Ensemble Travel Group is a leading travel agency consortium of top-tier agencies throughout the U.S. and Canada that was established in 1968. Acquired by Navigatr Group in June 2022, Ensemble provides members with access to exclusive offers, unique hosted tours, partnerships and superior marketing opportunities with best-in-class suppliers, and proprietary travel platforms such as ADX that offers agents instant commission visibility, one click insurance and more to improve efficiencies and earnings. Ensemble maintains offices in Toronto and New York.
Job Description
Reporting to the VP, Destinations & Specialty, Ensemble is hiring a Director, Partner Relations focused on tour/land partners across Canada and the US. This role is accountable for Ensemble’s entire portfolio of land partners and tour operators. The ideal candidate believes in the consortium’s vision, takes ownership and pride in their work, and wants an opportunity to work collaboratively to drive meaningful and exciting change in the travel industry.
This individual will focus on managing current land and tour partners including seeking out new strategic partners, establishing profitable commercial frameworks, maintaining high quality of service for our travelers, and ensuring maximum value and revenue to Ensemble’s membership base. This role requires a strategic, analytical, and flexible candidate who has a roll-up-their-sleeves attitude and is comfortable with a hands-on position involving significant change management.
Key success factors will include close alignment with partnership marketing to drive sales growth, shifting share to preferred partners and deployment of promotions, incentives, and other tactical elements to membership.
Responsibilities
- Oversee ongoing relationships with land and tour partners, monitoring sales volume to meet backend targets.
- Communicate discrepancies in override targets to leadership and marketing teams, and implement corrective initiatives as needed.
- Work with partners to create travel experiences for Ensemble customers that are unique and seamlessly delivered.
- Plan, organize, direct, and control the complete travel partner acquisition cycle from prospecting through contracting, onboarding, and ongoing evaluation of rates, services, and delivery.
- Negotiate service and distribution agreements with partners of all sizes in all regions; Review contracts and concisely summarize key terms and red flags prior to signature.
- Ensure all suppliers meet key brand standards and contract requirements such as amenities, payment and cancellation terms, liability insurance, and marketing commitments.
- Understand and monitor the industry landscape to identify and onboard new partners.
- Articulate Ensemble’s unique value propositions to potential partners and represent Ensemble at industry events.
- Own and lead business results meetings with partners and internal business stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive review of results and action items.
- Effectively coordinate with key internal and external stakeholders to ensure accomplishment of shared business objectives promoting a collaborative team environment.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree; Master’s degree is desirable.
- Minimum of 7 years experience in travel industry and/or partner(supplier) management.
- Experience with a global purchasing model and luxury services/product an asset.
- Advanced negotiation skills – able to deliver results while maintaining partner engagement.
- Proven ability to work through conflict, build trust, generate respect, and influence outcomes through outstanding interpersonal and relationship building skills at all levels within the organization and with partners.
- Superior time management skills - able to work in a fast paced, changing environment and meet time sensitive deadlines.
- Analytical mind set with ability to digest and communicate quantitative reports across multiple data sets.
- Demonstrated aptitude for learning new technologies.
- Upbeat personality, a hands-on team player and self-starter who can work in a lean environment with autonomy.
- Advanced written and verbal communication skills, including presentation skills and an ability to communicate at all levels, both internally and externally with polish and professionalism.
- Proficient with Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
- Strong project management mindset and is hyper organized in approach in delivering and managing operations.
- Demonstrated ability to think strategically yet maintain contact with day-to-day performance.
- Hands on with high energy, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a positive attitude.
- History of consistently meeting/exceeding targets and objectives personally and as a leader.
- Excellent presentation skills with a strong ability to present to senior-level executives.
- Ability to lead and drive multiple competing priorities and thrive in a fast paced and complex environment.
We are committed to providing employment accommodation in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If you require accommodation due to a disability at any stage of our hiring process, please advise us when completing your application.
We thank all candidates for their interest however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
