Director, Travel Services

Overview

TAIT partners with artists, brands, IP holders and place makers to bring culture-defining, never-before-seen experiences to life. With a legacy of innovation spanning over 45 years, TAIT has grown from pioneering in rock ’n’ roll concert staging to setting the global standard for extraordinary live events and experiences through cutting-edge technology, precision engineering, and creative design. TAIT’s 20 global offices have developed iconic productions and experiences in over 30 countries, all seven continents, and even outer space for renowned performers, theme parks, exhibits, and venues across the globe.

Partnerships include Taylor Swift, Cirque Du Soleil, Royal Opera House, Nike, NASA, Bloomberg, Google, Beyoncé, and The Olympics.

Position Purpose

The Director, Travel Services is accountable for structuring, governing, and optimizing a USD 46M+ global travel and events spend portfolio, with a clear mandate to deliver 10–20 percent sustainable, auditable savings on addressable spend. The role combines strategic sourcing, policy and governance redesign, demand management, and advanced configuration and optimization of SAP Concur to eliminate spend leakage, reduce excessive cost variability, and remove human bias from travel approval processes while preserving business productivity and traveler experience.

This role will work collaboratively across all capabilities and enablers to ensure policy compliance and sustainable behavioral change. This is a high-impact value creation role with direct visibility to senior leadership. Success will materially improve cost discipline, governance, and transparency across a critical indirect spend category, while embedding AI-enabled controls that permanently remove reliance on discretionary human approvals.

Spend Scope

Total addressable spend: USD 46M+, including:

• Air travel (domestic and international)
• Hotels and lodging
• Ground transportation
• Travel management services (TMC)
• Meetings, events, off-sites, and related services
• Ancillary travel and event services

Key Objectives

• Deliver USD 5M to USD 9M in annualized, Finance-validated savings
• Establish a clean, defensible spend baseline
• Reduce off-policy, off-contract, and maverick spend
• Implement structural controls that eliminate reliance on discretionary human approvals
• Create a repeatable, scalable model for ongoing savings and compliance

Key Responsibilities

• Spend Diagnostics and Baseline Establishment
  • Leverage SAP Concur data (expense, travel, audit, and approval workflows) to establish a defensible spend baseline and identify leakage, non-compliance, and behavioral savings opportunities.
  • Establish a credible baseline by category, geography, and business unit
  • Identify addressable vs non-addressable spend and quantify savings levers
  • Develop transparent reporting dashboards for Finance and senior leadership
• Travel and Events Policy Redesign
  • Review and redesign travel and event policies to:
  • Reduce premium travel behaviors
  • Tighten discretionary spend
  • Clarify eligibility rules, approval thresholds, and escalation paths
• Align policies with executive expectations, risk appetite, and operational reality
  • Partner with HR, Legal, Capability leadership and Finance to ensure enforce ability and adoption
• Governance and Spend Control Enhancement
  • Redesign governance to reduce leakage and maverick spend, including:
  • Clear ownership of approvals and exceptions
  • Reduced manual intervention
  • Strong linkage between booking, expense, and reimbursement systems
  • Introduce controls that prevent non-compliant spend rather than correcting it after the fact
  • Configure and optimize SAP Concur approval workflows, audit rules, and exception logic to reduce manual intervention and enforce policy by design.
  • Ensure tight integration between Concur Travel, Concur Expense, and the TMC to prevent off-policy bookings and post-trip leakage.
  • Work with capability leadership to develop training programs and information sessions to ensure all travelers understand the policies
• Strategic Sourcing and RFP Execution
  • Lead end-to-end RFPs for:
  • Travel Management Company (TMC)
  • Airlines and airline alliances
  • Global and regional hotel programs
  • E…