Commercial Manager

At SSP, we’re looking for a commercially driven Commercial Manager to help shape performance across our Casual Dining & Bars, Coffee & Bakery and Retail categories, with a key focus on Ireland and Northern Ireland. This is a high-impact role in one of our key strategic markets, where you’ll work closely with operational teams and senior stakeholders to drive like-for-like sales growth, improve gross margin and support EBITDA delivery across busy, fast-paced travel locations. If you love turning insight into action, spotting opportunities others miss, and bringing commercial plans to life in partnership with the business, this could be the role for you.

What you’ll be doing

• You’ll play a key role in building and delivering commercial plans that drive performance across your brands and categories.
• From pricing and promotions to range optimisation, upselling and space utilisation, you’ll use a range of levers to unlock growth and improve profitability.
• You’ll also focus on gross margin improvement by identifying supplier income opportunities, supporting smarter menu and recipe development, and finding practical ways to reduce waste and labour impact without compromising the customer offer.
• This is a role with real visibility. You’ll regularly present plans, performance and recommendations to senior stakeholders, including UK and Global leadership, so you’ll need to combine strong commercial thinking with confidence, rigour and credibility.
• Success in this role will come from strong collaboration. You’ll work closely with operational leadership teams in Ireland, as well as wider internal and external stakeholders, to ensure initiatives are practical, well‑executed and deliver results in our travel environments.

What we’re looking for

• We’re looking for someone who is highly commercial, analytical and confident working in a fast‑moving environment.
• You’ll bring experience of using tools such as pricing, promotions, range, display, space utilisation, category optimisation and upselling to improve commercial performance.
• You’ll be comfortable using data and evidence to shape decisions, drawing clear insights from analysis and turning them into persuasive recommendations.
• You’ll also have the ability to test, learn and refine ideas, then work with the business to implement them successfully.
• Experience of managing and influencing senior stakeholders is important, as is the ability to build strong relationships across operational teams, clients and brand partners.
• A good understanding of the food and beverage, hospitality or grocery market would be a real advantage, along with knowledge of the operational realities of running busy units — including waste, labour, layout, equipment and seasonality.

At SSP, we’re passionate about creating places people want to be — whether that’s for our customers, our partners or our colleagues. When you join us, you’ll be part of a business where commercial thinking, collaboration and ownership really matter, and where your work can make a visible difference.

We offer:

• Employee discounts across our brands
• Friends and Family Discount App
• Award‑winning training, apprenticeships and development programmes
• Health and wellbeing support
• Hybrid working with flexibility to support work‑life balance
• An inclusive and diverse workplace, with employee networks and communities

Ready to join us? If you’re excited by the opportunity to shape commercial performance in a key market, work closely with senior leaders and turn insight into action, we’d love to hear from you. Start the best part of the journey with us. At SSP, we value diversity and are committed to building a team that reflects a wide range of backgrounds, skills and perspectives.