Senior Retail Performance Manager

We’re looking for a Senior Retail Performance Manager to join the Retail team at Edinburgh Airport in a newly-created role. This is a senior role that will take the lead on managing performance across a diverse portfolio of business partners, as well as supporting the Head of Retail in setting and delivering the annual Budget.

The Retail team, part of the wider Commercial X-Aero function, is responsible for ensuring that the retail offering at the airport - including shops, restaurants, bars, duty-free and foreign currency exchange – provides choice and great service for an increasingly diverse mix of passengers, while also delivering strong commercial return.

The airport is at a really exciting point in its history as we look ahead to annual passenger numbers increasing from nearly 16 million in 2024 to over 20 million by 2030 (and even more beyond). To satisfy this growth, the footprint of the airport will expand across most areas. The Retail team is laser-focused on ensuring that the major capital projects underway to deliver this transformation provide high quality space, in the right place and at the right time, to maximise the offering available to our diverse and growing passenger base.

You can find out more about the Commercial X-Aero team here.

The recruitment process will involve two in-person interviews with senior members of our X-Aero Team, one of which will include a task/presentation – a chance for you to show your passion for working in a commercial team! To support the process, we will also ask you to complete an Insights Discovery profile.

The Senior Retail Performance Manager will support the Head of Retail in delivering the annual Retail budget, including (but not limited to) the following:

Financial Management, Performance & Reporting

• Taking a lead role in the production of the annual Budget, Five-Year Plan and reforecasts, supporting the Head of Retail in challenging assumptions to ensure that these are both stretching and achievable
• Managing concessionaire performance to deliver the annual Budget, ensuring issues are identified and escalated early and performance management measures implemented
• Developing, under the guidance of the Head of Retail, and executing a strategic retail performance strategy at both total portfolio and individual category level, understanding seasonal changes in passenger mix and ensuring retailers are equipped to maximise sales opportunity
• Collaborating with the Commercial Analysts to harness available data to create insightful reporting formats for internal and external audiences, keeping these under continuous review
• Developing a framework of regular reporting (weekly/monthly/quarterly) to the wider team that ensures both successes and challenges are shared and actions communicated as appropriate
• Developing detailed insights into concessionaire performance across the full Retail portfolio, including holding regular performance reviews with concessionaires
• Identifying opportunities and initiatives to improve performance and mitigate underperformance
• On occasion, managing the termination and exit of underperforming concessionaires

  Customer Service

• Developing systems and processes to monitor concessionaire service levels and track compliance with contractual SLAs and KPIs
• Regularly inspecting concessionaires’ units to ensure a high standard of merchandising and operations that maximises the sales opportunity
• Reviewing and challenging concessionaires’ use of space to ensure continuous optimisation of space that delivers the most appropriate and productive mix for an evolving passenger base
• Creating methodologies to understand the Edinburgh Airport customer base, developing customer ‘profiles’ and gaining insight into the differing needs of each customer profile
• Maintaining a strong understanding of industry trends and their potential impact on retail categories

  Project Delivery

• Acting as Retail lead / Deputy Sponsor on (low value) capital projects to integrate new concessionaires into the airport and implement unit refurbishments
• Actively representing the Retail team, and wider X-Aero team, on cross-business workstreams to ensure that any commercial impacts are understood, quantified and appropriately addressed

  People & Team

• Line management, training and development of the Retail Performance Manager and Retail Operations Manager to support the activities above and providing oversight over day-to-day concessionaire operations and initial onboarding
• Providing clear direction to the Marketing support function to ensure marketing activities and deliverables are strategically targeted at new income opportunities and / or underperforming retailers to deliver return on investment
• Developing strong working relationships with the Business Development Managers to support bid processes for new concessionaires and challenge deliverability of proposed deals / forecasts
• Presenting to senior level forums, including Executive Committee, Commercial Review Committee and Board Sub-Committee, with the support of the Head of Retail
• Stakeholder management, ensuring that senior colleagues – in particular the Head of Retail and Chief Commercial Officer (X-Aero) – are kept up-to-date on emerging issues and mitigation plans
• Developing strong relationships with business partners as well as internally within the airport, the wider Vinci group and with peers at other UK and international airports

An experienced retail professional, the ideal candidate will tick most of the following boxes:

• Proven track record of success in senior retail management role, operating within a multi-unit or multi-site retail environment, ideally at regional manager level or equivalent, having operated at a senior level for at least five years
• Demonstrable experience setting, delivering and reporting against budgets, in particular identifying barriers to performance and developing plans to improve
• Educated to degree level or equivalent
• Demonstrable experience identifying, developing and delivering new business initiatives with a creative eye to bring forward new and relevant ideas
• A positive and tenacious attitude with an unwavering passion for success
• An excellent communicator, experienced in presenting insights and recommendations and influencing senior stakeholders / decision-makers
• An analytical mind, with a high level of numerical skills and an interest in using data to drive performance
• Experienced line manager capable of motivating, coaching and inspiring team members
• Highly experienced using full package of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• A problem solver who enjoys finding the solution in every problem
• A team player who can collaborate with other departments and stakeholders, and enjoys working with others to achieve a common goal

If your experience ticks some of the boxes but looks slightly different to what we’ve listed here, we encourage you to still apply. You could add something we didn’t know we needed.

• Opportunity for flexible working
• Pension scheme- employer contributions can be up to 7%
• 32 days holiday, based on full time roles, increasing with service
• Annual discretionary bonus
• Supporting your health and wellbeing- private healthcare after 1 years’ service, access to our Employee Assistance Programme and occupational health services
• Free car parking on site and when you go on holiday
• We offer a range of other benefits, find out more here

Why EDI?

We are Edinburgh Airport, where Scotland meets the world. The success of the airport comes down to our people, and you can help us deliver even more big days for our passengers and colleagues. The development of your career is important to us, and we’ll support and encourage this every step of the way. As a business we’re driven by our values – they’re at the core of our culture and everything we do. We’re looking for people who will demonstrate these values day-in, day-out. So if this sounds like you, apply now and get ready for your career to take off.

Building a diverse workforce that is inclusive and accessible to all is a priority for our business. As part of this journey, we are proud to be the first UK airport to be endorsed by WORK180. They only recognise great employers for all women. Find out about our policies on our WORK180 employer page.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we are committed to ensuring applicants with a disability can participate fully in our recruitment process. Please let us know in your application form if you require any adjustments, such as parking arrangements or alternative methods of communication.