About the Role

As a Sr. Business Development Manager, Airline Partnerships (Europe), you will own and grow a portfolio of strategic airline relationships across Europe, driving both revenue and margin performance within Hopper's ecosystem. You will play a critical role in shaping Hopper's airline distribution strategy across NDC, GDS, and direct partnerships, working closely with leading European carriers such as Lufthansa Group, IAG, Air France-KLM, and Turkish Airlines.

This is a high-impact, commercially driven role where you will act as the primary interface between Hopper and airline partners, balancing relationship management, negotiation, and performance optimization.

What would your day-to-day look like

• Own and manage a portfolio of European airline partnerships with a P&L mindset, serving as the primary point of contact for commercial, distribution, and operational topics

• Build strong, senior-level relationships across airline sales, distribution, and revenue management teams

• Develop and execute strategies to grow top-line revenue (TTV) and improve unit economics, analyzing performance across channels (NDC vs. GDS), fare mix, and ancillary attachment rates

• Lead negotiations for new agreements, renewals, and extensions -- driving improved commercial terms including base commissions, sector rebates, and marketing development funds (MDF)

• Identify and act on opportunities to optimize underperforming partnerships

• Develop deep expertise in airline distribution (NDC, EDIFACT, aggregators) and European airline competitive dynamics, translating industry trends into actionable strategies

• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Growth/Marketing, and Finance to align on feature development, campaigns, forecasting, and deal modeling

• Track KPIs including revenue, margin, incentive attainment, and product mix, and lead Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) with airline partners.
  

An ideal candidate has

• 6+ years of experience in airline distribution, OTA, TMC, GDS, or airline partnerships in European markets; MENA experience is a plus

• A proven track record managing strategic accounts, negotiating commercial agreements, and driving measurable revenue growth

• Strong understanding of airline distribution (NDC vs. GDS), fare structures, ancillaries, and airline economics

• A commercial mindset -- you think in revenue and margin, not just volume, and have experience working with incentives, rebates, and performance-based deals

• Excellent presentation and storytelling skills; ability to communicate effectively with both airline executives and internal stakeholders

• Highly organized, self-driven, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, high-growth environment

• Bilingual or advanced proficiency in German, Spanish, or French is a plus
  

Perks and benefits of working with us:

• Well-funded and proven startup with large ambitions, competitive salary and the upsides of pre-IPO equity packages.

• Carrot Cash travel stipend

• Flexdesk All Access Pass & Work-from-home stipend

• Entrepreneurial culture where pushing limits and taking risks is everyday business

• Open communication with management and company leadership

• Small, dynamic teams = massive impact

Engagement Status: Independent Contractor

Note on Contractual Status 🇮🇪: This position is offered as an Independent Contractor engagement (Contract for Services) and does not constitute an offer of direct employment. The successful candidate will operate as a self-employed individual or through a Personal Service Company (PSC). You will be responsible for your own tax, PRSI, and VAT compliance in accordance with Irish Revenue Commissioners regulations. Engagement is contingent upon providing proof of valid business registration and appropriate professional indemnity insurance.

More about Hopper

At Hopper, we are on a mission to become the leading travel platform globally – powering Hopper’s mobile app, website and our B2B business, HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions). By leveraging massive amounts of data and advanced machine learning algorithms, Hopper combines its world-class travel agency offering with proprietary fintech products to bring transparency, flexibility and savings to travelers globally. We have developed several unique fintech solutions that address everything from pricing volatility to trip disruptions – helping people travel better and save more on their trips.

The Hopper platform serves hundreds of millions of travelers globally and continues to capture market share around the world. he Hopper app has been downloaded over 120 million times and has become largely popular among younger travelers – with 70% of its users being Gen Z and millennials.

While everyone knows us as the Gen Z and Millennial travel app, Hopper has evolved to become much more than that. In recent years, we’ve grown into a travel fintech provider, commerce platform, and global travel agency that powers some of the world’s largest brands.

Through HTS, our B2B division, the company supercharges its partners’ direct channels by integrating our fintech products on their sites or powering end-to-end travel portals. Today, our partners include leading travel brands like Capital One, Nubank, Air Canada, and many more.

Here are just a few stats that demonstrate the company’s recent growth:

Billions of dollars worth of travel and travel fintech are sold through Hopper and HTS’ channels every year.

Our fintech products – including Cancel for Any Reason and Flight Disruption Assistance – have exceptionally strong CSAT because the terms are always clear, and customers receive instant, no-questions-asked resolutions.

Almost 30% of our app customers purchase at least one fintech product when making a booking; and consumers are 1.6x more likely to repurchase if they add fintech to their booking vs if they booked just travel.

Given the success of its fintech products, Hopper launched a B2B initiative, HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions), which represents more than 75% of the business.

Through HTS, any travel provider (airlines, hotels, banks, travel agencies, etc.) can integrate and seamlessly distribute Hopper’s fintech or travel inventory on their direct channels. As its first HTS partnership, the company partnered with Capital One to co-develop Capital One Travel, a new travel portal designed specifically for cardholders. Other HTS partners include Air Canada, Uber, CommBank, Nubank, Flair Airlines and many more.

Hopper has been named the #1 most innovative company in travel by Fast Company Hopper has been downloaded over 120 million times and continues to have millions of new installs each month. Hopper is now the #3 largest online travel agencies in North America and 70% of our app customers are Gen-Z and millennials travelers.

Hopper has raised over $750 million USD of private capital and is backed by some of the largest institutional investors and banks in the world. HTS is primed to continue its growth as the leading travel ecommerce provider in a $1 trillion online shopping category. The Hopper app and website will also continue to be the preferred travel provider for Gen Z and Millennials..

Come take off with us!

This role utilizes automated decision-making systems to assess candidate suitability. Under local regulations, you have the right to understand the principal factors used in this assessment, request a correction of your data, or request a human review of any automated decision. To exercise these rights, please contact [email protected].

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