Travel Operations & Automation Manager

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Travel Operations & Automation Manager

Operations

Hybrid

Sydney or Melbourne

OR

About the role

We are looking for a Travel Operations & Automation Manager who combines deep airline ticketing expertise with a builder's mindset. You know Sabre and fare rules inside out, and you want to use that knowledge to redesign how work gets done: automating what should be automated, putting AI to work where it adds value, and making sure our people focus on the cases that need human judgement.

Reporting into the Head of Operations, you will join our operations leadership team, a small group of leads who each own a specific area and work closely across the whole function. You will own travel operations and its workflows end to end, alongside peers who lead Flights Servicing and Fintech.

The role combines leading operational delivery with improving workflows, automation and AI enablement. Much of your impact will come through other people, especially the engineers building improvements to our operational workflows, so leading through influence matters as much as direct leadership. The balance will evolve as the team grows.

What you will do

‍Workflows, automation and AI enablement

• Map travel operations workflows end to end and find where manual effort, rework and handoffs can be removed
• Design and implement automations across ticketing, voluntary changes, cancellations, refunds and schedule changes, directly where operations can and through engineering where a build is needed
• Lead practical AI enablement in a service operation: AI-assisted agent workflows, case triage and response quality
• Translate fare rules, ticketing logic and airline policy into rules that systems and AI tools can apply consistently
• Maintain what has launched and measure its impact on handle time, cost to serve, error rates and resolution rates

‍Engineering and product partnership

• Act as a primary travel operations stakeholder for engineering, working alongside engineers to shape, prioritise and deliver product improvements to operational workflows
• Bring the operational evidence and clear requirements: where workflows break, what it costs and what good looks like
• Influence priorities across Engineering, Growth and Finance without direct authority, building trust through clear cases and follow-through
• Represent operations in design, testing and release, and own the operational rollout: SOPs, training and monitoring‍

Travel operations leadership

• Lead operational delivery across travel servicing teams such as booking creation and ticketing, changes and cancellations, and refunds and recovery, including KPIs, resourcing and training
• Lead and develop team leaders in our Philippines-based teams, with a focus on outcomes, quality and problem solving
• Be the senior technical escalation point for complex ticketing, reissue, refund and fare rule cases, and build Sabre and fare rules capability across the team
• Manage consolidator and supplier relationships and the operational side of airline and GDS processes

‍Operations leadership team

• Work as one of a small group of operations leads, each owning an area, collaborating across the function and with Growth and Finance so the business and operational impact of decisions is understood up front

‍What you will bring

‍Essential

• Advanced Sabre: booking, ticketing, exchanges and reissues, voids, refunds, queues and schedule change handling
• Fare rules expertise: formally trained in fare construction and reading fare rules (e.g. IATA fares and ticketing, or airline or consolidator training), including change and cancellation conditions, penalties and fare differences
• Self-ticketing and consolidator ticketing, including consolidator fees, ADMs and BSP/ARC processes
• 5+ years in airline, TMC, OTA or consolidator operations, including team lead experience
• Experience leading others within a dynamic KPI driven environment, and using data and insights to identify performance trends.
• A proven track record of leading through influence: driving change across teams you do not manage, particularly engineering or product teams
• Experience improving operational workflows and working with tech teams to deliver change

‍Desirable

• Hands-on automation experience (e.g. scripts, workflow tools, rules engines or no-code platforms)
• Confidence using AI tools day to day, and judgement on where they can and cannot be trusted in a service operation
• Data literacy: you can pull, read and question operational data
• NDC and airline direct connect experience
• Experience with helpdesk and case management tools (e.g. Front, Zendesk, Dialpad, Intercom)
• Experience in a high-growth start-up or scale-up
• Experience leading offshore teams

How you work

• Leads through influence: gets engineers, peers and stakeholders aligned and moving without relying on authority; builds credibility through evidence and follow-through
• Systems thinker: sees the workflow behind the case, and fixes the cause rather than the symptom
• Builder: gets things live, then maintains and improves them instead of moving on
• Outcome focused: leads people and teams to resolutions and quality, not activity
• Commercially aware: understands how ticketing decisions, waivers and fees affect margin and customer experience
• Clear communicator: translates complex fare and ticketing logic into requirements engineers can build from, and explains it simply to leadership and frontline teams
• Collaborative: works as part of a leadership team, shares ownership and raises capacity limits early
• Adaptable: comfortable with the role evolving as the business and team structure grow

What we offer

• A role with real ownership, shaping how a growing travel operation uses automation and AI
• A collaborative operations leadership team and a clear path to grow with the business
• A competitive salary package + equity
• Great perks like Work From Anywhere and travel discounts
• Hybrid working, based in Sydney or remote in Melbourne

Ready to apply?

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