Navan
Strategy & Operations Director, Specialty Travel & Events
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About the Role
We are seeking an exceptional Strategy & Operations leader to act as the operating right hand to the EVP of Specialty Travel and Events. This is a high-trust, high-ownership role combining Chief of Staff responsibilities with hands-on programme leadership. You will turn strategy into execution across the integration of Boompop and the development of Navan’s priority verticals.
You will create clarity across complex, ambiguous work: aligning leaders, building the operating cadence, preparing decisions, tracking commitments, surfacing risks early, and ensuring that critical initiatives move from idea to measurable outcome. You will work across Product, Technology, Operations, Commercial, Finance, People, Legal, Procurement, Marketing, and Client Services, representing the priorities of the leader you report to and holding the broader organisation accountable for delivery.
What You'll Do
- Lead the Specialty Travel & Events portfolio, develop the cross-functional strategy and execution plan across six key verticals: Healthcare (HCP), High-End Professional Services, Defense Contractors, Production & Media, Energy & Marine, and Insurance.
- Turn customer and market requirements into action, translating vertical-specific needs into prioritised product, operations, servicing, integration, compliance, and commercial roadmaps with clear ownership, sequencing, milestones, and success measures.
- Drive market readiness, partnering with Product, Sales, Operations, and Customer teams to ensure the business can confidently sell, implement, and support solutions within each vertical. This includes customer discovery, RFP/RFI readiness, lighthouse customer programmes, enablement, implementation planning, and feedback loops.
- Identify and scale cross-vertical opportunities, ensuring reusable capabilities, integrations, and operating models are leveraged across the portfolio while avoiding duplicated effort and investment.
- Partner closely with the Boompop Integration Lead to align post-merger integration activities with Specialty Travel & Events priorities, customer commitments, and the long-term Navan Events strategy.
- Help shape the future of Navan Events, translating integration objectives into product, service, operating model, and go-to-market priorities while ensuring decisions, trade-offs, and value capture opportunities are clearly defined.
- Coordinate complex cross-functional programmes, bringing together stakeholders across Product, Technology, Operations, Commercial, Finance, People, Legal, and Communications to manage dependencies, mitigate risks, and ensure successful execution.
- Prepare executive-level updates and recommendations, providing leadership with clear visibility of progress, risks, decisions, dependencies, and areas requiring escalation.
- Act as Chief of Staff to the EVP, Specialty Travel & Events, designing and running the operating cadence for the organisation, including leadership meetings, portfolio reviews, steering committees, and strategic planning cycles.
- Support critical business decisions by framing challenges, synthesising information, evaluating options, developing recommendations, and ensuring decisions translate into clear actions and measurable outcomes.
- Own the operating system for the business, maintaining portfolio plans, KPI reporting, risk and dependency tracking, decision logs, and action trackers to drive accountability and execution excellence.
- Maximise leadership effectiveness, anticipating priorities, preparing leaders for key stakeholder interactions, and creating the conditions for faster, higher-quality decision-making across the organisation.
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What Success Looks Like
- Boompop integration is progressing against an agreed plan, with clear owners, decision rights, customer continuity, and measurable value-capture milestones.
- The six verticals have an integrated, prioritised roadmap connecting product gaps, servicing requirements, commercial opportunities, and delivery readiness.
- Leadership has a reliable view of progress, risks, decisions, and trade-offs, with fewer surprises and faster resolution of blockers.
- Cross-functional teams are aligned around the same priorities and operate with a consistent cadence, clear accountability, and strong execution discipline.
- The business learns quickly from customers, pilots, RFPs, and launches, turning insight into repeatable playbooks and scalable operating models.
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What We’re Looking For
- Experience in a Chief of Staff, strategic operations, programme management, business operations, consulting, corporate development, integration, or similarly high-ownership role.
- Demonstrated ability to lead complex, ambiguous, cross-functional programmes and influence senior stakeholders without relying on formal authority.
- Strong commercial and strategic judgement, with the ability to connect customer needs, product strategy, operational constraints, and financial outcomes.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication: able to turn complexity into clear narratives, decision papers, meeting outputs, and executive updates.
- Highly organised and detail-oriented, with a bias to action and the resilience to manage multiple workstreams, changing priorities, and sensitive information.
- Comfort working across technology, product, operations, finance, people, legal, procurement, sales, and client-facing teams.
- Experience with post-merger integration, platform/product integration, SaaS, travel, events, regulated industries, or complex services is advantageous.
- High EQ, sound judgement, discretion, and the confidence to challenge constructively while building trust.
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