Head of Travel & Expense
Lead global travel and expense transformation, driving automation, compliance, and employee experience across T&E platforms and operations. Requires 10+ years of leadership experience and expertise in T&E technologies.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Lead the transformation of the T&E program into a modern, automated, digital-first experience, including AI-enabled workflows, touchless expense processing, automated audit controls, and intelligent policy enforcement.
- Create a frictionless employee experience across booking, expense submission, approvals, reimbursements, and support while simplifying processes and reducing manual work.
- Build a scalable global T&E roadmap that balances agility, governance, employee experience, and operational efficiency, with clear KPIs, dashboards, and change management to support adoption.
- Oversee global business travel operations across air, hotel, ground transportation, meetings, and traveler support, while shaping regional travel strategies for a distributed workforce.
- Manage travel partners and supplier relationships to improve service levels, optimize spend, and support evolving business needs.
- Partner with Security and HR to strengthen traveler safety, duty of care, and crisis response capabilities.
- Lead enterprise expense reimbursement and corporate card programs with a focus on automation, compliance, scalability, and employee experience.
- Implement intelligent expense capabilities such as auto-generated reports, AI auditing, receipt automation, and policy-driven workflows, while simplifying approvals and accelerating reimbursement cycles.
- Partner closely with AP, Payroll, and Finance Operations to streamline end-to-end financial processes.
- Own the T&E technology ecosystem, including platforms such as Emburse, Egencia, AppZen, and corporate card integrations; partner with IT and Finance Systems on integrations, APIs, and analytics.
- Ensure strong policy governance, financial controls, audit readiness, and compliance with global tax, regulatory, data privacy, and regional travel requirements.
- Build and lead a high-performing global team, develop leadership bench strength, and influence cross-functional stakeholders in a complex, fast-moving environment.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, Supply Chain, Hospitality, Information Systems, or a related field.
- 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in Travel, Expense, Procurement, Finance Operations, Shared Services, or related functions.
- Proven success leading T&E transformation, automation, or digital modernization initiatives in high-growth or fast-paced organizations.
- Experience leading global or multinational T&E programs and managing regional operations and cross-border transformation efforts.
- Strong operational leadership with the ability to translate strategy into scalable execution.
- Deep expertise in T&E platforms, workflow automation, corporate card programs, and expense technologies.
- Strong understanding of AI-enabled operations, process redesign, and scalable service delivery models.
- Exceptional stakeholder management, communication, and change leadership skills, with the ability to lead through ambiguity and evolving business priorities.
- Experience leading global or multinational T&E programs.
Nice-to-Haves
- MBA, CPA, CTP, or related certification preferred.
- Lean Six Sigma, automation, or digital transformation experience strongly preferred.
Skills
T&E Platforms, Emburse, Egencia, Appzen, Corporate Card Programs, Workflow Automation, Ai-Enabled Operations, Expense Technologies, Process Redesign, Financial Controls
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