Head of Travel & Expense

About Anthropic Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems. About the Role As Head of Travel Expense, you will be the single owner of everything TE at Anthropic: employee, guest and executive travel policy, private charter strategy, our Navan and Brex platforms, preferred hotel and airfare programs, duty-of-care (in partnership with Security), and Board-level reporting on executive expenses. You will report to the Head of Finance Operations and lead an initial team of two, with a mandate to build a best-in-class program. This is a rare opportunity to come in as a true builder—inheriting solid operational foundations and a Claude-first culture pioneering AI-powered automation across Finance—and architect a TE program worthy of a company shaping the future of AI. Responsibilities: Strategy, Policy Governance Design and own Anthropic's multi-year TE strategy, evolving the function from operationally sound to best-in-class across policy, cost management, employee experience, and compliance Build and maintain a comprehensive global TE policy framework—employee, executive, and international—embedding controls directly in systems to drive compliance at the point of booking Lead a cross-functional TE governance structure with Finance, Security, Legal, HR, and Executive Assistants Design and enforce jurisdiction-specific TE policy frameworks for international entities (EMEA, APAC), incorporating local per diem regulations, VAT reclaim eligibility, and country-level receipt/documentation requirements Vendor Negotiations Savings Own the corporate travel supplier program, driving material savings through hotel RFPs, airline corporate agreements, and preferred rate programs Manage strategic relationships with our TE travel and expense systems, serving as the primary business contact for contract negotiations, product roadmap discussions, and AI feature development Track and report savings performance to Finance leadership and executives Executive Travel Compliance Serve as the subject matter expert for all executive travel needs, vendor selection, and utilization governance Partner with Legal and Finance on executive travel tax implications, business purpose documentation, and audit-ready recordkeeping Platform AI Automation (Claudification) Own and optimize Anthropic's TE-related systems and platforms: configuration, policy rules, approval workflows, virtual cards, and ERP integrations Champion AI-powered automation across TE—deploying Claude to audit transactions, flag policy exceptions, and automate reporting—consistent with Anthropic's Claude-first culture You may be a good fit if you have: 12+ years of TE / corporate travel experience at a high-growth technology company, including 7+ years in a leadership or program ownership role with direct reports Demonstrated track record of cost savings: material, quantified outcomes from hotel RFPs, airline corporate agreements, and travel supplier negotiations Deep platform expertise in Navan and/or comparable TMC platforms, plus Brex or equivalent expense management tools Executive travel program ownership Strong cross-functional instincts: proven ability to partner across Security, Legal, HR, Finance, and C-suite executive teams and their supporting staff Duty-of-care and international compliance: background in travel risk management frameworks and TE compliance across global entities (EMEA, APAC, LATAM) AI-curious builder mindset: experience deploying AI tools to automate TE processes, or genuine enthusiasm for doing so—and comfort creating structure where none exists The annual compensation range for this role is listed below. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Ea ... (truncated, view full listing at source)