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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for ISP Trading Manager

💰 $ - $

TradingISPCommercialOperationsPricingTelecom

🎯 Role Definition

The ISP Trading Manager is a commercially focused operator responsible for driving revenue and margin growth across Internet Service Provider (ISP) channels through pricing, trading strategies, partner management and operational excellence. This role combines P&L ownership, promotional planning, inventory and vendor negotiation, performance analytics, and cross‑functional execution to maximize topline and profitability while safeguarding compliance and operational controls. The ideal candidate is highly analytical, commercially savvy, experienced with trading operations and supplier partnerships, and comfortable leading stakeholder alignment across Sales, Finance, Product and Logistics.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Trading Analyst / Commercial Analyst (telecom or retail)
  • Partner / Account Manager (ISP or channel partners)
  • Pricing Analyst or Revenue Operations Specialist

Advancement To:

  • Head of Trading / Senior Trading Manager
  • Commercial Director / Director of Partnerships
  • VP of Sales or VP of Commercial Operations

Lateral Moves:

  • Pricing Manager
  • Supply Chain / Inventory Manager
  • Product Manager (monetization, bundles)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own the commercial P&L for ISP channel agreements and trading activities; set quarterly and annual revenue, margin and EBITDA targets and deliver against them through active portfolio and promotional management.
  • Design and execute pricing strategies, discount frameworks, and promotional calendars to maximize ARPU, gross margin and customer acquisition while minimizing margin erosion and cannibalization.
  • Negotiate commercial terms, rebates, service-level agreements and exclusivity arrangements with ISP partners and third-party suppliers to secure favorable pricing, lead times and co-investment.
  • Develop demand and inventory forecasts for ISP-related products and service bundles; coordinate with supply chain and logistics to ensure sufficient availability and minimize stockouts or excess aged inventory.
  • Lead end-to-end promotional planning and trading operations: campaign setup, pricing implementation, vendor reconciliation, point-of-sale alignment and post‑promotion performance analysis.
  • Build and maintain dynamic trading models, scenario analyses and elasticity studies to inform price movement, promotional cadence and margin sensitivity across geographies and market segments.
  • Monitor competitor pricing, product bundles, go-to-market tactics and channel promotions; translate insights into tactical and strategic trading responses.
  • Implement and own commercial controls: approval workflows, pricing guardrails, discount matrices and audit-ready documentation to reduce leakage and comply with regulatory or partner obligations.
  • Establish KPI frameworks and dashboards (e.g., sales velocity, margin by SKU, returns rate, channel CAC) to track performance and enable data-driven decision-making.
  • Partner with Finance to deliver monthly P&L reporting, accruals reconciliation, promotion ROI calculation and accurate forecasting for forecasting and budget cycles.
  • Manage cross-functional launch activities for new ISP product bundles and offers — aligning Product, Marketing, Sales and Operations for timely rollout and tracking.
  • Oversee pricing and billing reconciliation processes with ISP partners to resolve disputes, credit notes and settlement discrepancies; maintain audit trails and SLAs.
  • Drive automation and process improvement of trading workflows using tools like SQL, BI platforms, CRM or pricing engines to increase throughput and reduce manual reconciliation.
  • Conduct regular business reviews with ISP partners to review performance, identify opportunities, negotiate plan adjustments and set joint growth initiatives.
  • Lead commercial projects to expand channel distribution, including partner onboarding, capability assessments, commercial diligence and go-to-market playbooks.
  • Manage and mitigate commercial and operational risks including credit exposure, contractual non-compliance, regulatory impacts and supply interruptions.
  • Coordinate with Legal on contract amendments, master service agreements and confidentiality requirements to protect company interests and ensure enforceability of trade terms.
  • Provide day-to-day leadership and coaching to trading analysts and junior commercial staff, including performance reviews, career development and workload prioritization.
  • Drive customer and partner retention initiatives within the ISP channel by designing loyalty incentives, partner co-marketing programs and escalation mechanisms for service issues.
  • Evaluate and implement hedging, buy-back or return-to-vendor arrangements where relevant to protect margins and optimize working capital.
  • Prepare and present succinct executive summaries and investment memos for senior leadership regarding trading strategies, strategic partnerships and material commercial risks.
  • Execute ad-hoc market pilots and A/B tests to validate pricing hypotheses, promotional mechanics and partner incentives before full-scale rollouts.
  • Maintain accurate competitor and market intelligence files, regulatory notices and tariff changes that materially impact ISP product economics and trading decisions.
  • Facilitate cross-functional incident response for trading-related escalations (billing, orders, provisioning) to restore service and uphold partner SLAs.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist in creating training materials and standard operating procedures for trading operations and partner onboarding.
  • Participate in supplier scorecarding and quarterly performance audits to drive continuous improvement.
  • Support budgeting and capex/opex planning for trading initiatives and partner investments.
  • Maintain and update trading playbooks, escalation matrices and process change logs.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Trading & Commercial Management: Proven experience owning channel-level P&L, pricing frameworks, promotional planning and supplier negotiations.
  • Advanced Excel: Complex modeling, scenario analysis, pivot tables, and VBA or macros where applicable.
  • Data Analysis & SQL: Comfortable querying large datasets, building dashboards and producing actionable insights from transactional data.
  • BI & Visualization: Hands-on with tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Looker or similar for KPI reporting and executive dashboards.
  • Forecasting & Demand Planning: Statistical forecasting methods, seasonality adjustments and inventory impact analysis.
  • Contract Negotiation & Commercial Law Awareness: Structuring rebates, SLAs, credit terms and commercial protections.
  • ERP/CRM Experience: Familiarity with systems such as SAP, NetSuite, Salesforce or bespoke billing & order management platforms.
  • Pricing Engines & Promotion Tools: Experience working with dynamic pricing tools, promotion orchestration platforms or ecommerce pricing modules.
  • Financial Acumen: Strong understanding of revenue recognition, accruals, gross margin, ROI and contribution margin calculus.
  • Automation & Scripting: Practical usage of Python, R, or scripting to automate routine reports and reconciliation where applicable.
  • Risk & Compliance Controls: Designing and enforcing financial and operational controls to prevent leakage and ensure auditability.
  • Negotiation & Supplier Management Tools: RFP processes, vendor scorecards and partner performance frameworks.

