T&e Events Lead

OpenAI OpenAI · AI Frontier · San Francisco, CA · Finance

This role focuses on leading the global Travel & Expense (T&E) event strategy and operations, including policy development, supplier management, and process standardization. While the company is an AI research and deployment company, this specific role is within Procurement and focuses on operational efficiency and compliance, with AI being a tool to be integrated into existing workflows rather than the core craft of the role.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead the global company-wide T&E & Procurement event strategy and associated policies (room blocks, venues, group meals, payments, reconciliation, etc.).
  2. Partner with Events teams, Executive Business Partners (EBPs), department leaders, and cross-functional teams (Compliance, Legal, Privacy, PTP, Cards, Security) to align event programs with business needs and compliance requirements.
  3. Create and standardize event policy + controls across all organizations and managers.
  4. Drive global standardization and operational scalability. Act as the primary DRI for process optimization and enforcement of compliance guardrails.
  5. Ensure SOX-compliant T&E & Procurement policies across all events.

Skills

Required

  • Deep experience in corporate events and T&E operations
  • Strategic Meeting Management Programs (SMMP)
  • Corporate travel and expense management
  • Travel sourcing
  • Designing, standardizing, and automating processes across T&E
  • Policy management
  • Systems integration
  • Controls alignment
  • Leading global T&E events strategy
  • SOX compliance
  • Partnering with Compliance, Legal, Privacy, Procurement, Accounting, and Finance
  • Supplier strategy and ongoing event operations
  • Category Management/Sourcing (Events)
  • RFP/RFQ, negotiations, contracting support, and vendor selection
  • Process improvement
  • Event technology/product roadmap and requirements definition
  • 8+ years of experience in M&E, SMMP, corporate T&E, Procurement, or Finance Operations
  • Deep technical proficiency in T&E policy, global events management, card programs, and regulatory compliance (SOX, tax implications, etc.)
  • Designed and automated T&E/Events workflows, leveraging ERP/AP automation, OCR, approval routing, and AI
  • Strong controls mindset
  • Hands-on experience with tools like Oracle Fusion, Planned, Navan, VNDLY, Jira, or similar enterprise platforms

Nice to have

  • AI integration into workflows

What the JD emphasized

  • SOX
  • compliance guardrails
  • global standardization
  • process optimization
  • AI