Director, Commercial Finance

Introduction to team

Private Label Solutions (PLS) is the B2B arm of Expedia Group. We open up our supply and innovative technology to businesses looking to take on the world of travel. These businesses, sometimes referred to as our ‘demand partners’, include global financial institutions, corporate managed travel, offline travel agents, global travel suppliers and many more.

Make an impact!

Our Commercial Finance team within PLS enables profitable and sustainable partnerships by proposing long-term innovative strategies to support growth, while ensuring financial stewardship. We seek to enhance ecosystem value by breaking down barriers and connecting EG’s capabilities with our partners globally.

In this role, you will:

• Lead New Business and Global Inside Sales finance team to ensure delivery of weekly and monthly regional financial management information and high-level commentary for distribution at an Executive level
• Be the key finance stakeholder in the preparation, review and approval of strategic contracts, leading commercial negotiations. Key deliverables include feeding into the Executive presentation providing critique and recommendations as to the robustness, stretch and achievability within such deals.
• Lead, alongside the functional VPs, the annual strategy plan for our Global Business Development team. Deliver the strategy to the Leadership Team of PLS
• Analyze and assess current business performance to drive profit and profitability improvements globally.
• Lead the process in setting annual and quarterly target/ forecast for the business development and sales teams; support revisions to forecast and target setting/changes to compensation plans as needed.
• Lead the team to deliver high class business intelligence and sales reporting. Work with key stakeholders in finance, analytics and sales to ensure information is relevant, timely, reliable and interpreted for the needs of the Sales leaders, Account Managers and Business Development Managers and Leadership Teams.
• Lead and deliver against key finance strategic initiatives, be responsible for driving effective value adding in designing our processes and advising on global internal project(s) and strategic initiatives.
• Collaborate and represent Commercial Finance globally within a cross-functional team to experiment and implement strategic initiatives.
• Disseminate financial knowledge and process across the sales team & regional finance teams. Provide training and coaching, as appropriate, to enable them to maximize potential.
• Build, lead and motivate a diverse and effective team. Empower team members to take responsibility and accountability.
• Provide leadership and mentorship, developing and coaching the individuals to be effective partners to our stakeholders.
• Support the Senior Director of Commercial Finance to enhance, develop and implement improved processes and controls, to facilitate sustainable, profitable scaling of the PLS business

Experience and qualifications

• Minimum of 12 years of relevant professional experience in business finance, commercial finance or FP&A, with minimum 6 years of experience in leading a high performing finance team
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, ability to participate in C-level presentations and work with all levels of management, across multiple organizations globally
• Demonstrated ability to influence decision without authorization
• Highly analytical with excellent understanding of business P&L
• Proven proactive and outcome driven approach towards business problems and process improvements
• High level of intellectual curiosity that drives strong sense of ownership and desire for continuous improvement
• Ability to interpret and present data in a visually compelling format to diverse partners
• Ability to lead cross functional projects and processes
• Highly proficient with Excel and PowerPoint. Experience with Oracle and Hyperion a plus

Senior Account Manager

Travel Partnerships and Media helps partners deliver excellent traveler and B2B experiences, driving growth for them and the Expedia Group marketplace through competitive supply, a valued advertising and travel media network, and affiliate solutions.

We are seeking a highly motivated Senior Account Manager in the Hotel Enterprise Partnerships (HEP) team which sits within the Travel Partnerships and Media division of Expedia Group to develop our partnerships with major hotel chains in the Asia Pacific region. Reporting to the Director of Strategic Accounts, this role will have full ownership and revenue responsibility for a significant portfolio of global and key hotel chain partners. The main responsibility is to drive revenue targets, ensure rate & inventory competitiveness, structure deals, and execute contract renewals. The role requires the implementation of growth strategies for the assigned accounts as well as owning and driving Expedia Group partnership initiatives beyond distribution with our partner organizations.

What you’ll do:

• Account Management (30%)
  Focus on hitting key metrics in the short term (rate and inventory competitiveness / revenue growth)
  Understand partner strategy and objectives to help partners see opportunities to increase revenue and shift share
  Promote merchandising and advertising opportunities
  Deliver Business Reviews to the leadership of the different accounts
• Relationship Management (30%)
  Day-to-day internal and external relationship management
  Establish relationships by visiting partners in the region and engaging in regular discussions and meetings
  Develop positive relationships with major internal departments to promote HEP and find opportunities
• Contracting (20%)
  Negotiate, understand and implement creative and sophisticated deals
  Design deal models
  Initiate annual contract renewals for accounts
  Lead coordination of contracts between Market Management and partners
• Pillar and/or Project Roles (20%)
  Lead or actively participate in pillar roles and/or strategic projects, working cross-functionally with internal stakeholders to drive value for the business
  Play an active role in mentoring and developing employees, motivates, and guides individuals and teams in learning and improving efficiency

