Senior Manager- Travel & Visa Operations

Objective of the Job

The Team Lead will own day-to-day operations and strategic optimization of corporate travel, hotel accommodation, and visa services for Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited employees. The role combines operational expertise with digital fluency, analytics capability, and an automation mindset to improve service delivery, policy compliance, and cost effectiveness.

Primary Purpose

• Deliver compliant, timely, and cost-effective travel, hotel, and visa services.
• Drive digitization and self-service adoption across travel and visa workflows.
• Use analytics to improve spend visibility, policy adherence, and vendor performance.
• Strengthen operational discipline, stakeholder experience, and continuous improvement.

Key Result Areas

Travel Operations Management

• Manage end-to-end domestic and international travel bookings, including flights, trains, ground transport, and related logistics.
• Ensure policy adherence, cost optimization, and traveler experience across all bookings.
• Handle travel exceptions, escalations, and coordination with the Travel Management Company and preferred vendors.
• Manage pre-travel and post-travel activities, including insurance, SIM support, emergency contacts, reimbursement reconciliation, and traveler feedback.

Hotel and Accommodation Management

• Oversee hotel booking strategy through the Travel Management Company and alternate accommodation models.
• Manage hotel contracts, rate negotiations, and long-stay accommodation options such as serviced apartments.
• Track hotel-related KPIs such as ADR, cancellations, occupancy, and guest satisfaction.

Visa Operations

• Lead end-to-end visa and work permit processes.
• Coordinate with visa agents, consulates, embassies, legal counsel, HR, Finance, and global teams.
• Ensure complete and audit-ready documentation, timely renewals, and compliance with country-specific requirements.
• Forecast visa demand, identify process bottlenecks, and recommend process or vendor improvements.

Cost Optimization and Strategic Analytics

• Own travel reporting and spend analytics by category, department, destination, and traveler segment.
• Track KPIs such as advance purchase compliance, preferred vendor utilization, and missed savings.
• Build scenario-based insights to forecast spend and identify optimization opportunities.

Digital Transformation and AI Adoption

• Serve as a power user and change champion for platforms such as Concur, Cytric, and related online booking tools.
• Identify and automate high-volume manual processes such as visa documentation, policy checks, invoice validation, and notifications.
• Evaluate AI-enabled solutions for pricing, disruption handling, compliance monitoring, traveler support, and workflow automation.
• Work with IT and SAP teams to integrate travel, visa, expense, and HR data into a single source of truth.

Stakeholder and Vendor Relationship Management

• Act as the primary contact for business heads, project managers, senior travelers, HR, Finance, Procurement, and global stakeholders.
• Manage relationships with Travel Management Companies, visa agents, hotels, airlines, apartment providers, and logistics partners.
• Conduct vendor performance reviews covering SLA adherence, cost, quality, and innovation.
• Prepare executive-ready monthly and quarterly reviews with dashboards, cost insights, and risks.

Team Leadership and Continuous Improvement

• Lead and develop the travel operations team through clear direction, coaching, and capability building.
• Drive continuous improvement using structured problem-solving and process discipline.
• Lead digitization and automation projects from requirement definition through implementation and adoption.
• Maintain SOPs, runbooks, guides, and FAQ repositories to improve standardization and reduce dependency on individuals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Travel and Tourism, Hospitality Management, Operations, HR, or a related field.
• Postgraduate qualification or MBA in Operations, HR, Analytics, or a related discipline preferred.
• Relevant experience in corporate travel, hotel operations, immigration, and visa management.
• Prior team handling or people management experience preferred.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong corporate travel and hotel operations knowledge.
• Strong understanding of visa and work permit processes.
• Knowledge of policy governance, compliance, and documentation controls.
• Vendor and SLA management capability.
• Experience with Concur, Cytric, or booking platforms.
• Strong Excel and reporting capability.
• Knowledge of Tableau, Power BI, or dashboarding.
• Exposure to automation tools, AI use cases, and workflow digitization.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to convert data into clear business recommendations.
• Confidence in handling escalations and difficult conversations.
• Cross-functional collaboration in matrix environments.
• High attention to detail and compliance orientation.

Benefits

Employee discounts, possible health benefits, mobile phone, possible meal discounts, company retirement benefits, possible hybrid work, mobility offers, employee events, coaching, possible flextime, near-site childcare, parking, canteen and café, good public transport, barrier-free workplace, and an in-house doctor.

Contact

Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited
Plot No. 5-P, EPIP 1st Phase
560066 Bangalore
MBRDI Recruitment E-Mail: mbrdi_recruitment@mercedes-benz.com