Global Governance & Regulation Lead - Travel & Expense Management (f/m/d)

Stellenbeschreibung:

Global Governance & Regulation Lead – Travel & Expense Management (f/m/d)

Responsible for defining, governing, and continuously evolving the global Travel & Expense Governance & Regulations framework. While embedded in the Travel & Expense domain, the primary focus is design, governance, and continuous improvement of this global framework and its decision-making structures.

Key responsibilities include driving regulatory harmonisation, establishing robust governance mechanisms, and providing strategic oversight of the global Travel & Expense governance landscape. The role enables consistent interpretation, effective compliance, and sustainable governance practices while balancing business needs, regulatory requirements, and employee experience.

Locations & Working Flexibility

Possible locations: Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic. The role may be performed mobile within Germany up to 60% of working hours, with potential mobile working from abroad for up to 30 days a year in selected countries.

Responsibilities

Own and continuously evolve the global Travel & Expense regulation framework, including directives, instructions, principles, guardrails, mandatory requirements, and decision-making standards.
Define and maintain governance mechanisms that ensure consistent interpretation, application, and oversight of Travel & Expense regulations across all countries and business entities.
Oversee local instructions and country-specific governance documentation, ensuring alignment with global regulations and organisational objectives.
Monitor deviations, exception trends, compliance risks and governance infractions; identify root causes and recommend corrective actions.
Ensure fair, transparent and consistent application of governance across regions while balancing legal obligations, business needs and employee experience.
Lead the harmonisation of the Travel & Expense Regulation frameworks, ensuring a consistent and scalable governance model.
Define governance standards, escalation pathways, approval structures and accountability mechanisms related to Travel & Expense governance.
Partner with operational stakeholders to align processes, systems and controls with the intended governance framework while keeping governance and execution responsibilities clearly separated.
Coordinate the evaluation, approval, implementation and communication of regulation changes.
Act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders on governance matters, compliance risks, and strategic decisions.
Collaborate with Finance, Legal, Procurement, HR, Compliance and other stakeholders to drive governance alignment, risk mitigation, and organisational compliance.

Qualifications & Experience

University degree in Business Administration, Finance, Law, Public Policy, Governance, Human Resources or a related field.
Many years of experience in policy governance, regulations management, corporate compliance or a comparable governance-focused role in a multinational organisation.
Understanding of how local requirements, regulations and business needs interact with global governance frameworks.
Hands-on experience developing, implementing, reviewing and governing corporate directives, instructions, policies and standards within a multinational environment.
Demonstrable experience identifying, assessing and managing compliance risks, policy exceptions, governance deviations and cross-functional governance challenges, including definition of corrective actions.
Experience working with senior stakeholders across Finance, Legal, HR, Procurement, Compliance and external service partners.
Prior exposure to Travel & Expense, Mobility, Procurement, HR, Finance or similar regulated corporate environments is beneficial but not required.
Professional experience and relevant additional qualifications also considered in lieu of a university degree.

Attributes & Skills

Excellent communication skills in English and German, written and verbal.
Strong analytical, conceptual and governance-oriented thinking.
Ability to translate complex governance requirements into practical, sustainable solutions.
Stakeholder management and influencing across organisational levels, including senior leadership.
Clear communication and facilitation of decisions, intent and rationales.
Balancing business requirements with governance standards, compliance expectations and organisational objectives.
Sound judgment when assessing exceptions, governance risks and competing stakeholder interests.
Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments and driving alignment across functions, countries and cultures.
Compliance and ethics mindset with high integrity, discretion and reliability.
Constructive challenge of established practices and continuous improvement of governance frameworks.