Manager – Travel, T&E Compliance, Audit & Reporting

Job Description

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., (ACT) is a global Fortune 200 company (https://corpo.couche-tard.com/en/). A leader in convenience store and fuel space, it has a footprint across 31 countries and territories. ACT's India entity i.e. Circle K Business Centre India (CKBCI) is a wholly owned subsidiary and an integrated center, collaborating with our international teams supporting the delivery of ACT's global business operations.

About the role

This role will be based in Cyber Hub Gurugram. Manager – Travel, T&E Compliance, Audit & Reporting will be responsible for the day-to-day governance, compliance, controls, reporting and continuous improvement of Circle K's Travel & Expense (T&E) programme and day to day governance of Travel Management Company (TMC).

The role will act as a central point of expertise for travel operations, TMC governance, T&E policy compliance, audit and controls, travel policy standardization, management reporting, training and process automation. The position will work closely with Finance, Procurement, Internal Audit, HR, Technology, business stakeholders, Navan/ Travel Management Company (TMC) to ensure that T&E processes are controlled, efficient, data-led and aligned with Circle K policies and internal-control and audit requirements.

The role will also lead opportunities to leverage automation and analytics to strengthen preventive controls, reduce manual effort, improve compliance and identify savings and leakage across the T&E ecosystem.

Roles & Responsibilities

Travel & T&E Operations

Manage and oversee the day-to-day execution of the global T&E operating processes, with particular focus on travel booked through Navan and related travel expenses.

Work closely with Director CKBCI to be the operational subject-matter expert for Navan, including policy configuration, traveller profiles, approval workflows, reporting, exceptions, and issue resolution.

Monitor the end-to-end travel process from travel request and approval through booking, travel, expense submission, reimbursement and reconciliation.

Establish and maintain clear procedures for handling travel and T&E exceptions, escalations, cancellations, refunds, and credits.

Partner with the TMC, and other suppliers to monitor service levels and resolve recurring operational issues.

T&E Compliance & Policy Governance

Monitor compliance with the Global T&E Policies and identify areas of non-compliance, control gaps and emerging risks.

Develop and maintain a structured T&E compliance framework, including preventive and corrective controls.

Monitor advance-booking compliance, pre-trip approval, preferred supplier usage, policy exceptions, out-of-channel bookings and other defined policy requirements.

Ensure policies and policy changes are accurately translated into system rules, workflows and automated controls.

Establish appropriate compliance mechanisms for different traveller groups, including executives, while maintaining appropriate visibility and governance.

Coordinate policy communication, training and periodic awareness initiatives with HR and business stakeholders

Audit, Controls & Risk Management

Own the operational response to T&E audit requirements and support Internal Audit, Finance and other control functions with evidence and analysis.

Ensure T&E processes and automated reviews comply with internal policies, regulatory requirements, fraud-prevention controls and SOX/internal-control expectations, where applicable.

Validate the effectiveness and accuracy of automated and AI-enabled T&E controls before and after implementation.

Maintain audit trails, control documentation, standard operating procedures and evidence of exception resolution.

Identify control weaknesses and recommend remediation actions with clear owners and timelines.

Monitor recurring exceptions and investigate potential misuse, fraud, duplicate transactions or unusual spending patterns.

Reporting, Analytics & Insights

Develop and maintain a T&E management reporting and dashboard framework covering spend, compliance, adoption, leakage, suppliers, exceptions and savings.

Provide regular reporting to Finance, Procurement, leadership and other relevant stakeholders.

Analyse travel spend across business units, traveller groups, suppliers, routes, categories and booking channels to identify trends and opportunities.

Establish meaningful KPIs and dashboards to measure the effectiveness of the T&E programme.

Develop reporting that provides visibility of Navan adoption versus off-platform spend, including root-cause analysis of leakage.

Translate T&E data into actionable recommendations for policy, sourcing, supplier management and process improvement.

Process Improvement, Standardization & Automation

Lead continuous improvement initiatives across the T&E process, with a focus on reducing manual intervention and strengthening controls.

Identify opportunities to use RPA, workflow automation and analytics to improve T&E compliance and operational efficiency.

Develop automated controls for areas such as

advance-booking compliance.

pre-trip approval.

policy exception monitoring.

duplicate and high-risk expense detection.

unused travel credit tracking.

refund monitoring.

off-platform booking/leakage detection; and

automated compliance reporting.

Work with Technology and business teams to define requirements, test solutions, validate outputs and transition automation into business-as-usual operations.

Continuously assess whether existing controls can be simplified, automated or moved from detective to preventive controls.

Travel Spend & Supplier Governance

Partner with Procurement to identify travel savings and supplier optimisation opportunities.

Monitor utilisation of negotiated airline, hotel, car rental and other travel rates.

Analyse supplier and channel performance and identify opportunities for consolidation or improved commercial terms.

Support supplier reviews, RFPs and contr