Corporate Travel Manager

Position Description:

This Corporate Travel Manager role oversees NPSG travel program leading a team of 5-6 remote travel coordinators to proactively address travel needs and provide excellent customer service to leaders, travelers, and other stakeholders. This role will be focused on developing the NPSG travel program and driving strategy that founded on best practices and key performance metrics, to improve operational effectiveness and reduce travel/expense costs. The right candidate will have extensive experience developing a network of preferred travel vendors/suppliers to drive operational efficiencies and reduce cost.    

Responsibilities:

• Fostering a proactive, collaborative work environment by effectively leading, training, and developing travel team by providing continuous constructive feedback and coaching through regular meetings and 1:1s. 
• Focusing on result-driven solutions by developing and deploying service level agreements (SLA), key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metric-driven insights to deliver excellent customer service, cost-reduction, and process improvements.
• Partnering and collaborating with leaders and other internal stakeholders to ensure travel program is aligned with business goals and compliant with policy.
• Serving as travel subject matter expert (SME), customer and vendor escalation point, and the primary liaison between leadership, operations team, vendors, and travel team to ensure all travel, lodging & transportation needs are met.  
• Developing a network of preferred vendor service providers, identify and leverage opportunities, negotiate contract terms, and manage relationship to deliver operational efficiencies and cost savings while mitigating risk.
• Providing direction to travel team to evaluate current state processes, identifying and resolving gaps, and implementing plans that incorporate consistency, standardization, and continuous improvement principles to ensure customer satisfaction is measured and goals are met.  
• Overseeing and managing the workflow to assist direct reports in balancing priorities and managing their workload so travel SLAs and KPIs are consistently achieved.   
• Partnering and collaborating with the accounting team and other stakeholders to measure travel and expense performance against industry benchmarks and standards.
• Preparing monthly, quarterly, and annual travel/expense and other performance reports to effectively capture SLAs/metrics.  

Requirements:

• Sabre GDS skills required 
• T&E, Concur, SAP and Corporate Credit Card program experience is a must 
• Ability to lead and manage a remote-based team in an ambiguous operating environment. 
• Able to work flexible schedule, which could include weeknights and weekends. 
• Prior budget and cost management experience.
• Active listening and superior written and verbal skills exercised with diplomacy and tact.
• Expertly skilled with a strong track record with vendor and supplier partnerships and negotiating vendor contracts.
• Superior critical thinking skills, fierce analytical abilities coupled with superior business acumen and judgment.
• Ability to communicate effectively and frequently, actively listening to all levels within the company 
• Strong program and project management and negotiation skills 
• Ability to succinctly frame issues and can act decisively to drive decisions, while demonstrating agility to support the evolution of business needs. 
• Ability to drive change management and champion changes 
• Must be enthusiastic, team orientated, self-motivated and performance driven; coupled with the willingness to take necessary actions to deliver on commitments 
• Highest ethical standards and strong business ethics in dealing with vendors/suppliers and in representing NPSG Global 
• Superior customer service expertise in the travel industry and corporate environments.
• Thrives in an active, dynamic and fast-paced environment with constantly shifting priorities and ambiguity. 

Education/Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in education/experience
• 5-7 years of travel management experience
• Minimum 5 years’ experience as a people leader of a high-performing (remote) team within a corporate travel program.

Work Environment/Physical Demands:

• Able to stand, walk, and bend for short periods of time in an office environment.
• Ability to sit at a desk and perform computer-based work for extended periods of time.
• Ability to communicate over the phone and in-person.
• Ability to lift up to 10 pounds.
• The noise level for this job is usually low. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to use hands to finger, handle or feel, and reach with hands and arms. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and distance vision.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This job description should not be interpreted as the exclusive responsibilities of the position. Employees will follow any other instructions and perform any other related duties, as may be required by his/her Manager.