Summary
Air Liquide is seeking a Basin Manager to lead commercial performance for its industrial, refining and petrochemical customer portfolio on Saudi Arabia’s East Coast. The role covers customer relationships, contract lifecycle management, pricing, profitability, forecasting, billing accuracy, collections and commercial risk, in coordination with Operations, Finance, Legal and Business Development. Applicants should have a bachelor’s degree and 6–10 years of progressive B2B commercial management and complex industrial sales experience; an MBA or master’s degree is desirable. Fluent Arabic and English are required, and French is desirable.
The posting
As published on airliquide.com. Pulled from the employer's site and shown as they wrote it.
How will you CONTRIBUTE and GROW?
The Basin Manager for KSA East Coast acts as the primary commercial owner and strategic leader for the assigned industrial basin, with end-to-end responsibility for a high-value portfolio of industrial, refining and petrochemical customers.
The core objective is to maximize portfolio profitability, protect revenue and cash performance, ensure strong customer retention, and execute the localized commercial strategy. The role bridges day-to-day commercial operations with long-term growth, working closely with Operations, Finance, Legal and Business Development while upholding corporate safety, compliance and governance standards.
1.Commercial & Basin Ownership
Commercial & Basin Ownership:Drive day-to-day commercial performance across the KSA East Coast basin portfolio as the primary commercial point of contact and end-to-end owner, maintaining a balanced focus on profitability, contractual obligations, customer retention, and service quality.
Customer Performance & Relationship Management: Conduct regular customer business reviews to monitor contractual performance, service reliability, customer satisfaction, commercial risks, and agreed joint actions.
Contract Lifecycle Management & Administration:Lead full contract lifecycle administration, including negotiations, amendments, renewals, extensions, and commercial settlements, ensuring timely action ahead of contractual milestones and protecting the company’s long-term position.
Contract Compliance & Risk Management:Maintain complete oversight of customer and company obligations, formal contractual notices, payment terms, indexation, volume commitments, and proactive mitigation plans for commercial, contractual, or operational risks.
2. Commercial Strategy, P&L & Working Capital Management
Basin Commercial Strategy: Formulate and execute the localized East Coast commercial strategy reflecting customer priorities, market conditions, competitive dynamics and long-term asset positioning.
Commercial P&L & Financial Ownership: Own and actively manage revenue, margin/OI, pricing, volume performance and commercial cost drivers, while preparing annual budgets, rolling volume/revenue forecasts, and monthly actual-versus-forecast variance analyses.
Pricing Mechanisms & Revenue Assurance: Implement approved pricing strategies, contractual indexation, and minimum volume/Take-or-Pay mechanisms to safeguard profitability, prevent revenue leakage, and ensure audit readiness.
Invoice Validation & Billing Accuracy: Validate monthly billing inputs (fixed/variable charges, indexation, penalties, and adjustments) and coordinate with Finance to ensure accurate, timely invoice issuance and prompt resolution of billing disputes.
Working Capital, Account Receivable & Credit Risk Management:Maintain commercial ownership of accounts receivable, monitor Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and overdue aging, lead collection escalations, and partner with Credit Management to evaluate and mitigate payment exposures.
3. Business Development, Growth, Operational Execution & Commercial Governance
Growth & Expansion Support: Partner with Business Development and Technical teams to evaluate expansion projects, greenfield opportunities, and decarbonization initiatives, preparing business cases and commercial validation packages for Cluster/Group approval
Operational & Crisis Interface: Serve as the commercial lead during supply disruptions, major turnarounds, or operational events, driving commercial risk mitigation and managing claims or disputes to protect customer relationships while enforcing contractual discipline.
Customer Voice & Operational Feedback:Champion customer requirements internally across Operations, Supply Chain, and Technical teams to translate feedback into service reliability improvements and seamless onboarding of newly commissioned projects.
Governance, Compliance & Safety: Ensure strict adherence to corporate governance, anti-bribery regulations, internal delegation of authority, and safety (EHS) standards, while maintaining accurate CRM records, contract documentation, and reporting to the Commercial Director.
Are you a MATCH?
Qualifications & Experience:
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Engineering, or a related technical/commercial field. An MBA or Master’s degree is desirable.
Experience: Minimum of 6–10 years of progressive experience in B2B commercial management and complex industrial sales.
Industry Background: Proven background in industrial gases, petrochemicals, energy, refining, or heavy industrial manufacturing sectors.
Track Record: Demonstrated success in long-term supply agreements, complex negotiations, profitability management, customer retention, and cross-functional commercial leadership.
Skills & Competencies:
Technical & Commercial Skills:
Advanced financial acumen covering commercial P&L, margin analysis, revenue assurance, receivables, Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), forecasting, and pricing/indexation mechanisms.
Strong grasp of commercial law principles, contract drafting, contractual risk, claims, and long-term supply agreement mechanics.
Proficiency in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), ERP, reporting and analytics tools for data-driven commercial management.
Deep understanding of regional B2B industrial markets, customer operating models and the commercial impact of operational events.
Core & Behavioral Competencies:
Strategic Negotiation & Influence: Ability to steer high-stakes negotiations, manage conflicts and achieve sustainable win-win outcomes with senior stakeholders.
Cross-Functional Leadership: Ability to lead by influence across Operations, Finance, Legal, Supply Chain, Technical and Business Development without direct reporting lines.
Customer-Centricity: Strong focus on customer value, service reliability, responsiveness and long-term retention.
Commercial Discipline: High attention to contractual obligations, billing accuracy, collections, financial exposure, governance and execution follow-through.
Resilience & Decisiveness: Capable of making sound commercial decisions under pressure, particularly during supply constraints, disputes or operational disruptions.
Languages: Fluent Arabic and English required; French is desirable.
Our Differences make our Performance
At Air Liquide, we are committed to build a diverse and inclusive workplace that embraces the diversity of our employees, our customers, patients, community stakeholders and cultures across the world.
We welcome and consider applications from all qualified applicants, regardless of their background. We strongly believe a diverse organization opens up opportunities for people to express their talent, both individually and collectively and it helps foster our ability to innovate by living our fundamentals, acting for our success and creating an engaging environment in a changing world.