---
title: 'Manager, Event Operations Australia at Navan'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/manager-event-operations-australia-navan-sydney-nmxjz0yt8zh3'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Manager, Event Operations Australia at Navan

- **Company:** Navan
- **Location:** Sydney, Australia
- **Posted:** 2026-08-19
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://navan.com/careers/openings?gh_jid=8141531

## Job description

## About the Role

The Manager, Event Operations Australia is responsible for leading the delivery, performance and strategic development of the Event Travel and Events operation across Australia and supporting the broader APAC region. The role provides leadership across people, client delivery, commercial performance, operational excellence and risk management, ensuring consistent, high-quality service and sustainable business growth. The role combines team leadership, client ownership and direct service delivery, ensuring both operational excellence and strong team performance. It plays a critical part in scaling the Australia and broader APAC operations while aligning with global standards. The position leads and develops a high-performing team, drives operational best practice, oversees resource planning and acts as a senior escalation point for client, supplier and operational matters. The role is accountable for ensuring service excellence, commercial success, compliance, and continuous improvement across all Event Travel and Events activities. Working closely with global stakeholders, Client Success, Sales, Finance, and Operations teams, the Manager plays a key role in scaling the Australia and APAC business, strengthening client relationships, developing future leaders, and ensuring alignment with global standards and strategic objectives.

## What you'll do

- Builds and leads high-performing, accountable and collaborative teams, fostering a culture of trust, recognition and open communication.
- Coaches, mentors and develops future leaders, providing clear direction, feedback and performance management
- Leads teams through organisational growth, transformation and change with resilience and adaptability
- Acts as a senior escalation point for complex client, operational and service delivery issues
- Balances client experience, operational excellence and commercial objectives to drive profitability and account growth.
- Oversees the successful delivery of complex events and group travel programmes, ensuring quality, compliance and exceptional service.
- Uses data, operational insights and best practices to improve performance, productivity and service consistency.
- Develops scalable processes, training frameworks and operational standards across Events and Event Travel functions
- Identifies and mitigates operational, commercial and reputational risks, ensuring governance, compliance and business continuity.

## What we're looking for

- Proven experience in Events and Group Travel operations, including group travel logistics
- Demonstrated people leadership experience, ideally within a regional or multi-market team
- Strong working knowledge of GDS systems (Sabre preferred) and travel booking processes
- Experience in managing large, complex event programmes, including multi-destination or high-volume attendee movements
- Sound knowledge of event management platforms (e.g. Cvent)
- Strong commercial acumen with a track record of driving revenue and profitability
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously
- High attention to detail with strong organisational capability

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](https://my.metaview.app/applications/opt-out?organization=15dd7e883f). Your decision to do so will not affect how your candidacy is evaluated.

Please refer to our[Candidate Privacy Notice](https://navan.com/candidate-privacy-notice) for more information about our processing of personal data, and your rights.

## About Navan

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Navan is the leading all-in-one, AI-powered business travel, payments, and expense management platform that makes corporate travel effortless for frequent travelers while giving finance teams full control.
- **Entity Type**: Public (ticker: **NAVN**, listed on Nasdaq Global Select Market in October 2025)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2015
- **Founders**: Ariel Cohen and Ilan Twig

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Corporate travel management, expense management, travel technology, payments.
- **Target customers**: B2B – mid-market to enterprise companies; also SMBs.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Make travel easy for every traveler by being the best travel agency on the planet."

## Products & Services
- **Navan Travel**: AI-powered booking platform for flights, hotels, and ground transportation with extensive inventory access (including NDC content from 17+ airlines).
- **Navan Expense**: Automated expense management that categorizes and reconciles receipts, with real-time policy enforcement and integration with ERPs.
- **Navan Edge**: AI travel assistant (chat-based) that handles bookings and provides 24/7 human support.
- **Navan Rewards**: Incentive program that rewards employees for booking below budget.
- **Navan Connect (BYOC)**: Card-link technology that connects corporate cards from 250+ banks, enabling unified spend visibility.
- **Navan Corporate Cards**: Physical and virtual cards for payments.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available in search results (post-IPO, real-time market cap available on exchanges).
- **Key Metric**: **Total Headcount** ~3,300 employees (as of 2026); **Number of customers** – thousands, including major enterprises like Heineken, Unilever, Wayfair, and Zoom.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not listed in provided sources, but strategic partners include Amadeus (dual-GDS model) and major airlines via NDC.
- **Growth Signals**: Went public in October 2025; expanded globally through acquisitions of Comtravo (Germany), Resia (France), Tripeur (India), and Reed & MacKay (Europe); now operates 50 offices worldwide; first TMC to integrate AI across the entire platform.

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-first platform**: First travel management company to embed AI across search, booking, expense reconciliation, and customer service.
- **All-in-one T&E**: Combines travel, expense, and payments in a single system, eliminating the need for multiple vendors.
- **Dual-GDS model**: Integrated with both Sabre and Amadeus, providing global coverage and competitive pricing.
- **NDC leader**: Offers access to 17 airlines’ New Distribution Capability content for better fares and inventory.

## Strategic Focus
- Continue leading in AI-powered travel and expense innovation.
- Expand corporate card and payments ecosystem (Navan Connect, external card linking).
- Deepen enterprise capabilities and global footprint (targeting mid-market and large multinationals).
- Drive user adoption through employee rewards and seamless mobile experience.

## Why Work Here
- **Work model**: Hybrid – 4 days per week in office (Palo Alto HQ and other global offices). Strong emphasis on in-person collaboration.
- **Culture**: Meritocratic, high-ownership, “high-talent density” environment. Values include extreme ownership, bias to action, “AI-first mindset”, and “seriously fun”.
- **Perks & Benefits**:
  - Flexible vacation (take time off as needed, manager coordination).
  - Paid parental leave (16 weeks birthing parent, 10 weeks non-birthing).
  - 401k, Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with discount.
  - Medical, dental, vision, pet insurance.
  - Commuter benefits, in-office snacks and lunches, dog-friendly offices.
  - Headspace mental health subscription.
  - Navan personal travel discounts (employee leisure bookings at corporate rates).
  - Connectivity allowance (bi-weekly stipend for remote work).
- **Growth opportunities**: Rapidly scaling public company; teams across engineering, product, data science, travel operations, and R&D.

## Sources
1. [navan.com](https://navan.com/ – Product overview, platform details)
2. [navan.com/about](https://navan.com/about – Company history, mission, timeline, IPO)
3. [navan.com/careers](https://navan.com/careers – Culture, values, benefits, work model)
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/navan – Headcount, offices, hybrid policy, perks)

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