Qatar Airways
Senior Specialist Catering Commercial
- Permanent
- Doha, Qatar
- Experience 5 - 10 yrs
Job expiry date: 18/04/2026
Job overview
Date posted
04/03/2026
Location
Doha, Qatar
Salary
Undisclosed
Compensation
Job description
The Senior Specialist Catering Commercial | Product Development & Design, based in Doha, Qatar, operates within Qatar Airways’ Product Development and Design (PDD) Division, supporting the Head of Commercial in driving financial rigor and commercial governance across Inflight Catering & Culinary strategic initiatives. The role focuses on conducting financial evaluation, investment appraisal, and financial modelling to underpin product and design decisions with robust financial justification aligned to Qatar Airways commercial objectives. Responsibilities span cost optimization for menu cycles, catering tenders, celebrity chef programs, and long-term product investments. The specialist develops, manages, and refines detailed cost models tracking key catering metrics such as cost per passenger, cost per meal, and wastage rates across all cabin classes and routes. The role supports business case development including CAPEX/OPEX modelling, payback analysis, ROI tracking, IRR, NPV, TCO assessments, and 5~10 years product investment forecast planning aligned with annual budget cycles. The position performs regular variance analysis comparing actual costs against budget and forecast, prepares cadenced financial reports for catering and culinary leadership, and produces executive-level financial briefing materials for Steering Committee, C-Suite, and Board reviews. The role includes vendor pricing analysis, procurement evaluation, contract structuring, commercial negotiation, and commercial documentation management with suppliers and key product development partners. The specialist maintains a repository of financial data, competitor financial analysis, and cost benchmarks to support agile decision-making and continuous improvement of financial forecasts, ensuring alignment of product financial assumptions with business finance, subject matter experts (SME), strategy, and project management (PMO) teams. The position requires advanced Excel modelling and financial analysis capability, deep understanding of project appraisal frameworks, and the ability to translate complex financial models into clear, concise, data-backed narratives within aviation, travel, or customer experience domains.
Required skills
Key responsibilities
- Conduct financial evaluation, investment appraisal, and financial modelling for Inflight Catering & Culinary strategic initiatives within the Product Development and Design Division.
- Develop, manage, and continuously refine detailed cost models tracking cost per passenger, cost per meal, and wastage rates across all cabin classes and routes.
- Support development of business cases including CAPEX/OPEX modelling, payback analysis, ROI, IRR, NPV, and TCO assessments for product investments.
- Contribute to 5~10 years product investment forecast and annual budget cycles ensuring financial alignment with business stakeholders.
- Perform regular variance analysis comparing actual costs against budget and forecast and present cadenced financial reports to catering and culinary leadership.
- Support SMEs in procurement evaluation, vendor pricing analysis, contract structuring, commercial negotiation, and commercial documentation management.
- Prepare financial briefing materials for Steering Committee, C-Suite, and Board reviews related to major product investments.
- Maintain repository of financial data, competitor financial analysis, and cost benchmarks to enhance financial forecasts and decision-making.
- Ensure alignment of product financial assumptions with business finance, SME, strategy, and PMO teams across the project lifecycle from feasibility to ROI tracking.
Experience & skills
- Obtain a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Data Analytics, Statistics, Business Intelligence, or a related field.
- Demonstrate minimum 6+ years of experience in financial data analysis preferably within aviation, travel, or customer experience domains.
- Demonstrate advanced Excel modelling and financial analysis capability.
- Demonstrate deep understanding of financial metrics including TCO, ROI, IRR, NPV and other project appraisal frameworks.
- Demonstrate familiarity with procurement evaluation, vendor pricing structures, and contract commercial terms.
- Demonstrate experience conducting CAPEX/OPEX modelling, payback analysis, and variance analysis.
- Demonstrate ability to translate complex financial models into clear, concise, data-backed narratives for senior stakeholders.
- Demonstrate experience preparing financial materials for Steering Committee, C-Suite, and Board reviews.
- Demonstrate ability to manage multiple concurrent initiatives with C-level exposure.