To be successful in this exciting role, you will need:

• Sales & Negotiation: Effectively works in a defined portfolio of accounts, identifying prospective partners, and negotiating optimally in a constructive, consultative, and collaborative manner.
• Passion for Results: Maintain high standards for the individual, team and organizational accomplishment. Tenaciously work to meet or exceed ambitious goals. Derive satisfaction from goal achievement and continuous improvement.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to clearly and concisely present issues, ideas and recommendations in verbal, written and presentation formats across all levels of the organization.

Who you are:

• 8+ years of shown negotiation experience and/or account management working autonomously, ideally with extensive experience across the Asia Pacific region
• Excellent problem-solving and a positive can-do attitude
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills, and a driven curiosity to identify emerging business trends and ensuing needs
• Excellent customer service, relationship-building ethic, and social intelligence
• Comfortable dealing with uncertainty by crafting structure and prioritising optimally, and ability to lead sophisticated discussions and projects simultaneously
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, and experience presenting to different stakeholder groups including senior leaders
• Proficient interpersonal skills and an ability to prioritize based on the needs of the business, with a keen eye for detail
• Adept in public speaking from leading a small presentation or workshop to large scale industry events
• Related experience from Market Management, Connectivity, Media Solutions or consultancy is a plus
• High proficiency in MS Office tools (i.e. Word, Excel and PowerPoint)
• Knowledge of the hospitality industry is desirable
• Proficiency in English, additional Asian languages a big plus
• University Degree or equivalent work experience (Master’s degree a plus)

Senior Manager, Customer Experience

Are you an experienced B2B operations professional, with a passion for operating within a matrixed organisation and influencing through strong stakeholder management? If you are looking to join a global team (with regional focus on Asia Pacific) to deliver service that differentiates Expedia Group in the travel marketplace, this role is for you.

As the Senior Manager, Partner & Traveller Experience within the Traveller and Partner Servicing Platform (TPSP) organization, you will be accountable for the delivery of business to business (B2B) servicing for our Expedia Partner Solutions (EPS) demand partners across the Asia Pacific Region (APAC). Leading a team of Partner and Traveller Experience Specialists, and working across a highly matrixed organization, you will play a key role in building strong relationships with internal commercial & operational stakeholders and external demand partners, with accountability for the successful delivery of servicing strategy.

What you’ll do:

• Accountability to help define & deliver APAC service strategy for both A2A and CDS operations supporting our demand partners:
• Work closely with retail operations to ensure servicing levels are achieved and staffing / quality controls (such as vendor quality calibrations) are in place to meet APAC demand partner network requirements real-time and for future growth
• Manage and audit EPS specific agent processes, agent knowledge base and agent communication processes to ensure efficient and effective service handling
• Help prioritize bugs in accordance with impact to operations and key metrics.
• Drive improvements in escalation management & intent insights across all APAC languages and LOB
• Establish deep understanding of agent tools, processes & policies to support the EPS business.
• Understand regional business norms / trends / competitor landscape to ensure our B2B service proposition is best in class
• Use data to identify efficiencies, customer service segment differentiation, and optimize against contractual obligations
• Stakeholder Management (internal/external) – managing expectations to align with TPSP goals and initiatives to maintain / reduce costs and drive revenue:
• Reduce unnecessary EPS demand partner / commercial account management escalations through root cause analysis, workflow improvements and initiatives to increase operational efficiencies
• Maintain balance between big picture and moving individual issues to conclusion
• Establish reporting needs and business review cadence to meet stakeholder needs
• Develop and maintain formal daily / weekly communications with retail operations, EPS commercial account management, and other internal stakeholders as required, to ensure processes are being followed, reports are being maintained and actions processed
• Utilize current reporting or develop new reporting to monitor cost and revenue to ensure TPSP departmental goals are achieved
• Through analysis, work with retail operations and EPS commercial teams to minimize errors, write offs and fraud
• Where appropriate, support the EPS commercial team in external partner facing forums
• Service Enhancement & Continuous Improvement – leveraging the full suite of TPSP agent tools to drive efficiencies and effectiveness:
• Support prioritization across the EPS & TPSP product portfolio by helping gather accurate tracking and business insights to support business impact sizing
• Use data to establish the most efficient channel to service traveler and agency needs
• Feed key insights to the right department to ensure EPS demand partner / internal stakeholder insights are effectively captured & where appropriate, actioned
• People Management – strong leadership qualities, in alignment with the EG Leadership Agreement values of Include, Grow & Own:
• Sets clear team strategy and goals for the APAC region that align to commercial and TPSP objectives
• Coach & mentor to develop individual & overall team skillset
• Fosters an environment of continuous improvement & growth where individuals are empowered & encouraged to drive self & business improvements
• Recognizes staff potential and guides employees in developing skills by recommending appropriate training and sources of information
• Creates environment for team effectiveness, where strengths are known and built upon and learning is shared to build capacity
• Obtains resources needed to reach individual and team goals
• Prioritizes team morale and productivity, celebrating team accomplishments
• Promotes collaboration among team members. Encourages others to cooperate and coordinate efforts

