This role is hybrid, based in Weybridge, UK.
Overview
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
* Contract lifecycle management: Commercial Terms Agreements, Business Partnership Agreements, Trade Partner Agreements
* Audit and compliance: SOX audits, financial validations, internal controls
* Commission planning and payments: Override schemes, tactical bonuses, invoice processing
* System integrity and partner setup: AS400/E2K, SalesForce, Tungsten
* Strategic support for brand commercial teams and field sales
* 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
* Lead and motivate the team to ensure high standards of work and organisational engagement are achieved on a consistent basis.
* Ensure the commercial team has presence and representation within the organisation
* Coach and develop the team and strengthen business partnering whilst ensuring regular outputs are visible to the wider organisation
Commercial Effectiveness
* Provide continuous challenge and recommendations to the business leads relating to commission schemes, tactical schemes and trade agent booking incentives.
Contract Management
* 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
* Provide strategic leadership in managing Business Partner reporting and data governance, ensuring accuracy, integrity, and timely insights to support decision-making and operational efficiency
* 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
* Oversees SOX audit processes including weekly and quarterly validations of agency profiles and commission plans
* Ensures no commission payments are made to partners without signed agreements
* Maintains audit-ready documentation and liaises with internal audit teams
Commission Oversight
* Manages tactical bonus schemes and override commission payments
* Validates performance results and ensures accurate invoice processing via Tungsten
* Maintains a comprehensive override commission tracker
* Provides ongoing assessments of success / failure and provides recommendations to the commercial functions for future schemes
System Integrity
* Ensures correct setup and maintenance of agency profiles in AS400
* Leads territory code management for Field Sales Teams
Stakeholder Communication
* Coordinates tactical scheme communications to trade partners
* Acts as liaison between Legal, Sales, IT, and Finance teams
Project Involvement
* Supports the Royal X project transitioning from E2K to iTravel
Financial and Quantitative Responsibilities
* Manage 250+ complex contracts across multiple jurisdictions across UK & EMEA
* Oversee SOX audits to ensure all commission-linked Trade Partners are approved by brand Sales Directors
* Validate financial accuracy of commercial reports to prevent overpayments on override commissions
Enhanced Responsibilities with Leadership & Strategy Focus
* Lead with vision, setting strategic direction for the Commercial Support function
* Represent the team at senior leadership forums and ensure visibility of strategic contributions
* Partner with Sales and Brand leadership to co-create commercial strategies that optimise ROI and cost of sale
* Lead strategic reviews of commission and incentive schemes, ensuring alignment with long-term business goals
* Drive innovation in commercial models and partner engagement frameworks
* Oversee the strategic evolution of partner agreements to support market expansion and regulatory compliance
* Lead governance forums to ensure commercial integrity and risk mitigation across jurisdictions
* Act as a senior liaison across Legal, Finance, IT, and Sales to align commercial operations with enterprise priorities
* Deliver executive-level insights and recommendations to MDs and senior leadership
* Lead transformation initiatives such as Royal X and iTravel migration, ensuring strategic alignment and change management
* Champion digital enablement and process automation to future-proof commercial operations
* Own strategic oversight of commercial performance metrics and reporting frameworks
* Lead financial risk assessments and scenario planning to support executive decision-making
Qualifications
* 5+ years in a similar position within Sales, Commercial or Travel industry
* Strong commercial awareness and enterprise mindset
* High attention to detail, organisational skills and problem solving ability
* Strong communication, interpersonal flexibility and ethical integrity
* 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.
We know there's a lot to consider. As you go through the application process, our recruiters will be glad to provide guidance, and more relevant details to answer any additional questions.
Thank you again for your interest in Royal Caribbean Group. We'll hope to see you onboard soon!
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