Senior Manager, Global Travel & Expense Strategy – Corporate Services Procurement

The Senior Manager, Global Travel & Expense Strategy – Corporate Services Procurement is responsible for leading the global Travel & Expense ecosystem while driving strategic sourcing, supplier management, program governance, reporting, compliance, automation, and continuous improvement across the end-to-end travel lifecycle.

This role requires a 360-degree leader who combines deep corporate travel expertise with strong procurement, sourcing, analytics, and cross-functional program management capabilities. The position is accountable for maintaining a stable global travel program while advancing a multi-year roadmap that connects travel booking, corporate card, expense management, policy compliance, supplier performance, reporting, employee experience, and AI-enabled process improvement into a more cohesive enterprise operating model.

The role will serve as the primary Travel & Expense subject matter expert within Corporate Services Procurement and will partner closely with Finance, Treasury, HR, Global Mobility, Security, IT, Legal, Internal Audit, and business leadership to improve governance, user experience, cost visibility, compliance, and supplier value.

The successful candidate must be able to manage travel as a strategic enterprise program while also executing sourcing events, negotiating agreements, managing supplier performance, leveraging Coupa and reporting tools, and building a long-term maturity roadmap for the company’s global T&E lifecycle.

Global Travel Program Leadership

• Own the global travel program strategy and operating model.
• Serve as the internal subject matter expert for corporate travel, TMC service models, travel technology, traveler experience, and industry best practices.
• Maintain and improve the travel program roadmap across air, hotel, car rental, rail, ground transportation, booking tools, duty of care, and traveler support.
• Ensure the program balances cost control, user experience, compliance, security, and operational continuity.
• Lead the transition from current-state program stability to a more mature enterprise T&E lifecycle.
• Sourcing of Corporate Meetings and Events, and/or facilitating support to needing department. 

Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Management

• Lead RFIs, RFPs, supplier evaluations, negotiation strategies, and contract renewals for travel-related suppliers.
• Manage the TMC relationship and hold suppliers accountable for service levels, reporting accuracy, escalation support, roadmap delivery, and commercial performance.
• Manage supplier governance across airlines, hotels, car rental, rail, traveler tracking, expense platforms, payment providers, and travel technology vendors.
• Establish supplier scorecards, QBRs, escalation paths, and continuous improvement plans.
• Use market intelligence and benchmarking to validate supplier strategy and future-state operating model decisions.

Travel, Expense, and Payment Lifecycle Governance

• Partner with Finance and Treasury to align travel policy, corporate card strategy, expense workflow, audit controls, and payment model decisions.
• Support evaluation of central bill, individual corporate card, company-pay, virtual card, and non-employee payment scenarios.
• Help clarify ownership between Procurement, Finance, Treasury, Travel Audit, and Employee Services.
• Identify and document process gaps across travel booking, card usage, expense reporting, audit, reimbursement, and reporting.
• Drive recommendations that reduce manual work, improve compliance, and support a better traveler experience.

Reporting, Analytics, and Business Intelligence

• Own the travel reporting strategy and partner with analytics resources to maintain a single source of truth for travel and T&E performance.
• Develop dashboards and insights covering spend, supplier performance, booking adoption, policy compliance, leakage, savings, unused tickets, hotel attachment, ground transportation, and traveler behavior.
• Translate reporting into leadership-ready insights and action plans.
• Improve data integration across CTM, card data, Oracle/iExpense, GL, HR hierarchy, and procurement reporting tools.
• Support development of a future single T&E dashboard with compliance, adoption, supplier, payment, and ground transportation visibility.

Governance and Stakeholder Alignment

• Establish a Global T&E Executive Steering Committee to create cross-functional ownership of travel, card, expense, compliance, data, reporting, and employee support.
• Partner with Finance, Treasury, HR, Legal, IT, Security, Employee Services, Internal Audit, and regional leaders to align decision rights and priorities.
• Facilitate governance discussions around policy, exceptions, traveler experience, card/payment models, reporting access, privacy, and duty of care.
• Create a quarterly cadence for roadmap review, KPI tracking, issue escalation, and decision-making.
• Ensure governance is lightweight, decision-oriented, and designed to accelerate progress rather than create bureaucracy.

Digital Transformation, Automation, and AI

• Build and execute a 3-year T&E maturity roadmap focused on governance, automation, analytics, adoption, compliance, and employee experience.
• Identify practical AI and automation use cases that improve travel and expense workflows.
• Evaluate opportunities for policy Q&A, receipt extraction, card matching, exception routing, duplicate detection, traveler self-service, supplier leakage analytics, and predictive compliance.
• Partner with IT and Finance to prioritize existing investments first, including Oracle/iExpense, Coupa, CTM, card data, Power BI, and Microsoft productivity tools.
• Ensure AI is used responsibly, with human review, appropriate access controls, policy ownership, privacy safeguards, and auditability.

Policy, Compliance, and Risk Management

• Partner with Finance and Travel Audit to maintain travel policy alignment, approval logic, exception rules, and traveler-facing guidance.
• Support policy simplification and improved traveler understanding.
• Identify compliance leakage, off-channel booking behavior, card usage gaps, audit issues, and recurring process failures.
• Support duty of care visibility and traveler safety considerations with Security and travel suppliers.
• Maintain documentation that supports audit readiness and business continuity.

