T&E Events Lead

About the Team

The Procurement organization enables our mission by ensuring every dollar is spent responsibly, compliantly, and efficiently. As a key part of this function, this role reports to the Head of Travel & Expense (T&E) and partners closely with Procurement Operations, Accounting, Finance, and business stakeholders to own and scale the company's global Events strategy, operations, and compliance.

About the Role

You'll own the global T&E event strategy and operations, acting as a strategic leader and hands-on executor supporting Events teams across the organization. Expect to align with event owners around the company and set the process roadmap for the company's Procurement & T&E processes, lead platform deployment and lifecycle management, manage key partners and stakeholders, and personally drive process standardization & cost optimization. You will also be a key contributor to the overall T&E process design and governance, ensuring tight controls and scalability across Travel, Expense, Events, and Card programs.Target mix: 50% program leadership, 50% hands-on execution (flexes with project roadmap and volume).

What we're looking for:

- We're looking for a strategic leader with deep experience in corporate events and T&E operations who can scale systems and processes without losing sight of the details.

- Proven experience in Strategic Meeting Management Programs (SMMP), corporate travel and expense management, travel sourcing, and/or travel consulting.

- Hands-on expertise in designing, standardizing, and automating processes across T&E, including policy management, systems integration, and controls alignment.

- Experience leading global T&E events strategy, including policy development, venue/room block sourcing, and platform management (e.g., Planned, Cvent).

- A strong controls mindset aligned to SOX, with experience driving audit readiness and partnering cross-functionally across Compliance, Legal, Privacy, Procurement, Accounting, and Finance.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

- Strategy & Policy: Lead the global company-wide T&E & Procurement event strategy and associated policies (room blocks, venues, group meals, payments, reconciliation, etc.).

- Stakeholder Partnership: Partner with Events teams, Executive Business Partners (EBPs), department leaders, and cross-functional teams (Compliance, Legal, Privacy, PTP, Cards, Security) to align event programs with business needs and compliance requirements.

- Supplier & Spend Management: Optimize supplier strategy and ongoing event operations.

- Controls & Standardization: Create and standardize event policy + controls across all organizations and managers.

- Scalability & Standardization: Drive global standardization and operational scalability. Act as the primary DRI for process optimization and enforcement of compliance guardrails.

- Compliance & Audit: Ensure SOX-compliant T&E & Procurement policies across all events.

- Process Design & Governance: Lead and enhance the full T&E event process design and governance. Lead SOP documentation, controls alignment, and audit readiness.

- Integration: Integrate T&E policy, budgeting/forecasting, travel, and card programs into a cohesive workflow for holistic event programs management.

- Data & Systems:Ensure high data accuracy and reliable integrations across ERP, analytics, travel, tax, payroll, and related downstream systems.

- Category Management/Sourcing (Events): Own the global events category strategy and supplier base. Lead sourcing, RFPs/RFQs, negotiations, contracting support, and vendor selection, partnering with internal sourcing teams.

- Process Improvement (Events): Map current-state event operations, redesign workflows, controls, tooling, and handoffs across the events program. Define KPIs/reporting and drive adoption of better operating standards globally. Manage continuous process improvement through the deployment of new policies and platforms, ensuring a great experience and reduction of cycle time across hotel room blocks, venues, and group meals and other T&E related event purchases

- Event Technology/Product: Own internal event-related products/tools/platforms. Define roadmap and requirements for event tech or event operations systems. Lead the integration of emerging AI throughout the workflow.

You might thrive in this role if you:

- Bring 8+ years of experience in M&E, SMMP, corporate T&E, Procurement, or Finance Operations.

- Have thrived in high-growth, scaling environments, balancing long-term process design with hands-on execution.

- Offer deep technical proficiency in T&E policy, global events management, card programs, and regulatory compliance (SOX, tax implications, etc.).

- Have designed and automated T&E/Events workflows, leveraging ERP/AP automation, OCR, approval routing, and AI.

- Maintain a strong controls mindset and can confidently partner with Accounting, Procurement, FP&A, and Legal/Compliance.

- Have hands-on experience with tools like Oracle Fusion, Planned, Navan, VNDLY, Jira, or similar enterprise platforms, especially in integrated environments.

Compensation Range: $216K - $240K USD

About OpenAI

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