Who you are:

• 8+ years’ experience in operational B2B customer service, management consulting or corporate strategy, preferably at a travel/ecommerce company. To include 3+ years’ experience in people management
• Fluency in English and one or more of the following languages, Korean, Mandarin, Japanese
• Ability to travel domestically and/or internationally approximately 25% of time
• Experience rolling out operational projects designed to improve productivity and/or drive customer satisfaction
• Ability to work collaboratively in cross-functional team in the heart of a matrixed organization
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills
• Distinctive problem-solving and analytical skills, with impeccable business judgment
• Experience leading complex operational and strategic initiatives
• Demonstrable experience in influencing for success

Business Development Director, Travel Partnerships

The Business Development Director, Travel Partnerships is responsible for developing the regional strategy and deal pipeline - and prospecting, signing, and launching new partnerships. This role requires you to be tenacious, creative, collaborative, and eager to tackle long-term challenges.

The partnerships are long term, high value and complex – so whilst you are motivated by targets, at heart you are a relationship builder and problem solver. You will need the ability to build and cultivate relationships with partners across all levels and functions of their organisation; quickly assess the commercial potential of each opportunity; and lead all facets of structuring, negotiating, and closing partnerships. Internally, your success will depend on your ability to develop and leverage strong cross functional partnerships – a highly collaborative approach is a must!

Expedia® Private Label Solutions (PLS) brings the power of Expedia Group to thousands of partners around the world. As Expedia Group’s team focused on building 360 strategic partnerships with key travel companies across the globe, our mission is to create new B2B partnership opportunities and work relentlessly to fuel our partners’ growth. Across the travel sector, we provide partners with the innovative technology, high quality travel supply - spanning lodgings, air, car hire and activities – and best in class rates and availabilities they need to gain a competitive edge.

By offering partners the flexibility to use our products in the way that best suits their business – whether that’s a fully-customizable solution through our APIs, a white label or co-branded template solution or agent booking and service tools – we give them even more opportunities to build the perfect experience for their travellers.

What you’ll do:

• Develop a detailed understanding of Expedia’s products and technology, and strategically and enthusiastically convey these solutions to potential partners
• Track and evaluate partner technology requirements and work with product and technical teams to influence product roadmap prioritisation to deliver to market needs
• Collaborate cross-functionally to work through complex deals with multiple variables, terms, and product requirements
• Conduct detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis to assess viability of potential new business and channel opportunities
• Evaluate connectivity options to amplify necessary distribution channels to penetrate new market opportunities
• Lead deal structuring, commercial negotiations, and drive the contract process in a thorough and efficient manner
• Attend and be the voice of Private Label Solutions (PLS) for our travel partners at relevant industry conferences and events
• Establish positive relationships within Expedia’s supply and operational functions to help operationalize new strategic partnerships

Who you are:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field; or equivalent related professional experience
• 8+ years of relevant work experience in business development and partnerships in the technology or internet sector
• Strong English Communication skills
• Travel industry experience (especially in airlines industry) , and previous experience with travel technology products and operations strongly preferred
• Demonstrated ability to manage through a long sales cycle or project from start-to-finish
• Relationship builder and cultivator, who assumes good intent and brings positivity to collaborative problem solving
• Capable of handling multiple priorities with a high degree of flexibility and accountability
• Experience creating and negotiating complex commercial models
• Strong critical thinking, and problem-solving skills; able to navigate new and uncharted opportunities or problems with curiosity and boldness
• Effective listening and consultative selling skills
• Excellent communication and public speaking skills, including the creation and presentation of proposals to senior level executives; excellent business writing skills with strong attention to detail
• Ability to travel (c25% of time) and flexible working hours