Traveler Experience and Change Management

• Improve traveler experience by simplifying how employees book, pay, expense, and receive support.
• Increase adoption of preferred channels and tools by making compliance easier for employees.
• Develop communications, training, FAQs, and stakeholder updates that explain the value of the travel program.
• Use traveler feedback, support trends, policy friction, and adoption data to improve the program.
• Promote a customer-first mindset while maintaining cost, control, and governance discipline.

Market Analysis

Conduct ongoing travel market analysis to evaluate TMC models, booking technologies, expense platforms, payment solutions, airline/hotel market dynamics, AI capabilities, and best-practice corporate travel standards.

Contract Management

Manage the full lifecycle of travel-related agreements, including supplier selection, negotiation, renewal planning, contract documentation, Coupa/CLM compliance, supplier scorecards, and executive business reviews.

Policy Development

Partner with Finance, Treasury, HR, Legal, Security, and Internal Audit to refine travel, card, expense, approval, exception, and compliance policies.

Stakeholder Engagement

Build executive-level relationships with internal stakeholders and serve as the bridge between Procurement, Finance, Treasury, HR, Security, IT, Legal, regional leaders, suppliers, and travelers.

Sustainability

Support ESG and sustainability visibility through travel reporting, supplier engagement, airline/hotel program strategy, duty of care, and future AI-enabled sustainability tracking.

Enterprise T&E Transformation

Help evolve the travel program from a stable sourcing-led category into a governed, data-driven, AI-enabled enterprise T&E lifecycle, connecting Travel, Card, Expense, Reporting, Compliance, and Employee Support into one operating model.

Position Success Measures

• Travel Program Continuity.
• Completion of a current-state T&E lifecycle maturity assessment.
• Delivery of a 3-year Travel & Expense roadmap.
• Launch of a Global T&E Executive Steering Committee.
• Completion and recommendation from the travel service provider RFI.
• Improved supplier governance and CTM accountability.
• Improved booking tool adoption and traveler experience.
• Improved reporting integrity and dashboard visibility.
• Better alignment between travel, card, expense, audit, and Finance data.
• Increased policy compliance and reduced manual exceptions.
• Clear ownership model across Procurement, Finance, Treasury, HR, IT, Security, and Employee Services.
• Measurable sourcing value, supplier value, process improvement, and risk reduction.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Supply Chain, Finance, Hospitality, Travel Management, Analytics, or related field required.
• MBA, advanced degree, or professional certification preferred.

Experience

• 8+ years of progressive experience in corporate travel management, Travel & Expense program leadership, procurement, strategic sourcing, supplier management, or related corporate services functions.
• Demonstrated experience managing or supporting a global corporate travel program, including TMC relationships, airline, hotel, car rental, duty of care, booking tool, and traveler support models.
• Strong understanding of the end-to-end T&E lifecycle: booking, approval, travel, payment, expense submission, reimbursement, audit, reporting, and compliance.
• Experience leading RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, supplier evaluations, commercial negotiations, contract renewals, and supplier governance reviews.
• Experience working with travel management companies, online booking tools, expense systems, corporate card programs, and travel reporting platforms.
• Ability to build and execute a 3-year maturity roadmap for Travel & Expense, including governance, automation, data visibility, traveler experience, supplier strategy, and compliance improvements.
• Strong capability to partner cross-functionally with Finance, Treasury, HR, Mobility, Security, Legal, IT, Internal Audit, and senior business stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to use data and dashboards to identify savings, leakage, adoption gaps, supplier performance issues, compliance trends, and process improvement opportunities.
• Strong executive communication skills, including ability to summarize complex T&E issues into clear recommendations for leadership.
• Ability to operate in a global matrix environment with multiple stakeholders, regional needs, and competing priorities.

Technical / Process Capabilities

• Experience with procurement systems such as Coupa, Ariba, SAP, Oracle, or similar platforms.
• Experience with travel and expense platforms such as CTM, Concur, Oracle iExpense, Navan, Amex GBT, BCD, FCM, Emburse, TripBam, or similar solutions.
• Ability to use reporting tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Excel, or similar analytics platforms.
• Understanding of contract lifecycle management, supplier onboarding, eSourcing processes, supplier scorecards, and procurement governance.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled automation, predictive analytics, policy guidance tools, expense automation, and digital employee support capabilities.

Preferred Qualifications 

• GBTA, CCTE, GLP, or other corporate travel-related certification.
• Experience leading a global travel transformation or TMC implementation.
• Experience with corporate card redesign, central bill/CTA models, individual bill/company pay models, virtual cards, ghost/walking cards, or lodge card structures.
• Experience developing executive steering committees or cross-functional governance models.
• Experience implementing or improving travel dashboards, supplier scorecards, travel policy controls, or expense audit workflows.
• Knowledge of airline sourcing, hotel program optimization, market share shift strategy, ground transportation visibility, and traveler behavior management.
• Experience with Oracle Cloud, Oracle iExpense, Concur, Coupa, Power BI, or integrated T&E reporting.
• Experience in semiconductor, technology, manufacturing, industrial, or global matrix organizations.