Director Food and Beverage Partnerships

About the Role

King Salman International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is seeking a Director Food and Beverage Partnerships. This full-time role involves leading the strategy, partner selection, contract management, and operational delivery of food and beverage partnerships. The objective is to ensure a diverse, high-quality dining experience that aligns with passenger needs, enhances KSIA branding, and meets commercial performance targets.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development of a long-term food and beverage strategy by aligning passenger profiles, airport positioning, and commercial targets to ensure a balanced mix of quick service, casual dining, and specialty food concepts.
• Manage the identification and evaluation of food and beverage partners, including local favorites, regional chains, and global brands, based on detailed market research, passenger demand analysis, and operational capabilities.
• Lead the initiation of partnership outreach and engagement plans to attract food and beverage partners in alignment with KSIADC’s branding and positioning.
• Oversee the negotiation and management of partnership agreements, ensuring the inclusion of performance metrics, health and safety standards, pricing policies, and service level expectations.
• Manage collaboration with design and operations teams to ensure food and beverage locations are optimally positioned for visibility, flow, and operational efficiency while complying with infrastructure requirements.
• Monitor space handover timelines and quality to ensure readiness for openings in line with terminal commissioning and operational timelines.
• Guide coordination with Marketing to co-develop food promotions and brand activation campaigns to enhance visibility and increase guest engagement with airport dining experiences.
• Schedule regular performance and strategy meetings with food and beverage partners to address operational issues, co-develop promotions, and align on future growth opportunities.
• Track food and beverage sales performance and guest satisfaction metrics, including spend per passenger and transaction volume, to inform product mix, layout adjustments, and pricing strategies.
• Maintain a centralized partnerships database including contracts, KPIs, store layouts, cuisine categories, and operational benchmarks for internal use.
• Engage with local culinary partners and benchmark global best practices to continuously evolve KSIA’s food and beverage offerings and deliver a diverse, high-quality dining experience across the airport.

Candidate Requirements

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience is required for this position.

Work Environment

This role is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and operates on a full-time basis.