Soft Skills

  • Commercial Mindset: Results-driven with a focus on revenue growth, margin optimization and partner economics.
  • Analytical Rigor: Ability to turn complex data into clear recommendations and measurable actions.
  • Stakeholder Management: Skilled at influencing cross-functional teams and senior leaders to secure buy-in and resources.
  • Communication & Presentation: Clear, concise reporting and storytelling for executives, partners and internal teams.
  • Leadership & People Management: Coaching, delegation and team development for trading and commercial staff.
  • Problem Solving: Rapidly prioritize root causes and deliver pragmatic fixes under pressure.
  • Negotiation & Persuasion: Confident negotiation of contracts and disputed settlements with partners.
  • Adaptability: Comfortable operating in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with evolving priorities.
  • Attention to Detail: Ensures accuracy across trading operations, billing reconciliations and compliance documentation.
  • Project Management: Plan, execute and drive cross-functional launches and commercial initiatives on time and on budget.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance, Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree (MBA or MSc in Economics/Finance) or equivalent professional certifications in pricing, supply chain or data analytics.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration / Commercial Management
  • Economics / Finance
  • Telecommunications / Electrical Engineering
  • Data Science / Analytics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 4–10+ years of progressive experience in trading operations, commercial management, pricing, partner management or channel sales within telecom, ISP, retail or ecommerce environments.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years managing ISP or channel partner trading activities with demonstrable P&L responsibility.
  • Experience negotiating and managing supplier contracts, SLAs and complex billing reconciliations.
  • Track record of delivering margin improvement, inventory optimization and successful promotional campaigns.
  • Prior exposure to BI tooling, SQL, Excel modeling and ERP/billing systems.
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