Director, Corporate Travel Operations

AAA Club Alliance•Cincinnati, OH

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Corporate Travel Operations leads the strategy, performance, and continuous transformation of a 24x7x365 corporate travel service operation supporting travelers through voice, chat, text, and email. The position is accountable for service quality, operational and financial results, workforce capacity and productivity, talent development, and support of client retention and growth. The Director develops an operating model that combines travel professionals with automation, artificial intelligence, and modern workflow tools to handle greater volume and complexity while improving speed and quality and enabling employees to focus on disruption management, complex itineraries, VIP service, and other high-value traveler needs. The role directly leads operations managers and leaders and oversees more than 70 employees across domestic, international, VIP, after-hours, online fulfillment, group air, and related service teams. It partners with Travel Technology, Account Management, Sales, Human Resources, suppliers, and enterprise technology teams to optimize Sabre, Genesys, mid-office and quality-control automation, digital service channels, knowledge management, and emerging AI capabilities while maintaining human oversight, data privacy, security, and compliance. This is a hybrid position reporting to the Cincinnati, Ohio, or Wilmington, Delaware, office three days per week. The role owns the operating budget and expense performance with the Vice President of Corporate Travel. Competitive annual salary; the starting base compensation range is $105,147–$170,000, with the ultimate offer depending on factors including experience and geographic location.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, travel, operations, technology, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and progressively responsible experience.
10+ years of progressive leadership experience in corporate travel operations, travel agency operations, or a comparably complex service environment, including significant leadership of managers and large teams.
Demonstrated experience leading a 24x7x365, high-volume call center or travel service operation across multiple channels and distributed or virtual teams.
Strong working knowledge of Sabre or a comparable global distribution system.
Experience with Genesys or a comparable cloud contact-center platform, including routing, workforce management, quality management, reporting, and digital channels.
Experience implementing or optimizing mid-office, quality-control, fulfillment, workflow, robotic process automation, or employee-assist technologies in a travel environment.
Demonstrated record of using automation, analytics, and AI-enabled capabilities to improve capacity, service, quality, or cost while sustaining appropriate human oversight and employee adoption.
Experience owning budgets, workforce plans, operational metrics, and improvement portfolios, with the ability to quantify business cases and realized benefits.
Strategic operations leadership and ability to translate enterprise and Corporate Travel goals into executable plans, clear accountabilities, and measurable results.
Deep understanding of corporate travel servicing, GDS workflows, ticketing, exchanges, disruptions, online and offline fulfillment, VIP service, after-hours operations, and traveler care.
Fluency in contact-center operations and analytics, including omnichannel demand, skill-based routing, workforce management, service levels, quality, and employee performance.
Practical understanding of generative AI, conversational AI, machine learning, robotic process automation, and workflow automation sufficient to identify use cases, challenge assumptions, manage risk, and evaluate outcomes; software-development expertise is not required.
Strong data literacy and problem-solving skills, including the ability to integrate operational, financial, workforce, quality, and traveler-experience data into decisions and concise executive narratives.
Sound judgment about where automation should be applied and where skilled human intervention remains essential, particularly for traveler safety, complex service, exceptions, and sensitive interactions.
Ability to lead transformation across people, process, and technology, building adoption through transparency, involvement, training, reinforcement, and measurable follow-through.
Strong financial and commercial acumen, including budgeting, productivity economics, vendor management, investment prioritization, and benefit realization.
Exceptional people leadership, including selection and development of leaders, succession planning, coaching, performance management, engagement, and change resilience.
Executive-level written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate operational issues, technology choices, risks, and results to employees, clients, prospects, suppliers, and senior leadership.
Collaborative enterprise mindset and ability to influence across Operations, Travel Technology, Account Management, Sales, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Security, and external partners.
Calm, decisive leadership during irregular operations, service failures, and competing priorities, with strong escalation and risk-management discipline.
High integrity and commitment to traveler care, employee development, responsible AI, data privacy, security, and continuous improvement.

Nice To Haves

Direct Sabre operational experience is strongly preferred.
Experience supporting client retention, implementations, business reviews, and executive or prospect presentations.

Responsibilities

Set and execute the operating strategy for a 24x7x365, multi-team corporate travel service center, translating business priorities into measurable service, financial, productivity, quality, and employee outcomes.
Lead, develop, and hold accountable managers and operational leaders for domestic, international, VIP, after-hours, online fulfillment, group air, and other specialized service teams; establish succession, workforce, and leadership-development plans.
Own omnichannel service delivery across voice, chat, text, and email, including channel strategy, routing, prioritization, response standards, escalation practices, and consistent traveler experience.
Direct workforce planning and capacity management using demand forecasts, schedules, skill profiles, and cross-training to align staffing with client commitments and business needs.
Establish and monitor operational scorecards and service-level agreements, including response time, speed to answer, abandonment, productivity, quality, first-contact resolution, rework, traveler satisfaction, employee engagement, and financial performance; require timely corrective action when results are off plan.
Build and deliver an automation- and AI-enabled operations roadmap with Travel Technology and enterprise technology teams; identify and prioritize use cases, define requirements, test solutions, measure benefits, and scale successful capabilities.
Use AI to augment operational judgment through agent assistance, knowledge retrieval, interaction summarization, quality review, forecasting, workflow orchestration, and self-service, while maintaining controls for accuracy, traveler safety, privacy, security, bias, compliance, and escalation.
Optimize Sabre workflows, scripts, and agent practices; Genesys routing, workforce engagement, and analytics; mid-office, quality-control, ticketing, and fulfillment automation; and integrations that reduce manual effort, errors, and avoidable contacts.
Redesign processes and roles so automation increases capacity and allows travel professionals to focus on complex itineraries, disruption management, consultative support, VIP service, and other high-value traveler needs.
Lead structured change management for technology, process, and service-model deployments, including frontline involvement, communications, training, adoption measures, feedback loops, and benefit realization.
Maintain operational readiness and business continuity for weather events, supplier disruptions, system outages, security incidents, and other irregular operations; ensure clear command, communications, escalation, and recovery procedures.
Own the operating budget and expense performance with the Vice President of Corporate Travel; explain variances, develop productivity and investment business cases, and balance service, growth, employee sustainability, and cost objectives.
Partner with Account Management and Sales on client retention, business reviews, implementations, prospect presentations, and solution design; communicate operational capabilities, performance, risks, and improvement plans to clients and senior leaders.
Collaborate with supplier partners and internal stakeholders to improve traveler outcomes, support preferred-supplier strategies, and maximize appropriate revenue opportunities without compromising policy, service, or traveler needs.
Establish operating policies, quality standards, knowledge-management practices, and controls; ensure compliance with company requirements and applicable travel-industry, payment, privacy, and security obligations.
Monitor corporate travel, call center, distribution, servicing, and AI trends; benchmark capabilities and selectively introduce practices that deliver measurable business value.
Foster an inclusive, accountable, high-performing culture through visible leadership, coaching, recognition, employee listening, and disciplined performance management.
Perform other duties as assigned.