Edinburgh Airport
Head of Commercial Strategic Analytics
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Head of Commercial Strategic Analytics
X-Aero
Vacancy type: Full-Time Permanent
Closing date: 19/10/2026
Salary: Competitive, based on experience
About the role
The Head of Commercial Strategic Analytics will lead a high-performing team, from Senior Manager to analyst level, responsible for solving Edinburgh Airport’s most complex commercial challenges, providing commercial performance insights and supporting the airport’s most significant strategic decisions.
The role combines hands-on analytical leadership with strategic commercial influence. Working closely with the Chief Commercial Officer and Commercial Leadership Team, the role will use advanced modelling, rigorous analysis and strong commercial judgement to shape major commercial deals, investments and long-term strategy.
The postholder will have direct involvement in significant airline agreements, retail and food and beverage concessions, car parking and eCommerce strategy, property and surface-access opportunities, commercial performance analysis and major commercial transformation projects. They will also coordinate commercial Business Plan modelling and forecasting alongside Finance.
This is a hands-on leadership role requiring the technical capability to build and challenge complex models, the commercial acumen to identify what creates value, and the confidence to influence senior stakeholders. The postholder will remain personally involved in Edinburgh Airport’s most complex analysis, while developing the capability of the wider analytics team and ensuring consistently high analytical standards.
About the recruitment process
The recruitment process for this role is likely to comprise of 3 stages, depending on the volume of candidates. The first stage interview will be a short, Teams call to meet some of the team and introduce yourself. Following this, successful candidates will be invited to complete an analytical task, and present this to some team members. We will then have an in-person team, where you will likely meet some of our wider Commercial team, and key stakeholders that are relevant to the role. More information on each stage will be provided to successful candidates.
We are committed to supporting diverse ways of thinking and working, so if you require adjustments in the recruitment process, please let us know on your application. You can find out more about our interview process here.
What you’ll be doing
Analytics leadership and hands-on delivery
- Lead the Commercial Strategic Analytics team of five, spanning Senior Manager to Analyst level, with accountability for the quality, timeliness and commercial relevance of its output.
- Set and manage the team’s analytical priorities, balancing major strategic projects, commercial decision support and recurring performance analysis.
- Remain hands-on in complex analytical work, including personally building, interrogating and challenging models and undertaking detailed analysis where appropriate.
- Review and quality-assure key analysis produced by the team, ensuring assumptions, methodologies and conclusions are robust and clearly evidenced.
- Establish consistent analytical standards, modelling practices and quality controls across the team.
- Ensure analysis moves beyond reporting what has happened to explaining why it happened, what it means commercially and what action should be taken.
- Develop scalable analytical tools, models and approaches that improve the speed and quality of commercial decision-making.
- Work with Data, IT and Finance to improve the accessibility, consistency and quality of data used by Commercial.
Commercial performance and insight
- Lead analysis of commercial performance across airlines, retail, food and beverage, car parking, eCommerce, property and other commercial income streams, ensuring the Commercial Leadership Team have clear and timely insight into performance, risks and opportunities.
- Develop appropriate KPIs, analytical frameworks and reporting to support effective commercial management.
- Identify trends, anomalies and changes in customer or commercial behaviour and translate these into actionable recommendations.
- Challenge existing reporting and analysis where it does not provide sufficient insight to support decision-making.
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Commercial strategy and decision support
- Support the CCO and Commercial Leadership Team in developing and delivering Edinburgh Airport’s commercial strategy and Business Plan, providing rapid, evidence-based analytical support and ensuring recommendations combine rigorous quantitative analysis with commercial judgment.
- Translate complex data and market insight into clear strategic choices and commercially focused recommendations.
- Identify opportunities to create or protect revenue, profitability and long-term value.
Major deals and investments
- Play a central role in shaping the strategy and commercial parameters for Edinburgh Airport’s most important agreements, including leading analysis supporting airline contracts, retail and F&B concessions and property initiatives.
- Assess alternative deal structures, value drivers, risks, sensitivities, protections and negotiating positions.
