Travel Manager

CHAOS Industries•El Segundo, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

CHAOS Industries is hiring a Travel Manager to own its travel function as the company scales. The role is in Finance and reports to the Controller, working closely with Security, IT, People, and frequently traveling program teams. The Travel Manager will complete the Navan rollout, administer the travel platform, own corporate travel policy and preferred-vendor programs, support travelers before and during trips, and build a duty-of-care program for travel to higher-risk locations. The role combines operational traveler support—including rebooking disrupted itineraries—with travel-spend analysis and reporting. The position includes occasional travel (less than 10%), primarily to CHAOS offices and vendor meetings. The work is based in a standard office environment, with availability for traveler emergencies outside normal business hours on a rotating or as-needed basis.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in business, hospitality, international affairs, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
Hands-on experience administering a corporate travel platform such as Navan, Concur, or Egencia, including policy configuration and approval workflows.
Demonstrated experience booking and supporting complex international itineraries, including travel to high-risk or logistically difficult regions.
Working knowledge of duty-of-care practices, traveler risk management, and emergency response coordination.
Ability to navigate visa and entry requirements quickly and accurately under time pressure.
Experience preparing travel-spend and compliance reporting and explaining it to a non-finance audience.
Strong service orientation and judgment to enforce policy without becoming a bottleneck.
Willingness to be reachable for traveler emergencies outside normal business hours.

Nice To Haves

Experience in defense, aerospace, government contracting, energy, NGO, or another industry with frequent travel to high-risk regions.
Navan administration experience, particularly with a platform migration or initial rollout.
Experience supporting travel for personnel operating under export-control regimes such as ITAR/EAR or holding security clearances.
Experience with Ramp or a similar expense platform and its integration with travel tools.
Vendor negotiation experience with airlines, hotel chains, or travel management companies.

Responsibilities

Administer Navan, including user provisioning, policy configuration, approval workflows, cost-center and department mapping, and integration with expense and accounting systems.
Complete the Navan migration and drive platform adoption across the company.
Maintain preferred-vendor programs, negotiated rates, and corporate accounts with airlines, hotels, and ground transportation providers.
Report on travel spend, policy compliance, and vendor performance; identify and recommend savings opportunities.
Serve as the primary contact for travel questions, changes, and disruptions, including after-hours escalation for travelers in transit.
Plan and book complex, multi-leg international itineraries, including trips to remote or high-risk locations with limited commercial options.
Coordinate visas, entry requirements, vaccinations, and country-specific documentation; track passport and visa expirations for frequent travelers.
Partner with program and field teams to plan deployments, test events, and customer site visits.
Build and maintain the duty-of-care program, including traveler tracking, pre-trip risk briefings, check-in protocols, and emergency response procedures.
Coordinate with Security, IT, and external travel security, medical evacuation, and insurance providers to support employees traveling to hostile or sanctioned regions.
Work with Security and Compliance to account for export-control and device-handling requirements in travel processes.
Monitor advisories and events affecting travelers and proactively adjust plans.
Own, communicate, update, and enforce the corporate travel policy.
Design approval and exception workflows balancing traveler flexibility with cost and risk control.
Support Accounting with travel-related close activities, accruals, and expense-platform reconciliations.