About the role

We're looking for a Commercial Projects Lead to join the newly created Transformation & Commercial Strategy team at Edinburgh Airport. This is a senior position that will play a key role in delivering the multi-year transformation programme, supporting the Head of Transformation & Commercial Strategy to design and execute a series of projects that will shape the airport's commercial future.

The airport is at a really exciting point in its history as we look ahead to annual passenger numbers increasing to over 20 million by 2030 and even more beyond. To satisfy this growth, the footprint of the airport will expand across almost every area.

The Transformation & Commercial Strategy team will be laser-focused on ensuring that the major capital projects underway to deliver this transformation provide high quality space, in the right place and at the right time, to maximise the offering available to our diverse and growing passenger base. The team will also take the lead on exciting new commercial initiatives.

We're looking for agile, enthusiastic individuals who are excited about joining a high-performing, collaborative team with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the future of an iconic national asset. This role is primarily based at Edinburgh Airport, with occasional travel as required to support commercial development activities.

About the recruitment process

The recruitment process will involve an initial informal discussion over Teams followed by two in-person interviews. One of these will include a presentation - a chance for you to demonstrate your enthusiasm for bringing your strategic commercial thinking to support Edinburgh Airport's growth!

To support the process, we will also ask you to complete an Insights Discovery profile.

We are committed to creating an inclusive recruitment process, and 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

The Commercial Projects Lead will play a critical role in supporting the delivery of a multi-year transformation programme. The role will be responsible for ensuring that transformation initiatives are commercially robust, deliver measurable benefits and are underpinned by strong retail design and operational principles that support the long-term success of the airport and its tenants / concessionaires.

This is a hands-on role that sits at the intersection of strategy, retail design and practical delivery - translating transformation ambition into executable, value-generating outcomes. Key responsibilities include (but are not limited to) the following:

Transformation Projects Lead

• Act as commercial lead on major transformation initiatives, ensuring clear line of sight between strategic objectives, design outcomes and benefit realisation
• Support development and ongoing management of business cases, incorporating value drivers that consider revenue uplift, dwell time, conversion and customer experience
• Work closely with the wider project teams to identify dependencies, developing and executing mitigation plans to limit the impact of change on passenger experience and revenue
• Establish and maintain a structured benefits realisation framework, defining measurement methodologies and tracking mechanisms
• Ensure commercial discipline is applied to design and delivery decisions, balancing value, cost and passenger impact
  
  Design & Passenger-Led Transformation
• Provide commercial input into retail design strategy, ensuring design decisions are aligned with anticipated customer behaviour, concession partner performance and financial outcomes
• Evaluate and challenge design concepts through a commercial lens, including impacts on yield, mix, adjacencies, circulation, dwell time and spend
• Maximise use of key advisors (including Vinci HQ team, external design consultants) to develop coherent strategies for each passenger 'mission'
• Translate passenger mission strategies into commercial zoning / layout decision-making
• Work closely with the Commercial Strategy Manager to ensure consistency between category strategies and commercial zoning / layout decision-making
• Partner with designers, architects and planners to balance design quality, operational practicality and commercial return
• Support transition and phasing strategies to minimise disruption during construction and change implementation
  
  Services & Operational Effectiveness Strategy
• Develop future-state retail environments that integrate front- and back-of-house considerations
• Ensure back-of-house design within new footprint (logistics, waste, storage, servicing) supports concessionaire trading and operational effectiveness
• Identify and evaluate opportunities for shared services / infrastructure to optimise cost, space utilisation and service performance
• Assess the commercial implications of design and layout decisions on concessionaire trading, revenue and operating models
• Collaborate closely with the Retail & Surface Access team to support engagement with concession partners impacted by retail design and transformation initiatives

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Develop strong working relationships with key stakeholders - in particular Projects, Retail and Operations as well as external advisors - to ensure integrated execution of projects and realisation of benefits
• Contribute to shaping the transformation roadmap with strong commercial and design insight
• Demonstrate the agility to identify, lead and support on new commercial initiatives that arise in a growing, fast-paced environment
• Present to senior level forums, including Executive Committee and Commercial Review Committee
• Develop strong external relationships with business partners, stakeholders and peers within the wider Vinci group and with counterparts at other UK and international airports

What we're looking for

The Commercial Projects Lead role is well-suited to candidates with a background in complex multi-year transformation projects, with the ideal candidate ticking most of the following boxes:

• A positive and tenacious attitude, with the ability to be both hands-on and strategic
• Significant experience supporting large, multi-year transformation programmes in complex operating environments
• Demonstrated experience establishing and managing benefits realisation frameworks and translating strategic intent into measurable outcomes
• Strong understanding of programme governance, stage-gate processes and project decision-making
• Demonstrated experience in retail operations, ideally within airports or equivalent mixed-use environments with active concession operations
• Experience working closely with retail designers, architects and planners on customer-led transformation initiatives with ability to balance ambition with cost and deliverability
• Proven ability to influence and advise senior leaders, including acting as a trusted advisor to transformation sponsors
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate complex commercial and design issues into clear, actionable insights
• Demonstrable experience identifying, developing and delivering new business initiatives with a creative eye to bring forward new and relevant ideas
• Highly experienced using full package of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• A problem solver who enjoys finding the solution in every problem
• Educated to degree level or equivalent

If your experience ticks some of the boxes but looks slightly different to what we've listed here, we encourage you to still apply. You could add something we didn't know we needed.

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 years' 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 if you require any adjustments, such as parking arrangements or alternative methods of communication .

We work with Inclusive Employers, who are a leading organisation for employers committed to prioritising inclusion. We are supported by them through leadership workshops, a variety of resources and webinars, demonstrating our commitment to an inclusive workplace and ensuring all our employees feel valued. This partnership is part of our wider Diversity and Inclusion strategy, and you can find out more here .

We give colleagues the opportunity to engage with different people and projects, within our business and beyond. You can get involved in a variety of different employee groups , including Diversity, STEM, Wellbeing, or create your own community - it's important to us that you can share your interests and be yourself at work.