Head of Commercial Flights (Bangkok-Based)

Location: Bangkok

Market taking care of: APAC

The opportunity:

Agoda first started selling air tickets in late 2019 we are currently looking to grow the commercial team in APAC to help grow our young Flights business into a market leader in APAC.

As the Head of the Flights Commercial Team, you will have the responsibility of looking after all our partners in APAC. You will be directly leading and managing a team of Flight Commercial Managers based in APAC. The team will be responsible for identifying new partners and opportunities, cultivating a relationship with our partners, and working together with them to deliver the best outcome for our end customers. You will also be working closely with other teams within Agoda to ensure the partners needs are met.

You will report to the VP of Supply (Accommodations and Air) in the Supply Department. You will be supported by a team within the Supply department and work closely with other Flight Team members within Agoda (Product, Finance, Marketing).

You will have the opportunity to be part of an exciting and brand new team and new business vertical for Agoda and have the rare opportunity of joining a start-up within an established company.

In this role, you are responsible for:

• Overseeing the Flights Commercial team in APAC
• Developing and executing business strategies and plans to achieve short- and long-term goals for the business and also for each market
• Ensure overall management of partners and performance in markets including commercial negotiations, operations, pricing and availability
• Working closely with other Flights stakeholders within Agoda (Product, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Tax) to ensure overall joint growth of the Flights business
• Maintaining positive and trust-based relations with air suppliers and key business partners overall
• Having a strong sense of Ownership and end to end responsibilities on the business. Detail oriented and able to be deeply involved in understanding the needs
• Ability to negotiate, communicate, manage difficult conversations and build strong and trusted relationship with partners
• Analyzing the online travel ecosystem, markets, competitive landscape, and requirements
• Identifying, conceptualizing, launching, and optimizing products and features, experimenting, testing their performance, and iterating quickly
• Developing innovative solutions to difficult problems by collaborating as needed across regions, product areas, and functions
• Managing communications to key senior stakeholders in Agoda, updating on business performances, risks and issues and optimization plans.

What you'll need to succeed:

• Proven experience as a senior leader in a commercial or partner facing role within Agoda (Directors and above) or
• OTA experience covering multiple aspects (Product knowledge, Operations, Commercial negotiations, Legal) preferred or
• Flights industry experience (preferably within APAC) in multiple domains such as supply/distribution, user experience, marketing, customer service, tax, legal, etc.
• Successful experience directly managing any commercial, account management or sales teams in a relevant industry
• Proven ability to develop and design cohesive, realistic and ambitious plans for growth
• Proven ability to leverage analytics and data to inform and influence decision-making
• Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written in English)
• Entrepreneurial and analytical skills able to break down complex problems and driving and managing change
• Hands-on mentality
• Demonstrable experience in developing strategic initiatives and end-to-end business plans

It's great if you have:

• MBA or Master's degree in Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science or Statistics and
• Comfort using data tools such as SQL, Python, R or equivalent.