Travel Operations Lead

Responsibilities

• Own the executive travel operating model, including support workflows, escalation paths, SLA management, policy ownership, supplier coordination, and program governance.
• Lead high-touch executive travel support including complex commercial travel globally, balancing speed, confidentiality, safety, and experience.
• Manage the procurement process for executive travel, including supplier engagement, service expectations, documentation, spend visibility, and compliance with procurement and finance requirements.
• Own and continuously improve the executive travel policy, translating edge cases into clear standards, practical guardrails, and scalable approval paths.
• Partner with Executive Business Partners to optimize support, improve satisfaction, clarify handoffs, and ensure executives and travelers can travel safely and effectively.
• Oversee employee travel support related to TMC service delivery, on-the-road support, disruption management, traveler enablement, and recurring issue resolution.
• Own travel agency management for Navan and related program operations, including SLAs, KPIs, escalations, roadmap input, operational reviews, and continuous improvement.
• Manage the Guest T&E program for new hires, candidates, and other business guests, creating scalable rules, support workflows, payment paths, and exception handling.
• Build reporting and data routines for executive travel, tax, compliance, supplier performance, traveler experience, support volume, and operational risk.
• Use AI tools to improve travel support workflows, documentation, triage, analytics, policy interpretation, exception routing, and recurring issue detection.
• Partner cross-functionally with HR, Finance, Accounting, Procurement Operations, Tax, Legal, Security, Executive Business Partners, Recruiting, and business stakeholders.
• Build clear documentation, SOPs, program standards, and operating rhythms that make travel support easier, more consistent, and more transparent.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in travel, executive operations, expense, corporate cards, sourcing, finance operations, or a related T&E role.
• High AI fluency, with demonstrated ability to use AI tools to improve how work gets done, reduce manual effort, strengthen analysis, improve documentation, and create scalable operating leverage.
• Strong understanding of how the in-trip experience is affected by disruptions, destination risk, traveler context, supplier performance, policy design, booking quality, and support responsiveness.
• Ability to improve operational processes through better data, automation, workflow design, and exception-based ways of working.
• Strong systems understanding, with the ability to understand how data flows across procurement, travel, finance, tax, card, and reporting platforms.
• High attention to detail and a strong sense of ownership for data accuracy, completeness, confidentiality, and consistency.
• Ability to identify patterns in operational issues and translate them into better processes, standards, controls, and system improvements.
• Practical judgment around AI adoption, including where automation can accelerate work, where human review matters, and how to build trust with travelers and cross-functional partners.
• Comfort working across HR, Finance, Accounting, Procurement Operations, Tax, Legal, Security, Executive Business Partners, and business stakeholders.
• Clear communication skills and the ability to explain process requirements in a practical, enablement-focused way.
• Sound judgment when handling confidential executive travel information, sensitive traveler data, guest information, and supplier performance concerns.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity, bring structure to evolving processes, and raise the bar as volume and complexity increase.

Nice-to-Haves

• Have worked on scaled travel programs and understand how global travel operations, supplier performance, policy, traveler experience, and data connect.
• Have experience in high-touch, highly confidential, and fast-changing environments where judgment, discretion, and service quality matter.
• Can set up program rules that scale with volume and complexity while preserving room for practical exception handling.
• Understand how disruptions, risk, routing, supplier behavior, traveler profiles, and support timing affect trip outcomes.
• Enjoy turning operational complexity into clear standards, better workflows, stronger controls, and smarter systems.
• Are already using AI tools to improve quality, speed, analysis, documentation, traveler support, or decision support.
• Can balance hands-on support with strategic program ownership and cross-functional influence.
• Bring an ownership mindset and are comfortable being accountable for sensitive, visible, and operationally complex work.

Compensation

$216K - $240K USD