Department: Finance
Team: Travel & Expense
Location: London with hybrid working
Position type: Contractor (umbrella – inside IR35 until 29th January 2027)
What the hiring manager says
We are seeking a highly organised, proactive, and resourceful Travel Specialist to manage and optimise our global travel operations. In this role, you will oversee all aspects of corporate travel planning, ensuring cost-effective, seamless, and policy-compliant arrangements that support our business objectives. This position requires strong attention to detail, excellent communication skills, and someone who is well organised, reliable and who has a customer orientated approach. This is a highly collaborative role where you will be joining a tight knit team, reporting into the Travel Director
Travel Director
About the Team
A small but mighty team who all have a passion for travel and provide the best customer experience. This is an opportunity to join a team who provide meaningful impact, a team where you feel supported and listened to, a team where we are stronger together.
About the role
You will be responsible for managing relationships with travel agencies and vendors- day to day, so you must have strong vendor and stakeholder management skills. Your day to day will include the management of travel risk operations BAU.
You will lead on all aspects of gathering data and travel reporting for senior management, so should be confident with excel and PowerPoint (to be managed jointly with T&E Associate).
You will be part of the team that manage and maintain the travel policies and procedures of the company, carrying out regular benchmarking and will monitor travel trends and provide recommendations to travel team on any changes that could be made to GSMA Travel Programme and policy. This will include leading on process improvement initiatives.
You will have a naturally collaborative approach and provide guidance and support to staff on travel related matters including travel safety. Acting as the primary point of contact for all travel-related enquiries, escalations, and approvals, you will have the opportunity to build relationships across the organisation to ensure compliance and to build on the reputation of the Travel & Expense Team.
You will own the Travel & Expense Onboarding Process and provide training and documentation to employees on new tools and workflows and ensure that all travel-related documentation and records are accurate and up to date.
About You
Demonstrable experience in corporate travel management and be passionate about travel
Strategic thinker who can balance big-picture vision with operational excellence
Reliable, courteous and flexible team player with a great customer service attitude
Comfortable dealing with ambiguity and navigating change
Able to multitask and prioritise varying, sometimes competing requests
Organised and detail-oriented
Comfortable working independently, making decisions quickly and taking initiative to close the loop on outstanding issues
Experienced with Excel and travel management platforms, Knowledge of T&E reporting and processing
Experience with expense management systems (Workday) and corporate card programmes is a plus
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to remain calm under pressure
Proactive communicator with a professional, personable approach across all levels of the business
Ability to manage tight deadlines, especially in fast-moving travel scenarios
Familiarity with SAP Concur and/or Workday expenses advantageous
Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint); familiarity with travel booking platforms and expense tools is a plus
Ability to work independently, maintain confidentiality, and exercise sound judgment
other to thrive, assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we aren’t at our best and the pressure is on – we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious, lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.
Contract type
Short term ContractorWorker type
Contingent WorkerWhat We OfferWorking at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile, whatever your role. By joining the GSMA, you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment, working on global solutions, genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.
In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation, our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities, generous holiday allowances, four additional days off for professional development and many others.
To learn more about the GSMA, visit our career site, our LinkedIn page and our Twitter page.
Being You at the GSMA
We care deeply about diversity, equity and inclusivity and aspire to be the best at it. Your well-being and work/life balance is important, so flexi-time and remote working is available to all staff. We're keen to ensure everyone is equal, represented and connected so we particularly encourage applications from all demographics. The sucess of the GSMA year on year will continue to be contributed by people from all walks of life.
GSMA Values
Our values not only drive our culture – they shape how we work and interact inside and outside our global organisation.
Passionately driven
We approach everything we do with unparalleled capability, tenacity and commitment, knowing that the challenging scale, pace and complexity of our work is what leads to its world-changing impact.
Insightful leaders
We continually develop and engage our expertise, insight and creativity so that we’re always ready to respond to the changing landscape with authority, agility and nuance.
Stronger together
We lean on each other so the industry can lean on us, embracing our diversity by actively seeking out perspectives and skill sets beyond our own, fuelling each other’s successes and constantly asking how we can help.
Underpinning our values is our collective mindset to show up purposefully as good human beings every day, in every situation. When we’re at our best – we are collaborative, considerate and compassionate to others, and we create a safe space for one another to thrive, assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we aren’t at our best and the pressure is on – we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious, lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.
