Luxury Commercial Sales Manager, South England

About Us

With over 200 brands sold in nearly 180 countries, we’re the world’s leading premium drinks company. From global icons like Johnnie Walker, Guinness and Tanqueray to Smirnoff and Don Julio, we create brands consumers love. Bring your passion and use your curiosity as you explore, collaborate and innovate. Together with passionate people from all over the world, you’ll test new ideas, learn and grow, and unlock a brighter, more exciting future. Join us to create a career worth celebrating!

Diageo has built a strong platform for growth – through investment in its own brands, and by acquisition to broaden the geographical footprint and category depth and range. The company’s strong local business units are well positioned to win in increasingly competitive and fast‑paced environments. Diageo’s portfolio is well‑diversified across price‑tiers, enabling it to participate where consumer opportunity is greatest, and to capture shifts in consumer preference. We have identified an opportunity to accelerate our luxury agenda by our Premium and Super Premium market share and NSV. To achieve this, we have created a dedicated luxury business unit in our GB Market to build distinctive iconic luxury brands and execute via strong customer partnerships in all channels.

This is a dynamic and exciting opportunity with a massive growth ambition to work with iconic global luxury brands.

About The Role

This is a pivotal leadership position reporting directly to the Head of Luxury On‑Trade, with responsibility for Diageo’s strategically critical Southern region. The role carries full accountability for driving P&L performance, accelerating distribution growth, and leading a high‑performing team. As a senior leader within the Luxury On‑Trade business, you will embody Diageo’s ambition to become the world’s best‑performing and most trusted consumer goods company. You will build category‑leading partnerships with some of the industry’s most prestigious outlets, representing our luxury portfolio with exceptional credibility, sophistication, and commercial acumen. The Luxury On‑Trade team plays a vital role in elevating Diageo’s presence within the top tier of on‑trade accounts, connecting our brands with influential luxury consumers and shaping culture within the region. As CSM for the Southern region, you will be a key member of the senior commercial leadership team, driving transformational growth and advancing Diageo’s luxury ambitions at pace and scale.

Experience / Skills Required

• Leadership commercial experience in Luxury product categories or high‑end accounts in the On trade is preferred.
• A proven track record of managing multiple influential retail customers and building new brand opportunities.
• Deep understanding of what is important to influential on trade GB customers and using this insight to drive the creation and execution of a clear and powerful commercial plan.
• Finger on the pulse of what is happening on the ground in both on‑trade and third space venues, and brilliant relationships with key influencers in the industry.
• Experience building and activating luxury brands in conjunction with central marketing teams, demonstrating a clear brand building capability and robust decision making across commercial and marketing levers.
• In depth category knowledge across spirits and the alcohol (& non‑alcoholic drinks) categories.
• Passion for premium and Super premium brands, customers & consumers.
• Advanced negotiation and customer relationship building skills.
• Robust commercial understanding, P&L literacy - innate numerical and analytical skills and ability to derive insight from data.
• Demonstrate deep personal accountability for performance.
• Ability to forge strong and effective cross‑functional team relationships and confidently interact with senior stakeholders internally and externally to deliver business outcomes.
• Effectively networked, to manage multiple external customers and collaborate with internal partners to build value for them.
• Proactive and entrepreneurial mindset to grow existing and win new customers ahead of our competition.

Key Accountabilities

• Lead, inspire, and develop a high‑performing team, fostering capability growth, coaching talent, and creating a culture of excellence.
• Define and execute the regional commercial strategy, delivering against ambitious P&L, distribution, and market share objectives.
• Drive sustainable internal P&L performance and external market share growth across the Diageo Luxury portfolio through clear strategic direction, data‑led decision making, and exceptional commercial execution.
• Use deep market insight, consumer understanding, and outlet performance data to identify growth opportunities and build winning regional plans that accelerate luxury on‑trade performance.
• Partner closely with the Luxury Marketing team to position Diageo brands at the heart of culture through best‑in‑class activations, elevated consumer experiences, and increased brand visibility within key outlets.
• Deliver distribution, execution, and performance targets consistently across monthly, quarterly, and annual cycles.
• Lead cross‑functional collaboration across commercial and marketing teams to implement global commercial agreements and unlock strategic partnerships across the region.
• Build and strengthen relationships with key customers and industry stakeholders, ensuring Diageo remains the partner of choice within the luxury on‑trade channel.

Flexible Working Statement

Flexibility is key to our success. Talk to us about what flexibility means to you, so that you’re supported to manage your wellbeing and balance your priorities from day one.

Diversity Statement

Our purpose is to celebrate life, every day, everywhere. And creating an inclusive culture, where everyone feels valued and that they can belong, is a crucial part of this. We embrace diversity in the broadest possible sense. This means that you’ll be welcomed and celebrated for who you are just by being you. You’ll be part of and help build and champion an inclusive culture that celebrates people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, age, sexual orientation, social class, educational backgrounds, experiences, mindsets, and more. Our ambition is to create the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. Join us and help transform our business as we take our brands to new heights and build new ones as part of shaping the next generation of celebrations for consumers around the world.