Global Travel Director at Andela

About the Role

• Andela is hiring a Global Travel Director, who will build a world class travel agency within Andela.
• We are looking for a  seasoned professional who cares deeply about both traveler experience and process improvement.
• Your customers are Andela’s employees, currently ~1000 and growing each month. As part of our business model, Andela’s software developers travel for at least two weeks a year to our partners’ offices, predominately based in the United States. With five offices on two continents, we also have other Andela employees traveling between offices every week.
• Your team’s primary responsibility is to ensure customer satisfaction and efficiency at every step of your customer’s journey, from visa assistance and document preparation to flight selection to their experience at their destination.
• This position requires a motivated self-starter who is able to wear multiple hats, carry initiatives from start to finish, and can work effectively at all levels of the organization across the uniquely cross-cultural Andela environment.
• You’re an expert in building and managing complex operations and developing the processes necessary for scale.
• You also have high emotional intelligence, and are able to craft programs that place an extremely high priority on customer satisfaction.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, mentor and manage a distributed travel operations and guest relations team; design career paths for team members.
• Scope, plan and roll-out systems and tools that will help scale our travel program as Andela grows.
• Manage travel costs while improving travel quality.
• Develop strong partnerships with your primary stakeholders, including Country Directors and other key department heads across Andela’s offices.
• Drive projects that positively impact your team’s key performance indicators related to a travel service that is seamless, efficient and timely, leading to high traveler satisfaction.
• Own and optimize travel-related systems as Andela scales, including a travel management system, expense reporting, learning management system, etc.
• Deliver best-in-class travel experience for all customers.

In the first 30 days you will:

• Meet your direct reports and key stakeholders
• Agree on a 90-day plan with your direct manager
• Understand your team’s current systems, metrics and workflow
• Get up to speed on existing initiatives and hiring plan

In the first 90 days you will:

• Refine your team’s KPIs and leading indicators, and have a communication plan in place to regularly share these metrics with your stakeholders
• Drive at least one initiative to improve travel efficiency, satisfaction or both
• Ensure your team has the necessary infrastructure and bandwidth to accommodate increased developer travel, as we continue to scale
• Assume all leadership responsibilities of the travel team, including ongoing projects, escalations and metrics

Requirements

• 5-7+ years of post-undergraduate, full-time work experience.
• Minimum of 2 years of relevant managerial experience.
• Expert in managing travel operations in a complex environment; you have led a travel agency, a travel department at a larger company or specialized in concierge services in your career.
• Experience scaling a program or team.
• Experience managing and coordinating teams, ideally in a distributed environment, to deliver on a tight schedule.

Broad KPIs:

• Traveler experience index (NPS scores etc.)
• Travel cost optimisation targets (as agreed with CFO and leadership team)
• Travel service delivery TAT (etc. Global average time to book flights from when request is confirmed)

EPIC Values Alignment:

• Demonstrable commitment to the learning & development of people and technology
• The ability to learn new things fast enough to amaze your friends and family

Benefits & Compensation

• Full-time compensation
• Full medical coverage
• Breakfast, lunch and snacks provided daily
• Beautiful working environment
• Opportunity to work with the brightest minds on the planet
• Oh, and a chance to change the world!