Travel Specialist

Travel Specialist

Requirements

• Associate degree in business, hospitality, procurement, finance, marketing or related field; or high school degree/general education diploma and 5 years of relevant experience in lieu of degree.
• 5+ years of experience working in a business travel-focused role, with involvement in sourcing, advancing in duties and responsibilities.
• Authorization to work in the United States without sponsorship.
• Demonstrated ability to perform the Essential Duties of the position with or without accommodation.

Responsibilities

• Document company travel processes, policies, and procedures; responsible for continued maintenance of documentation.
• Acts as day-to-day contact and builds relationships with travel suppliers and travel management company.
• Leads and executes overall travel program management, ensuring supplier and employee compliance to policies and agreements.
• Create and execute a proactive, strategic travel sourcing process to increase cost savings opportunities.
• Conduct detailed cost analysis for air, car, and hotel spend to inform sourcing and partner selections.
• Coordinate contracting and payment processes; follow all Company policies and regulations.
• Guide workflow design, configure and test system changes, and analyze technical issues.
• Identify technology improvements and enhancements to solve problems.
• Research and recommend new technologies, processes, and system changes to improve efficiency.
• Lead RFPs and implementation of new technologies, processes, and system enhancements as necessary.
• Identify issues requiring resolution, review and interpret authoritative guidance and offer proposed solutions. Implement solution(s) to mitigate future occurrences.
• Complete complex travel reconciliation and reporting across different sources and identify reconciliation errors.
• Consult and recommend on system design and processes for data capture.
• Advise on relevant system, policy, and/or process training programs across multiple functions within the organization, including executive-level leaders.
• Routinely assess the effectiveness and strategy of global travel program and redesign as needed.
• Demonstrate ability to gauge audiences and determine when clarification is required. Understand and anticipate audience needs and questions.
• Plan for the future by evaluating how current processes and procedures can scale effectively.
• Demonstrates understanding of how decisions impact other functions.
• Subject matter expert of functional processes and systems. Stays current with company and team initiatives and enhancements.
• Ability to evaluate routine and high priority tasks to delegate to team members, as needed.
• Ability to communicate clear and concise messages to internal and external audiences.
• Ability to make decisions independently considering multiple data points and sources of information.
• Assist and mentor team members.
• Contribute to positive team morale and support employee engagement initiatives.
• Uphold company mission and values through accountability, innovation, integrity, quality, and teamwork.
• Support and comply with the company’s Quality Management System policies and procedures.
• Regular and reliable attendance.
• Ability to work designated schedule.
• Ability to work nights and/or weekends.
• Ability to work on a mobile device, tablet, or in front of a computer screen and/or perform typing for approximately 90% of a typical working day.
• Ability and means to travel between Madison locations.
• Ability to travel up to 15%.

Preferred Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in technical, reporting, and analytical responsibilities.
• 2+ years of experience working with SAP Concur application.
• 2+ years of experience sourcing for various travel vendors including travel management companies, air, car, rail, and hotel.