About the Role
The Manager, Event Operations Australia is responsible for leading the delivery, performance and strategic development of the Event Travel and Events operation across Australia and supporting the broader APAC region. The role provides leadership across people, client delivery, commercial performance, operational excellence and risk management, ensuring consistent, high-quality service and sustainable business growth. The role combines team leadership, client ownership and direct service delivery, ensuring both operational excellence and strong team performance. It plays a critical part in scaling the Australia and broader APAC operations while aligning with global standards. The position leads and develops a high-performing team, drives operational best practice, oversees resource planning and acts as a senior escalation point for client, supplier and operational matters. The role is accountable for ensuring service excellence, commercial success, compliance, and continuous improvement across all Event Travel and Events activities. Working closely with global stakeholders, Client Success, Sales, Finance, and Operations teams, the Manager plays a key role in scaling the Australia and APAC business, strengthening client relationships, developing future leaders, and ensuring alignment with global standards and strategic objectives.
What you'll do
- Builds and leads high-performing, accountable and collaborative teams, fostering a culture of trust, recognition and open communication.
- Coaches, mentors and develops future leaders, providing clear direction, feedback and performance management
- Leads teams through organisational growth, transformation and change with resilience and adaptability
- Acts as a senior escalation point for complex client, operational and service delivery issues
- Balances client experience, operational excellence and commercial objectives to drive profitability and account growth.
- Oversees the successful delivery of complex events and group travel programmes, ensuring quality, compliance and exceptional service.
- Uses data, operational insights and best practices to improve performance, productivity and service consistency.
- Develops scalable processes, training frameworks and operational standards across Events and Event Travel functions
- Identifies and mitigates operational, commercial and reputational risks, ensuring governance, compliance and business continuity.
What we're looking for
- Proven experience in Events and Group Travel operations, including group travel logistics
- Demonstrated people leadership experience, ideally within a regional or multi-market team
- Strong working knowledge of GDS systems (Sabre preferred) and travel booking processes
- Experience in managing large, complex event programmes, including multi-destination or high-volume attendee movements
- Sound knowledge of event management platforms (e.g. Cvent)
- Strong commercial acumen with a track record of driving revenue and profitability
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously
- High attention to detail with strong organisational capability
Navan uses AI-assisted Automated Employment Decision Tool (Metaview) to assist with evaluating resumes against job qualifications for this role. All final decisions are made by human recruiters and hiring managers.
Human oversight: Metaview does not automatically reject candidates or make final hiring decisions. Our recruiters and hiring managers review all outputs and make the final hiring decision regarding every application.
Your rights: If you prefer to have your application reviewed without AI assistance, you may request a human evaluation by entering your email here. Your decision to do so will not affect how your candidacy is evaluated.
Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about our processing of personal data, and your rights.
Skills Required
- Proven experience in events and group travel operations, including group travel logistics
- People leadership experience, ideally within a regional or multi-market team
- Strong working knowledge of GDS systems and travel booking processes; Sabre preferred
- Experience managing large, complex event programs, including multi-destination or high-volume attendee movements
- Knowledge of event management platforms such as Cvent
- Commercial acumen with a track record of driving revenue and profitability
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously
- High attention to detail and strong organizational capability
What the Team is Saying
Navan Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Employer-sponsored medical, dental, and vision coverage extend to employees and dependents, alongside mental-health resources like Headspace. Employer-verified plan listings confirm active U.S. medical coverage.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Flexible vacation (unlimited PTO) is advertised in the U.S., while the U.K. page specifies five weeks of PTO, underscoring regional structure. A company-wide Quiet Week around year-end, paid holidays, and sick time are also referenced in benefits materials.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is clearly defined at 16 weeks for the birthing parent and 10 weeks for the non-birthing parent. Family medical leave and related supports are also noted.
Navan Insights
What We Do
Navan (Nasdaq: NAVN) is the leading all-in-one business travel, payments, and expense management platform that makes travel easy for frequent travelers. From finding flights and hotels to automating expense reconciliation, with 24/7 support along the way, Navan delivers an intuitive experience travelers love and finance teams rely on. See how Navan customers benefit and learn more at navan.com.
Why Work With Us
At Navan, we’re never satisfied with the status quo, and we know breakthrough ideas come from diverse perspectives. We are committed to cultivating a workplace that reflects the diversity of the customers we serve while fostering leadership and innovation.
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Navan Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
In-person connections is the foundation of Navan, the connections forged through face-to-face interactions improve company culture and what we can achieve together. We operate on a hybrid working model, which we define as four days a week in-office.
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