Underbelly Limited
Commercial Manager
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ABOUT UNDERBELLY
Underbelly is a UK-based live entertainment company that specialises in producing and programming ground-breaking theatrical productions and the creation of city-centre cultural events, festivals and venues across the UK, USA and Asia. Underbelly started at and is now one of the largest producers and venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where we are proud to have previously presented Fleabag in 2013 and Six in 2018. Current live Events include Skate in Leicester Square, Nevill Holt Festival, Christmas in Trafalgar Square, operations at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland and an annual summer festival in London. Underbelly, alongside ATG Productions, is the lead and originating producer of the Olivier Award winning Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. Other recent productions include Macbeth alongside Wessex Grove starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma. Underbelly is a dynamic workplace. We are a 25-year-old well-established business, but we maintain a positive dynamic to seek opportunities through disruption in the UK live entertainment marketplace. We are investing in growth and in our team and we are seeking this role to further strengthen our commercial capabilities in support of those goals.
ROLE OVERVIEW
This role reports to the CCO and sits at the centre of the commercial function. It is a broad role supporting across all areas of the CCO’s remit including strategy and planning, commercial decision-making, insight and analysis, and growth and business development.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategy and planning
- Drive the commercial planning and objective setting process across the Underbelly portfolio. Build the P&L for our events and productions using a deep understanding of the commercial dynamics of each venture.
- Set commercial targets and build the financial plan for the portfolio, leading the cross-functional process end-to-end
- Develop a holistic view of the revenue and cost drivers across events - ticketing, F&B, sponsorship, suppliers - and how they interact
- Translate commercial strategy into a plan and framework that Production, Programming, Marketing and Operational teams can work with
- Track performance against plan and update the commercial picture as the year unfolds
Commercial decision-making
- Support commercial decision-making across all areas of the business. Apply commercial rigour, develop decision-making frameworks and drive the commercial response to trading performance.
- Lead commercial thinking on customer proposition, price positioning, product line-up and packages
- Drive cost improvement and control initiatives from planning through to delivery
- Develop the frameworks for dynamic pricing, discounts and yield decisions across ticketing and F&B
- Support on the commercial terms with artists, co-producers and other creative partners
- Set the commercial framework for concessions and traders — who we work with, on what terms, and what mix works for each event context
- Articulate commercial implications of operational and creative decisions clearly and early
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Insight and analysis
- Own the commercial insight that is used across the business in support of decisions at every level.
- Build and maintain the models to track performance against budgets across the portfolio
- Develop reporting that gives the business a clear, timely view of commercial performance
- Analyse trading data and surface the insight that changes decisions
- Conduct benchmarking, market research and ad hoc analysis to inform decisions
- Use AI tools and modern analytical approaches to work faster and more effectively
Growth and business development
- Support the commercial work behind Underbelly's growth — whether improving the performance of existing events, developing new elements within them, or assessing and building the case for new opportunities.
- Identify and model opportunities to improve revenue and profitability within the existing portfolio
- Assess new event and venue opportunities — develop the business model, stress-test assumptions and structuring the commercial case
- Contribute the commercial case to tender and pitch documents
- Support sponsorship and partnership development with commercial frameworks and proposals
ABOUT YOU
Skills
We are looking for capability across 4 areas:
- Thinking power - strategic, analytical and commercial. This role requires you to grapple with complexity and ambiguity, create structure and clarity and make commercial judgements
- Analytical and financial capability - financial literacy, strong Excel modelling, comfort with AI tools and the ability to build models/tools that others can use and trust
- Communication and presentation – you convey insight and recommendations in a clear, concise way that is easy for others to understand and engage with, whether in writing or in person
- Management and coordination – you can lead a process, hold people to deadlines and drive cross-functional problem solving
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Experience
We are seeking candidates with following blend of experience:
- Solid grounding in a rigorous analytical discipline such as (but not limited to) consulting, finance, accounting
- Industry experience in live entertainment or a closely adjacent sector in a role that requires knowledge and experience of financial and commercial frameworks and dynamics (e.g. event/venue P&L, commercial contracts, supplier agreements, profit centres, yield per head)
- Responsibility for or involvement with commercial decision-making and development areas such as proposition and pricing, cost and margin improvement, business development and portfolio growth
- Experience in a high-growth or fast-moving environment where priorities shift, the playbook is there to be written and rolling up your sleeves is part of the job
Personal attributes
People at Underbelly are united by a love of live entertainment and events and doing work that is ultimately about bringing people together in real life to enjoy human experience. The business is full of people who are self-starters and team players; who will walk through walls to help each other and to ensure the show is a success. But we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we love a cow-pun, and we know life, and work, is about the journey not just the destination.
If this sounds like a herd you’d like to be part of, then we’d love to hear from you.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
Underbelly is committed to reducing its environmental impacts in its everyday operations. We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of Underbelly. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. It is the policy of Underbelly to ensure that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements that cannot be shown to be justifiable. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.
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