About the Opportunity

This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. It is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified. 

JOB SUMMARY

The Travel and Expense Director is responsible for managing the strategy and operations related to travel, employee expense reimbursement, and card programs. Responsibilities include travel and expense report process optimization, customer service for travelers and traveler expenses, communication of university travel and business expense policies and processes, analytics related to travel, expense and card programs, and expense and purchasing card audit and compliance.  

The Travel and Expense Director should have a strong analytical mindset, an advanced knowledge of travel booking, expense reimbursement, and leading corporate and purchase card practices, a deep understanding of developing key metrics and dashboards, and effective communication skills to present information in an informative way to assist in making decisions. 

The Travel and Expense Director assists in establishing and maintaining strong, collaborative relationships with faculty, staff, and students. This position also identifies additional ways to be of service and ensure vendor satisfaction. Championing and driving the entire travel and expense process supports the success of our global university and customers. 

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

* Bachelor’s Degree with 8+ years of relevant experience as a Travel and Expense leader is required. An advanced degree (e.g., MBA / MS) is preferred.

* Demonstrated team leadership and functional expertise leading global travel, check pay / ad-hoc payment, corporate and purchase card, and expense reconciliation workflows.

* Globally minded, self-motivated, flexible, and creative leader, able to prioritize, multi-task, and work horizontally and vertically across a decentralized organization to deploy compliant travel and expense practices with high customer empathy.

* Demonstrated ability to effectively utilize data to identify opportunities, continuously improve team performance, and implement a robust data-driven performance management framework (e.g., business management system, service level agreements, key performance indicators).

* Familiarity with global travel and expense best practices, leading technologies, techniques/value levers to enhance returns on working capital, and associated travel savings levers and negotiation tactics. Experience with Concur travel and expense preferred.

* Proven experience with building & leading a high-performing strategic operations team in a high profile, high transactional volume, high financial risk environment.

* Ability to foster imagination, creativity, and experimentation, taking and promoting considered risks, celebrating creative successes, learning from failure, and being open to alternative ways of doing things.

* Strong leadership presence and ability to build “trusted advisor” relationships by delivering sound technical analysis, customer empathy, and data-driven decision-making.

* Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, with the ability to lead, interact with, influence, resolve conflict, and drive decisions/accountability among individuals from a variety of cultures and disciplines.

* Demonstrated flexibility and willingness to respond to changes in the external environment while ensuring the organization can effectively and efficiently navigate transitions.

* A Certified Purchasing Card Professional (CPCP) from the National Association of Procurement Card Professionals is preferred. 

* Familiarity with data mining software is preferred. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES

1) Responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of Travel & Expense team, to include, but not limited to:

• Purchase and Corporate Card Management: Issuance, cancellation, card replacement, merchant code management, issue resolution and escalation with card issuer, Institutional credit limits (in collaboration with Treasury).

• Expense Management: “Out of Pocket” and corporate / purchase card expense on-time reconciliation, reimbursement, and reporting, compliance programming and auditing of expense reports, recoupment of unallowable expenses, and dispute resolution / policy exception processing and remediation.

• Global Travel Management: Work with internal teams, customers, and suppliers to institute and refine our corporate travel programming, create efficiencies, and optimize usage / drive adoption to Northeastern preferre