Lead, Procurement (Air)

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.

This position will work on-site in our Miramar, Florida office.

Position Summary / Job Purpose:

This role will support all travel procurement and planning activities with strong emphasis on travel partner relations across all brands. The individual will have a strong commercial awareness and partner with internal stakeholders across all markets to deliver KPIs linked to this area.

Candidate will implement and develop air strategies that will support the global deployment plans for all brands. Functions will include; Identify opportunities, highlight Air constraints, and provide solutions/recommendations to internal stakeholders.

• Develop and execute new strategies to manage travel suppliers across all three brands.
• Responsible to conduct on going air assessment review for cruise programs in the planning and development stages.
• Candidate will be required to provide recommendations related to the available air capacity, identify constraints, provide alternative solutions, mitigate financial risk, and develop multi-year solutions.
• Analyse each brand sourcing targets related to their gateways/ports and determine if we have air constraints.
• Address operational issues with key suppliers to minimize financial impact as well as to make sure we drive improvements in cruise guest experiences.
• Support brand strategies, ensuring air requirements are aligned to sourcing targets, key gateways, available airfare analysis, and cruise program reviews.
• Devising strategic plans for airline development aligned to our own products/deployment plans throughout the world.
• Perform regular comparisons of airline contracts & schedules and compare these against our deployment schedules to find synergies, opportunities, or problems.
• Ensure sufficient inventory is in place to support business requirements based on deployment and passenger targets. This may include negotiating and securing allocations, groups, and charters.
• Candidate will be responsible in securing Air programs to support Silversea Expeditions programs, which may include utilizing multiple operators as well as manage multilayer contracts.
• Individual will support the brands to ensure full seat utilization is achieved and minimize financial impact of any committed air inventory (Ex Charters, Group Blocks, and Allocations).
• Candidate will be responsible for all their contracts and must have a high competency in dealing with legal compliance, mitigate financial exposure, payment structure, insurance requirements, and manage multi-year agreements.
• Candidate will be required to conduct ongoing quarterly review sessions with key suppliers, as well as strategically drive new partnership opportunities.
• Strong Negotiations skills and focus on remuneration programs.
• Analyze Air & Sea promotion opportunities and provide recommendations.
• Any other related duties as assigned by senior management.

• Strategic approach to sourcing Air.
• Strong negotiator and contract management.
• Drive Capital Efficiencies and ROI.
• Understand New Distribution Capabilities (NDC).
• Ability to present to Sr Leadership.
• Ability to work independently/self-starter.

• Brand leaders (All Brands), Revenue Management, Sales, Air Planning teams and in-market counterparts
• Miami HQ (GTS teams, Revenue Planning, Sales Teams)

• Qualification: bachelor's degree required or a minimum of 7 years relevant experience
• Strong analytical experience related to Airlines, Hotels, and Transportation
• Background in developing and/or implementing strategies to drive sourcing opportunities.
• Strong negotiations skills and contract management
• Familiar with Global Distribution Systems. Sabre preferred.
• Competent MS Excel user
• Excellent presentation skills, engagement and influencing skills.
• Team player, highly motivated and results driven with a positive 'can do' attitude.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced dynamic environment.
• Passion and tenacity for solving problems through creativity and resourcefulness.
• Comfortable dealing with ambiguity by creating structure and prioritizing effectively.
• Results orientation that is balanced between both long-term objectives and short-term performance.

• The physical demands described here are representative of those requirements employees must meet to perform the essential functions of this job with or without reasonable accommodations. While performing job functions the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, write, review and type reports, compile data, operate a pc, communicate, listen, and assess information.
• The employee may move about the office complex, may travel to other office locations, and may lift, push, pull or move 10 -15 pounds. Visual requirements include distant, close and color vision, and ability to adjust focus.
• The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of the job.