Chief Executive - The Shannon Airport Group

Shannon Airport, strategically located on Ireland’s beautiful West Coast, with easy access to the UK, Europe and the US, is not just a gateway to the world but also a hub of economic activity. The Shannon Airport Group (the Group), which owns and operates Shannon Airport, is dedicated to facilitating international trade and tourism by providing seamless connectivity and state-of-the-art infrastructure. In addition to managing the Airport, the Group also runs a thriving commercial property business, which offers a range of services and facilities to businesses seeking to establish or expand their operations in Shannon and across the Midwest of Ireland. With a focus on promoting sustainability and innovation, the Group plays a vital role in driving growth and development for the region and beyond.

Shannon Airport is Ireland’s premier international gateway on the West Coast, offering world-class airport infrastructure and facilities. It offers travellers a seamless travel experience; competitive route incentive schemes to airlines and uncongested operations both on the ground and in the air for carriers. Shannon Airport serves destinations to the US, UK and Europe as well as providing full US Pre Clearance for transatlantic passengers.

The Group’s property portfolio consists of 3,300 acres, and 3.5 million sq. feet of buildings that accommodate the largest business parks outside of Dublin. Spread over 600 acres the Shannon Airport Business Park is home to over 300 companies employing 10,0000 operating in diverse sectors like Aviation, MedTech, CAV technologies and Logistics.

The Opportunity

The Board wishes to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer who will continue to pursue the Group’s ambition of driving economic growth for the region by creating opportunities in aviation and property development that will continue to fuel the thriving and commercial environment in which it operates.

Candidates for this position will be sourced through both advertising and executive search processes. To apply for this position, please submit a covering letter and CV to shannon@kornferry.com for the attention of Deirdre O’Shaughnessy, Senior Client Partner, Korn Ferry. Only applications comprising a covering letter and CV will be considered. The closing date for applications is 17.00 on Wednesday 7th January 2026.

The Role

Key Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with the Board to ensure delivery of the current strategy and to develop the longer-term strategy that will continue to drive the Group’s success. Provide accurate, timely and transparent reporting on financial reporting, operational risks, and strategic initiatives to the Board and Shareholder.
• Build strong relationships at government level to positively influence long term policy issues, in particular growth. Develop a plan for the Group’s expansion that is affordable, financeable and deliverable.
• Develop the Group’s reputation and brand by building trusted and effective relationships with government, media, airlines and other key stakeholders. Represent the Group’s interests in discussions on legislation, funding, and regulatory frameworks, providing informed input to shape favourable outcomes.
• Drive sustainable growth of all business units, including encouraging both domestic and international carriers and businesses to utilise Shannon’s worldclass facilities.
• Protect the long-term value of the Group against threats including competition, economic volatility and climate change and take advantage of opportunities such as technology.
• Ensure all significant risks – operational, financial, safety, security, environmental and reputational – are identified, assess and managed effectively.
• Guarantee adherence to aviation safety regulations, cybersecurity standards, and environmental obligations, while proactively addressing emerging risks.
• Lead and inspire all colleagues to build a high-performance culture. Ensure diverse talent pipelines and effective succession plans are developed.
• Evaluate and monitor organisational performance to ensure effectiveness of operating plans by ensuring risks and contingencies are fully considered.
• Ensure effective internal controls, management information and systems are in place.

The Candidate

Experience: Essential

• Strategic Leadership: Experience of leading a business of comparable scale and complexity, developing and delivering strategies that drive Shareholder value and future growth that has a wider economic impact. A track record of operating effectively at Board level.
• People Leadership: Excellent leadership skills with a track record of having built effective succession plans and developed talent.
• Functional Knowledge: Extensive commercial and operational experience gained in a high-pressured environment.
• Stakeholder Management: Demonstrable ability to successfully manage a broad range of external stakeholders, for example, local business and communities, government, regulators and media. The ability to build effective internal relationships with service providers, unions and the wider employee community is also critical. Experience as the primary spokesperson for the organisation by representing the organisation at industry events and media engagements would be advantageous.
• Policy Development: Experience of influencing and shaping change at a regional or national level.
• Sector Knowledge: Previous experience operating in a sector with similar dynamics, for example where there are similar health and safety critical issues, or infrastructure asset at the heart of a community.

Experience: Desirable

Experience in one or more of the following areas is also desirable:

• Working within a similar governance and/or ownership structure.
• Regulated or transport industry experience, for example within an Airport or Airline.
• An understanding of the aviation industry, in particular how airlines operate.
• Attracting foreign direct investment.
• Large scale infrastructure development or commercial property development.
• An understanding of the Irish political eco-system.

Skills / Personal Attributes

• Passion, commitment and enthusiasm for the mission and values of the Group, with a strong social purpose. The ability to articulate a vision for the future that builds on the Group’s current strengths and identifies new opportunities for growth.
• Excellent strategic thinking with the ability to deal with high levels of complexity and ambiguity
  and make effective trade-offs.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to actively listen, to manage numerous conflicting priorities, and to influence others to work in partnership to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
• A leadership style based on integrity and trust, with the ability to foster relationships, inspire and lead others through change, and bring different points of view together.
• An affinity with the region and/or the importance of Shannon as a key factor in Ireland’s economic development.
• Calm under pressure, with the composure, adaptability and perseverance necessary to face challenges, along with the ability to risk assess, evaluate options and prioritise.
• People-centric and customer-focused.
• An authentic leader with low ego, high integrity, hard-working and committed to public service. A demonstrable affinity for, and commitment to, supporting the Irish business community to be the best it can be.
• Resilient and able to deal with significant pressure particularly in crisis situations.

