance teams
Project Involvement
25. Supports the Royal X project transitioning from E2K to iTravel
Financial and Quantitative Responsibilities
26. Manage 250+ complex contracts across multiple jurisdictions across UK & EMEA
27. Oversee SOX audits to ensure all commission-linked Trade Partners are approved by brand Sales Directors
28. Validate financial accuracy of commercial reports to prevent overpayments on override commissions
Enhanced Responsibilities with Leadership & Strategy Focus
29. Lead with vision, setting strategic direction for the Commercial Support function
30. Represent the team at senior leadership forums and ensure visibility of strategic contributions
31. Partner with Sales and Brand leadership to co-create commercial strategies that optimise ROI and cost of sale
32. Lead strategic reviews of commission and incentive schemes, ensuring alignment with long-term business goals
33. Drive innovation in commercial models and partner engagement frameworks
34. Oversee the strategic evolution of partner agreements to support market expansion and regulatory compliance
35. Lead governance forums to ensure commercial integrity and risk mitigation across jurisdictions
36. Act as a senior liaison across Legal, Finance, IT, and Sales to align commercial operations with enterprise priorities
37. Deliver executive-level insights and recommendations to MDs and senior leadership
38. Lead transformation initiatives such as Royal X and iTravel migration, ensuring strategic alignment and change management
39. Champion digital enablement and process automation to future-proof commercial operations
40. Own strategic oversight of commercial performance metrics and reporting frameworks
41. Lead financial risk assessments and scenario planning to support executive decision-making
Qualifications
42. 5+ years in a similar position within Sales, Commercial or Travel industry
43. Strong commercial awareness and enterprise mindset
44. High attention to detail, organisational skills and problem solving ability
45. Strong communication, interpersonal flexibility and ethical integrity
46. Proficiency in systems and tools including Word, Excel, SalesForce, Brio, and PowerBI
It is the policy of the Company to ensure equal employment and promotion opportunity to qualified candidates without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sexuality, gender identity or expression, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law. RCL and each of its subsidiaries prohibit and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment.