Strategic Business Development Manager, B2B

About us

We are champions of rail, inspired to build a greener, more sustainable future of travel. Trainline enables millions of travellers to find and book the best value tickets across carriers, fares, and journey options through our highly rated mobile app, website, and B2B partner channels.

Now Europe’s number 1 downloaded rail app, with over 125 million monthly visits and £5.9 billion in annual ticket sales, we collaborate with 270+ rail and coach companies in over 40 countries. We want to create a world where travel is as simple, seamless, eco-friendly and affordable as it should be.

Today, we’re a FTSE 250 company driven by our incredible team of over 1,000 Train liners from 50+ nationalities, based across London, Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Edinburgh and Madrid. With our focus on growth in the UK and Europe, now is the perfect time to join us on this high‑speed journey.

This role sits in TPS, within B2B Distribution’s Channel Partners & Business Development Team. Channel Partners are Online Booking Tools (OBT) or Global Distribution Systems (GDS), who choose Trainline as a technical provider that gives them access to rail contents in multiple markets, so Travel Management Companies (TMC) and their end customers (Corporates) can book rail.

The Strategic Business Development Manager is responsible for managing and developing relationship with some of our key channel partners (account management role), and will be responsible for generating new sales through our key channel partners (business development role).

You will be responsible for that activity in one of our priority markets – DACH region.

The Strategic Business Development Manager serves as the main contact between organisations, builds strategic relationships with channel partners, and provides guidance to ensure a mutually beneficial Trainline‑powered rail offering. Responsibilities include identifying, negotiating, signing, and delivering opportunities, collaborating with channel partners to reach rail‑booking customers, and exploring new leisure travel markets such as OTAs, MaaS, and Tour Operators.

The role requires excellent organisational, communication, and problem‑solving skills, a strong drive for business development and negotiation, and effective project management to coordinate efforts with customer and Trainline teams. Knowledge of the European business travel market will inform the sales strategy.

• Driving incremental net ticket sales through your portfolio, in one of our priority markets.
• Guiding channel partners in building a superior rail offering, so they can achieve their business and product goals.
• Generating incremental net ticket sales by signing and integrating potential partners (IE OBTs…) and potential customers (IE TMCs…) that book via our channel partners, or travel sellers in leisure travel market.
• Participating in travel industry events across Europe, as visitor or exhibitor.
• Mapping new business opportunities on one of our priority markets in Europe.
• Identifying, engaging, and qualifying targeted outbound leads.
• Filtering, engaging, and qualifying inbound leads that contact us directly.
• Managing the sales cycle from A to Z: understand their needs, their ecosystem, define a solution, pitch a commercial offer, close and sign the deal.
• Supporting the team that integrates our solutions in our customers’ environment.
• Contributing to ad‑hoc projects and launching new strategic initiatives.

• Business or related degree, and/or ability to demonstrate strong commercial awareness.
• Knowledge of business travel or rail distribution is desirable.
• Fluent in English and additional European languages (German as a priority) is a must.
• Experience in business development or account management is desirable.
• Experience in managing complex and long B2B sales cycle is desirable.
• Experience in project management is desirable.
• Strong communication skills – written and verbal.
• Willingness to roll your sleeves up, take ownership and find your way in a complex…