Senior Manager, Business Operations, Specialty Travel & Events

Navan
New York, NY
On-site

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have experience in high-growth tech environments and a background in driving organizational change.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 8+ years in high-growth tech and experience leading cross-functional change initiatives
    — “Prior experience in business operations or strategic program management in a high-growth tech environment
  • Individuals who balance strategic vision with technical and financial constraints
    — “Balance trade-offs: Anticipate roadblocks and align with leadership to find the right balance between strategic business goals and technical or financial constraints.
  • Candidates who can translate complex data into strategic recommendations for executives
    — “Synthesize Data into Strategy: Dig into raw business data ... and translate these findings into clear, actionable recommendations for executive leadership.

Things to consider

  • Candidates must be comfortable with both Excel/Google Sheets and SQL for data analysis
    — “Strong comfort with data. You should be highly proficient in Excel/Google Sheets and comfortable using SQL (or eager to leverage it) to query databases

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience in unblocking complex systems during process rollouts
    — “Unblock and Accelerate: Anticipate technical bottlenecks ... and keep teams aligned and moving forward.
  • Showcase your ability to design long-term systems rather than temporary fixes
    — “You don't build temporary 'band-aid' fixes; you design systems that hold complex, interdependent relationships in balance.
  • Demonstrate your track record in managing cross-functional teams through change
    — “Manage Change and Execution: Clearly communicate progress, manage executive alignment, and guide cross-functional teams through process changes without losing momentum.
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Drive strategic initiatives
  • Design scalable processes
  • Translate data into strategy
  • Balance trade-offs
Typical background
8+ years of business operations experienceStrong analytical skills

Skills & requirements

Required

Strategic InitiativesComplex Systems AnalysisData SynthesisChange ManagementCross-functional Collaboration

Preferred

ExcelSQL

Stack & domain

ExcelSQLData AnalysisBusiness OperationsLeadershipCommunicationProblem-solvingData AnalyticsFinance

About the role

Original posting from Navan

About the Role 

The Specialty Travel & Events Business Operations team is built to solve our organization's most critical, emergent challenges across business, product, and operations. As a Senior Manager, you will have the unique opportunity to scope, design, and spearhead high-impact initiatives that drive business growth, optimization and stability. 

This is a role for a first-principles thinker. You are someone who can look at a highly complex business challenge, map out the unseen connections between teams and systems, and design a creative and elegant path forward. You aren't just managing projects; you are critically evaluating how our business runs, leveraging data to challenge assumptions, and driving the strategic execution of our most important initiatives.

What You'll Do

Drive Strategic Initiatives: Own high-impact, 0-to-1 operational initiatives end-to-end. Investigate complex, ambiguous problems, develop rigorous work plans, define strategy, and drive execution.

Solve Complex Systems Problems: Identify operational bottlenecks and design scalable processes that allow cross-functional teams (Sales, Operations, Data Analytics, Finance, etc.) to work together seamlessly. 

Synthesize Data into Strategy: Dig into raw business data (using Excel, SQL, or other systems) to reveal patterns and truths behind operational challenges. Translate these findings into clear, actionable recommendations for executive leadership.

Balance Trade-offs: Anticipate roadblocks and align with leadership to find the right balance between strategic business goals and technical or financial constraints.

Manage Change and Execution: Clearly communicate progress, manage executive alignment, and guide cross-functional teams through process changes without losing momentum.

Unblock and Accelerate: Anticipate technical bottlenecks, call out trade-offs between business desires and technical/financial constraints, and keep teams aligned and moving forward.

What We’re Looking For

Experience: 8+ years of experience in business operations or a highly strategic cross-functional operations role in a fast-paced environment.

Analytical Tooling: Strong comfort with data. You should be highly proficient in Excel/Google Sheets and comfortable using SQL (or eager to leverage it) to query databases, join tables, and extract your own insights.

Education: BA or BS degree (or equivalent practical experience).

Natural Systems Thinker: You intuitively see how different parts of an organization, workflow, and technology stack interconnect. You don't build temporary "band-aid" fixes; you design systems that hold complex, interdependent relationships in balance.

Intellectual Humility & Curiosity: You approach problems with a "beginner’s mind." You have the self-critical awareness to challenge your own initial assumptions, ask deeply thoughtful questions before forming a plan, and actively seek out diverse perspectives to find the best solution.

Data-Driven Critical Thinker: You don't make decisions based on gut feel alone. You are energized by messy, fragmented data, and you know how to ask the right questions, connect the dots, and find the narrative within a raw dataset.

High Momentum (Anti-"Swirl"): You move quickly and decisively. While you are thorough, you do not get caught in analysis paralysis or allow yourself to be dragged sideways by organizational noise. You know how to maintain focus and keep projects moving forward.

Collaborative & Growth-Minded: You love being in rooms with brilliant people who challenge you. Instead of feeling intimidated, you use those environments as fuel to grow, learn, and elevate your own capabilities.

Prior experience in business operations or strategic program management in a high-growth tech environment.

Experience driving organizational change management alongside system or process rollouts.

The posted pay range represents the anticipated low and high end of the compensation for this position and is subject to change based on business need. To determine a successful candidate’s starting pay, we carefully consider a variety of factors, including primary work location, an evaluation of the candidate’s skills and experience, market demands, and internal parity.

For roles with on-target-earnings (OTE), the pay range includes both base salary and target incentive compensation. Target incentive compensation for some roles may include a ramping draw period. Compensation is higher for those who exceed targets. Candidates may receive more information from the recruiter.Pay Range$81,000—$180,000 USD 

Navan uses AI-assisted Automated Employment Decision Tool (Metaview) to assist with evaluating resumes against job qualifications for this role. All final decisions are made by human recruiters and hiring managers. 

Human oversight: Metaview does not automatically reject candidates or make final hiring decisions. Our recruiters and hiring managers review all outputs and make the final hiring decision regarding every application. 

Your rights: If you prefer to have your application reviewed without AI assistance, you may request a human evaluation by entering your email here. Your decision to do so will not affect how your candidacy is evaluated. 

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about our processing of personal data, and your rights.

Source: Navan careers

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