Travel Program Manager

Travel Program Manager

Based on-site at Rocket Lab's global headquarters in Long Beach, California, the travel program manager is responsible for managing travel operations, providing employee support, ensuring compliance with travel policies, and optimizing and maintaining supplier relationships. You will support the VP of Finance in driving strategy and execution of a high-touch, employee and production focused global travel program. The ideal candidate can balance the execution of the nuanced service with the need for efficiency; a self-starter with a service-minded approach who can manage and foster relationships across the businesses.

What You'll Get To Do:

• Policy Compliance & Travel Program Governance:
• Plan, develop, and implement a corporate travel policy.
• Promote adherence to online booking, advance ticket purchasing, lowest logical airfare, and preferred suppliers.
• Review program compliance and address concerns.

• Supplier & Program Management:
• Develop strong relationships with airlines, car rentals, and hotels to ensure best-in-class service.
• Source and negotiate hotel accommodation for small-to-medium meetings and high-profile events.
• Conduct hotel and venue site inspections and provide recommendations.
• Participate in established cadence of reviews with Navan, hotel, car rental, bank services, and other travel vendors to ensure desired services are available, as well as to secure best rates and services for the Rocket Lab.
• Monitor travel partners to ensure travel processes and negotiations are delivered as negotiated and that travel partners are meeting the established SLAs, promoting process enhancements, and advancements as necessary.
• Work closely with travel partners to develop additional savings opportunities, presenting cost savings.

• Travel Technology & Workflow Oversight:
• Troubleshoot travel portal and travel approval workflows, including out-of-office delegations.
• Open support tickets and escalate travel technology and workflow issues.

• Reporting & Data Analytics:
• Present insights to leadership to enhance corporate travel efficiency.
• Analyze travel data for trends, areas for cost savings and opportunities for program improvement.

• Employee Support & Issue Resolution:
• Support site-specific travel needs and optimize travel operations.
• Provide training and support on travel portal and corporate travel policies.
• Work with our travel partner on escalations

You'll Bring These Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in a global, complex business environment and a bachelor's degree.
• Proven ability to lead high performing cross-functional teams.
• Experience in corporate travel policy development, supplier contract negotiations, and working with travel management companies or in-house travel departments.
• Deep understanding of the global travel industry's business ecosystem, operations, technology, and service delivery platforms.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, business process analysis, budgeting, financial modeling, and forecasting skills.
• Experience in a dynamic work environment, supporting both business travel, as well as production and event travel needs.
• Experience with Concur and Navan tools on a global platform.
• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite
• Travel as needed.

These Qualifications Would Be Nice To Have:

• Strong customer service and communication skills, with the ability to interact with all levels, including senior executives.
• Ability to multi-task, work under pressure, and meet deadlines.
• Self-motivated with the ability to work independently.

Additional Requirements:

• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to focus.
• Regularly required to sit, use hands and fingers, operate computer keyboard and controls, and communicate verbally and in writing.
• Must be physically able to commute to buildings.
• Occasional exposure to dust, fumes and moderate levels of noise.
• Ability to work extended hours or weekends as needed for mission critical deadlines.