Travel Services Manager

The Manager, Travel Services leads a team of Travel Consultants and is accountable for team performance, service quality, employee development, and operational execution. This role supports Navan’s business goals while maintaining a best-in-class standard of service and fostering a culture of inclusion, trust, accountability, and teamwork.

The Manager leads, motivates, challenges, and develops the team in line with our service philosophy:

We provide industry-leading service that enables our customers to enjoy an exceptional and seamless travel and expense experience while achieving unparalleled levels of operational efficiency.

What You’ll Do

• Develop team members through regular interaction reviews, coaching sessions, performance conversations, and 1:1 meetings.
• Maintain an in-depth understanding of the day-to-day responsibilities, workflows, tools, and challenges of Travel Consultants.
• Step in to manage email, voice, and chat interactions when operational support or escalation handling is required.
• Review LLM quality evaluations and assess travel bookings and customer requests across relevant travel tools to ensure consistently high service standards.
• Identify operational errors and quality gaps, provide constructive feedback, and coach consultants on corrective and preventative actions.
• Regularly review individual and team performance metrics to identify opportunities across critical competencies and develop appropriate improvement plans.
• Monitor contact queues, staffing, adherence, and SLA performance to ensure service-level targets are achieved.
• Hold Travel Consultants accountable for agreed performance, quality, productivity, and customer-experience metrics.
• Report on weekly and monthly operational performance, with a specific focus on team results, trends, risks, and improvement actions.
• Set clear expectations and create an environment in which consultants are motivated and empowered to meet or exceed the requirements of their roles.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to address errors, learning needs, process gaps, and opportunities to improve consultant performance.
• Manage escalations and customer communications, maintaining ownership of issues through resolution.
• Participate in projects that develop, guide, and implement processes designed to improve service delivery and operational results.
• Partner with Operations and Service Leadership to regularly review, update, and communicate global performance metrics and expectations.
• Ensure the team remains aligned with global organizational expectations, quality standards, processes, and performance requirements through regular team meetings and communications.
• Lead the team effectively through organizational, operational, and process changes, ensuring understanding and encouraging constructive feedback.
• Support the recruitment, selection, onboarding, and induction of Travel Consultants to maintain a consistent hiring and service standard.
• Identify and manage employee performance concerns, escalating to the People team or Senior Leadership when appropriate.
• Monitor processes, procedures, and tools that may negatively affect team productivity or the customer experience, and recommend improvements.
• Cascade relevant travel-industry, supplier, policy, and operational updates to the team in a timely and effective manner.

What We’re Looking For

• 7+ years of experience in the travel industry.
• 5+ years of progressive leadership experience within a TMC or travel-industry contact-center environment, including at least 3 years at the Manager level leading consultants and/or team leads.
• Advanced knowledge of Sabre and/or Amadeus GDS, along with a strong understanding of online and offline travel operations.
• Knowledge of, or familiarity with, CRM and customer-service platforms such as Salesforce, Zendesk, or similar tools.
• Ability to quickly develop proficiency across Navan technology, supplier platforms, and operational tools.
• A customer-centric mindset, with a consistent focus on delivering excellent customer experiences.
• Strong relationship-building skills and the ability to motivate, engage, and develop team members through coaching and knowledge sharing.
• A proven track record as a people leader and mentor, with a strong understanding of travel-service requirements, customer needs, and the challenges of operating in a fast-growing company.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across teams and regions.
• A data-driven approach, with the ability to use business analytics and performance insights to identify trends, understand root causes, and improve results.
• A proactive, results-oriented mindset, with strong ownership and follow-through.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to use available resources effectively and deliver against agreed timelines.
• The ability to lead by example and consistently demonstrate sound judgment, accountability, and professionalism.

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.