Principal, Airline Platform Strategy & Enablement

Skyscanner; Edinburgh (IN); Hybrid; USD 122,000 - 176,000; Full time

Job summary

Skyscanner is seeking a Principal, Airline Platform Strategy & Enablement to bridge Commercial, Product and Engineering. You’ll apply airline industry knowledge and technical understanding to drive partner onboarding, shape product direction and ensure decisions are grounded in commercial and technical realities.

In this hybrid role you’ll analyse partner requirements, validate approaches, support integrations, and translate feedback into platform improvements.

Qualifications

• Deep understanding of the airline technology ecosystem, including distribution, APIs and platform integrations.
• Experience working with airlines, travel technology providers or platform businesses.
• Ability to understand complex technical concepts and communicate them clearly to commercial and product stakeholders.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to assess technical proposals, challenge assumptions and develop practical recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Act as Skyscanner’s subject matter expert for airline platform capabilities, supporting Commercial, Product and Engineering teams.
• Lead technical onboarding and enablement for strategic airline and platform partners, helping accelerate successful integrations.
• Support partners throughout implementation by troubleshooting technical and commercial challenges, identifying scalable solutions and sharing best practices.
• Develop a deep understanding of airline technical capabilities, distribution models and operational constraints, using these insights to inform product development and partner engagement.
• Evaluate partner proposals, technical approaches and commercial models, providing detailed analysis and recommendations to support strategic decision making.
• Assess existing and acquired platform capabilities, identifying opportunities to improve integration, scalability and commercial value.
• Work with Product teams to translate recurring partner feedback into platform improvements, new features and better developer experiences.
• Analyse emerging trends across airline distribution, retailing and platform technology, helping identify opportunities for future products and partnerships.
• Support the development of new commercial propositions by ensuring they are grounded in operational, technical and market realities.
• Build trusted relationships across internal teams and external partners, acting as the technical and commercial bridge between strategy and execution.

Skills

Airline industry knowledge

Stakeholder management

Analytical thinking

Technical communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Partner enablement

Tools

APIs

Data modeling

SaaS platforms

Job description

About Skyscanner

Everyone loves travelling, but planning is not without its challenges. That's why we've spent 20 years building tools that turn travel-planning chaos into a breeze. Today, around 160 million travellers count on us every month to skip the whole “47 browser tabs open” phase and find flights, cars, and hotels quickly and easily.

Joining Skyscanner means becoming part of a global brand that's striving to become the planet's go-to travel hack accessible for all.

Our vision? To be the world's number one travel ally. (Ambitious? Yes, but, hey, that's what got us here).

Now, we’re on the lookout for a Principal, Airline Platform Strategy & Enablement,to help us bring that vision to even more travellers.

About the role

(Hybrid)

As Skyscanner expands its airline platform capabilities, we’re looking for a subject matter expert who can bridge the gap between Commercial, Product and Engineering.

This role combines deep airline industry knowledge with strong technical understanding to help partners successfully adopt our platform capabilities, influence product direction through market insight, and ensure strategic decisions are built on solid commercial and technical foundations.

Working closely with Commercial leadership, this person will turn high-level strategy into practical execution by analysing partner requirements, validating technical approaches, and identifying opportunities to strengthen our platform and acquired capabilities.

What you’ll be doing

• Act as Skyscanner’s subject matter expert for airline platform capabilities, supporting Commercial, Product and Engineering teams.
• Lead technical onboarding and enablement for strategic airline and platform partners, helping accelerate successful integrations.
• Support partners throughout implementation by troubleshooting technical and commercial challenges, identifying scalable solutions and sharing best practices.
• Develop a deep understanding of airline technical capabilities, distribution models and operational constraints, using these insights to inform product development and partner engagement.
• Evaluate partner proposals, technical approaches and commercial models, providing detailed analysis and recommendations to support strategic decision making.
• Assess existing and acquired platform capabilities, identifying opportunities to improve integration, scalability and commercial value.
• Work with Product teams to translate recurring partner feedback into platform improvements, new features and better developer experiences.
• Analyse emerging trends across airline distribution, retailing and platform technology, helping identify opportunities for future products and partnerships.
• Support the development of new commercial propositions by ensuring they are grounded in operational, technical and market realities.
• Build trusted relationships across internal teams and external partners, acting as the technical and commercial bridge between strategy and execution.

About you

• Deep understanding of the airline technology ecosystem, including distribution, APIs and platform integrations.
• Experience working with airlines, travel technology providers or platform businesses.
• Ability to understand complex technical concepts and communicate them clearly to commercial and product stakeholders.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to assess technical proposals, challenge assumptions and develop practical recommendations.
• Comfortable working across multiple disciplines, bringing together commercial, technical and operational perspectives.
• Experience influencing product direction through customer insight and market knowledge.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to build credibility across senior commercial, product and engineering teams.
• Naturally curious, with a passion for understanding how technology can solve real commercial problems.

What it’s like here

We are the real deal — no corporate gloss, no empty promises. Just a team of genuinely curious, caring humans, building things that help travellers explore the world a little easier.

Skyscanner is made up of brilliant humans from every corner of the world. We believe travel makes the world better — and that the same is true of our diverse teams. We're proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to building an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and products that are accessible to all.

We're committed to ensuring our application and recruitment processes are inclusive and accessible to everyone. If you require any reasonable adjustments or accommodations for interviews, and/or wish to apply under the Disability Confident scheme, please let your recruiter know. If you’d like more information on any of our policies, such as hybrid working or Parental Leave policies (typically we pay a minimum of 24 weeks birth parent/maternity leave globally), our recruitment team can provide more information on these.