HR Officer - The Shannon Airport Group

Permanent - Full-time

We are a commercial state company and provide air transport and aviation services at Shannon Airport and its environs while also supporting the growing aviation cluster in the region. In addition, The Shannon Airport Group owns and manages a large commercial property portfolio of office blocks and a range of industrial, advanced manufacturing and aviation facilities in the region.
Our Human Resources team provide comprehensive support services to the business and we now wish to recruit a HR Officer.
This additional hire to the HR team will support the provision of a comprehensive HR service across The Shannon Airport Group.

Role Purpose:

The job holder will work with the HR team in a fast-paced and supportive environment to deliver professional services to each of our business areas. The key purpose of this role will be to support and, in some cases, take ownership of recruitment, on-boarding, training and operations projects.

Key Areas of Responsibility:

• Operational HR Delivery; You will work with the HR team to deliver a service to our business operations, supporting employees throughout the employee lifecycle.
• Workforce Planning; to be involved with recruitment and on-boarding.
• Employee Relations; assist in the management and co-ordination of operational ER matters that arise including well-being and training initiatives to support our policies.
• Project work; support various HR projects and take the lead on some to deliver a professional service to our colleagues.
• Compliance and Policy management.
• Employee Records Management; assist in the administration and maintenance of personnel files and records ensuring all data is processed accurately and secured in line with data protection requirements.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The candidate should have:

• Previous experience in a busy HR department, ideally minimum of 4 years working in HR.
• Strong detail orientated administration skills and the ability to handle confidential information with discretion.
• Excellent IT skills, in particular Microsoft Office and familiarity with a HRIS system.
• Third level qualification in Human Resources or Business equivalent (Minimum Level 6) with CIPD.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across teams.
• Self-starter with the ability to work on own initiative.

Applications in the form of a cover letter and current CV (MS Word or pdf) should be sent to: recruitment@snnairportgroup.ie not later than 12 noon on Friday 9th January 2026.

Finance Manager - THE SHANNON AIRPORT GROUP

We are a commercial state company and provide air transport and aviation services at Shannon Airport and its environs while also supporting the growing aviation cluster in the region. In addition, The Shannon Airport Group owns and manages a large commercial property portfolio of office blocks and a range of industrial, advanced manufacturing and aviation facilities in the region.

This role while part of the Group Finance team is primarily focused on supporting the airport business.  

Role Purpose

We have a vacancy for an airport Finance Manager to work as part of the Group Finance team. The successful candidate will have primary responsibility for the airport finance function and be the principal financial advisor and partner to Operations leaders in the airport.  The role requires the successful candidate to work closely with both airport operations and management to provide ‘real time’ support and analysis to add value, and assist with decision making.  There may also be Group finance support required from time to time. 

The Finance Manager will report directly to the Group Financial Controller. 

Key Areas of Responsibility

• Day to day management of the airport finance department and all finance related activities including banking.
• Managing the preparation of and reporting on KPIs, management accounts, budgets and forecasts.
• Ensuring clean and timely month end close process and reporting.
• Assist with financial assessment of all airline incentive agreements/commercial propositions.
• Assist with preparation and evaluation of commercial concession and other tenders.
• Identifying areas for cost improvement measures and assisting with change management/operational improvement programmes as needed.  
• Monitoring of airport capital budget.  Capital paper review and exercising the delegated authority attributed to the role.  
• Managing interim and year end audits, including liaising with internal and external audit teams.
• Main point of contact on all financial internal/external audit findings.
• Responsible for the preparation of annual financial statements for airport and its non-trading subsidiaries.
• Responsibility for completion of all tax and other regulatory returns.
• Managing all external funder reporting requirements.  
• Responsibility for maintaining the airport Internal Financial Controls Framework and ensuring adequate financial controls are in place.  
• The identification and evaluation of significant business risks within the airport finance function.  
  Managing the completion of the year end assurance testing.  
• Other Group finance duties as assigned including work on various finance projects as the need arises.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

The candidate should have:

• Qualified Accountant with minimum 5 years PQE in a busy finance department with up-to-date knowledge in relation to accounting standards and internal controls.  
• Experience of people management, prioritising work and clearly outlining expectations and intended deliverables.
• Strong commercial acumen with an ability to identify areas for financial improvement through analysis.
• Demonstrable analytical and problem-solving skills, with high level of attention to detail and the ability to proactively identify and propose solutions.
• Strong interest in enhancing financial controls and risk management.  
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills combined with strong organisational skills.  
• Self-starter with the ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team.  
• An ability to write and present reports to Executive Management Team, Board, and external 3rd parties.
• Advanced knowledge with accounting systems/reporting tools, process automation, MS Excel, Word and Powerpoint.  Oracle experience desirable.  

Applications in the form of a cover letter and current CV (MS Word or pdf) should be sent to: recruitment@snnairportgroup.ie not later than 5pm on Friday 9th January 2026