At Navan, airline partnerships shape the content, choice, and service our travelers experience. As Manager, Airline Partnerships, you’ll own and grow a portfolio of airline partners across the Americas, securing competitive content and commercial agreements that create value for travelers, airline partners, and Navan.
You’ll lead negotiations, turn performance data into growth opportunities, and work with Product and Operations to bring better airline content to our customers. This role combines relationship building with commercial rigor: you’ll have the autonomy to develop your supplier relationships, influence our airline strategy, and see your work translate into revenue growth and a better booking experience.
What You’ll Do:
- Build and grow relationships with carriers across the Americas, conduct business reviews, and engage with key partner stakeholders, with particular emphasis on South America
- Lead airline partner engagement for Navan Signature Services and act as its airline partnerships subject matter expert across Navan Premier, Navan Events, Navan Specialty, and Navan Concierge.
- Evaluate, negotiate, and renew airline agreements, including incentives, content access, and marketing opportunities.
- Own revenue forecasts, track incentive attainment and partner commitments, and monitor booking trends and profitability. Identify performance gaps early and execute plans to meet or exceed commercial goals.
- Analyze deal economics, model commercial scenarios, and translate complex data into clear recommendations for senior leadership and airline partners.
- Partner with suppliers, Product, Engineering, and Operations to expand access to competitive fares and relevant content across various content channels.
- Coordinate with Finance, Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, and other stakeholders on partner initiatives. Equip customer-facing teams with clear airline updates and resolve issues that affect partnership performance.
- Build our industry relationships at partner meetings and events, and bring insights on airline retailing, distribution trends, and emerging risks back to the team.
What We’re Looking For:
- 5+ years of experience in airline partnerships, travel supply, distribution, commercial account management, or a related travel industry role, ideally working with or for airlines.
- A track record of leading commercial negotiations and growing partner relationships, with clear examples of revenue growth, stronger economics, or improved customer value.
- A strong understanding of airline distribution, including global distribution systems (GDS), New Distribution Capability (NDC), and direct connections, and how these affect content, pricing, and servicing.
- Strong analytical and financial skills, including advanced Excel or Google Sheets proficiency and the ability to build forecasts, assess profitability, and turn data into a clear course of action.
- Excellent written and verbal communication in English
- Sound judgment, strong organization, and a bias toward action. You can manage a portfolio independently, navigate ambiguity, and coordinate multiple teams to deliver results.
- Bachelor’s degree in business, economics, hospitality, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- Ability to travel for airline partner meetings and industry events.
Navan uses AI-assisted Automated Employment Decision Tool (Metaview) to assist with evaluating resumes against job qualifications for this role. All final decisions are made by human recruiters and hiring managers.
Human oversight: Metaview does not automatically reject candidates or make final hiring decisions. Our recruiters and hiring managers review all outputs and make the final hiring decision regarding every application.
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