- Ensure the commercial and financial implications of major decisions are clearly understood by senior decision-makers, and support commercial leads throughout negotiations and approval processes.
Modelling and forecasting
- Lead the development, maintenance and continuous improvement of Edinburgh Airport’s key commercial and financial models, ensuring they are robust, transparent, auditable and easily understood.
- Personally build, interrogate and challenge complex models where required, particularly for Edinburgh Airport’s most strategically important decisions.
- Deliver passenger, revenue, pricing, demand, investment and long-term contract analysis.
- Coordinate strategic commercial forecasting and Business Plan modelling with the Finance team.
Value creation
- Maintain a prioritised pipeline of high-value commercial projects, with clear metrics quantifying the revenue, EBITDA, NPV and risk mitigation.
- Track performance against approved business cases and completed deals.
- Ensure the team delivers measurable value materially greater than its cost, with an ambition of more than five times team cost where reliably quantifiable.
Stakeholder engagement and influence
- Present clear recommendations to the CCO, Executive Team, Board, shareholders and other senior stakeholders, explain complex analysis in straightforward commercial language.
- Provide constructive, evidence-based challenge where assumptions or business cases are not sufficiently robust.
- Work collaboratively with Commercial, Finance, Legal, Procurement, Operations, Capital, IT and Data teams.
Team leadership
- Lead, motivate and develop the Commercial Strategic Analytics team.
- Create a culture of analytical excellence, commercial ownership, intellectual curiosity and delivery, creating an environment where analysts are encouraged to challenge assumptions and develop their own views.
- Set clear objectives, priorities and focus resources on the decisions and projects with the greatest commercial impact.
- Allocate work effectively across the team, matching the complexity of assignments with individual capability while creating development opportunities.
- Coach team members on technical analysis, commercial problem-solving, development of recommendations and communication with senior stakeholders, building succession and capability within the team.
- Remain close enough to the detail to provide effective technical challenge and support while giving team members appropriate ownership and accountability.
What we’re looking for
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Qualifications
- Degree-level qualification or equivalent relevant professional experience.
- A postgraduate qualification in business, finance, economics, statistics or a related discipline would be desirable.
Experience and capability
The successful candidate will have:
- Significant experience in commercial strategy, strategic consultancy, commercial finance, transaction advisory, pricing, revenue management or a comparable senior analytical role.
- A strong track record of using complex models to influence material commercial decisions.
- Experience supporting major negotiations, contracts, investments or strategic partnerships.
- Exceptional Excel modelling and forecasting capability, with the ability to personally build, interrogate and troubleshoot complex commercial models.
- Strong knowledge of scenario analysis, investment appraisal, sensitivity analysis and commercial risk.
- Experience using advanced analytical tools such as Python, R and quantitative techniques such as elasticity, regression analysis, market sizing and business-case development.
- Strong commercial acumen and the ability to combine quantitative evidence with sound judgement.
- Experience presenting to and influencing senior executive stakeholders.
- Proven capability leading and developing a small team of high-performing individuals, at different levels of seniority and experience.
- Strong experience turning recurring performance data into actionable commercial insight rather than purely producing management reporting.
- Experience in airports, aviation, travel, transport, infrastructure, retail, consumer or another asset-intensive commercial environment would be advantageous.
Personal qualities
The successful candidate will be:
- Highly motivated, ambitious and delivery focused.
- Commercially curious and strategically minded.
- Analytically rigorous with exceptional attention to detail.
- Confident influencing and constructively challenging senior stakeholders.
- Clear and persuasive when communicating complex issues.
- Hands-on and comfortable working directly with detailed models.
- Collaborative, adaptable and resilient.
- Able to work independently, manage competing priorities and deliver to tight deadlines.
- A strong people leader who develops talent and sets high standards.
- Comfortable moving between high-level strategic discussions and detailed analytical work.
- Passionate about developing analytical talent and raising capability across the team.
What we’ll offer you
- 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 year’s 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. We offer in-house and external training, both role specific and based on your objectives.
As a business we’re driven by our values – they’re at the core of our culture and everything we do. We will ask questions based on our values during your interview, as 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.
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
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