Travel & Mobility Manager (Global)

Job summary

That travel needs an owner. As Travel Mobility Manager you run travel and mobility for the whole of Circles: every country we operate in, and every country our travellers go to. You sit in Bangalore. Your remit is global.

One day you are negotiating an airline deal or a hotel programme. The next you are getting a visa over the line, walking Finance through where the travel budget is going, or rerouting a traveller stranded mid-trip.

Outside Circles, you work through a network of partners: our travel management company (TMC), airlines, hotels, visa agencies and insurers. You choose them, manage them and hold them to their service levels.

Inside Circles, you do not work alone. Finance is your partner on budgets, spend and savings. People Operations, the People Business Partners and the wider People team are your partners on policy, visas and relocations. Travellers and their managers turn to you as the expert.

This is not a booking desk. It is a global programme to shape and own, at a company that keeps adding countries.

What you will do

Run the travel programme

• Own the TMC partnership: the commercial relationship, service levels, performance reviews and a voice in their roadmap.
• Run the TMCs booking platform so it works for travellers in every country: policy set-up, approval flows, users, integrations and adoption.
• Shape the global travel policy with Finance and People leadership, enforce it, and change it when the business changes.
• Make the programme easy to use, with clear guidance and training for travellers, bookers and approvers.
• Get the travel programme ready for each new location before the first person lands.

Get us better deals

• Build preferred hotel programmes in the cities we visit most: tenders, rate negotiation and audits.
• Negotiate airline agreements on our key routes, then hold carriers to what they promised.
• Manage ground transport and every other travel supplier against clear service levels.
• Review suppliers regularly and renegotiate when the value slips.

Show us what the numbers say

• Produce monthly reporting that People and Finance leaders actually read: spend, booking behaviour, policy compliance and supplier performance.
• Track travel spend against budget and flag problems early.
• Turn travel data into insight and clear recommendations.
• Find the savings, lead the cost-efficiency initiatives and prove what they delivered.

Work hand in hand with Finance and People

• Partner with Finance on travel budgets and forecasts, expense rules, supplier payments and reconciliation, so travel spend is planned and never a surprise.
• Agree savings targets with Finance, then report progress against them.
• Work with People Operations and the People Business Partners on visas, work permits, relocations and policy exceptions.
• Keep Finance and People leaders ahead of the news: what is changing in travel, what it will cost and what you recommend.

Get travellers across borders

• Own visas for our travellers end to end. Manage the visa agencies and immigration counsel so applications are filed on time and fully compliant. You direct the work rather than process the paperwork yourself.
• Know the visa and work permit routes for our key corridors: Singapore (Employment Pass, S Pass), the UAE (work, Golden and mission visas), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Morocco, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Japan and the US (H-1B, L-1, B-1/B-2, ESTA).