About the Role
The Business Operations team solves the Specialty Travel & Events team's most critical, emergent challenges across business, product, and operations. As a Manager-level individual contributor, you will have the unique opportunity to scope, design, and drive high-impact initiatives that support business growth, optimization, and stability.
You are someone who can look at a complex business challenge, map out the connections between people, processes and tools, and help design a path forward. You aren't just managing projects; you are evaluating how our business runs, leveraging data to challenge assumptions, and driving the hands-on execution of some of our most important initiatives.
What You Will Do
- Drive Strategic Initiatives: Execute on high-impact, 0-to-1 operational initiatives end-to-end. Investigate complex, ambiguous problems, develop rigorous work plans, and drive day-to-day execution.
- Solve Complex Problems: Identify operational bottlenecks and help design scalable processes that allow cross-functional teams (Sales, Operations, Data Analytics, Finance, etc.) to work together seamlessly.
- Synthesize Data into Strategy: Dig into raw business data (using Excel, SQL, or other systems) to reveal patterns and truths behind operational challenges. Translate these findings into clear, actionable recommendations for leadership and cross-functional partners.
- Cross-Functional Influence: Build trusted partnerships across teams, navigating obstacles with empathy to drive alignment across competing priorities, often without direct authority.
- Unblock and Accelerate: Anticipate technical bottlenecks, call out trade-offs between business desires and constraints, and keep project teams aligned and moving forward.
- Manage Global Programs: Drive multi-phased initiatives across regions, establishing working groups and cross-functional alignment across teams.
What We’re Looking For
- Relevant experience: 5+ years of experience in business operations, program management, or strategy within a fast-paced environment (BA/BS degree or equivalent experience).
- Analytical fluency: Highly proficient in Excel/Google Sheets and comfortable using SQL to query databases, extract insights from messy data, and build narratives that drive business decisions.
- Systems thinker: You intuitively see how workflows and tech stacks interconnect, preferring to build scalable, long-term processes rather than temporary fixes.
- Influence without authority: A proven track record of managing cross-functional relationships (Sales, Finance, Data), building alignment, and driving results across competing priorities.
- High momentum & ownership: You approach complex, ambiguous problems with a "beginner's mind," move decisively to avoid analysis paralysis, and take clear ownership of end-to-end execution.
Bonus Points
- Experience at a travel management company or roles in event planning or supplier/vendor management.
- Background in Product Operations or Business Systems in high-growth environments.
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.
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