E

Engine

Business lodging platform with exclusive rates

Vice President Finance

Full-TimeUpdated on 10/22/2026
$300k - $375k+ Equity + Annual bonus (role-dependent)
Expert
Remote in USA
Remote
Finance & BankingCorporate Finance & FP&A

About the job

Requirements
  • At least 12 years of experience across investment banking, private equity, growth equity, corporate finance, financial planning and analysis, strategic finance, or a related field, including significant experience in high-growth technology.
  • Experience leading Finance, or a major component of Finance, at a high-growth technology, software-as-a-service, marketplace, fintech, or similarly complex company.
  • Exceptional financial modeling skills and a strong understanding of three-statement modeling, unit economics, cash flow, and capital allocation.
  • A track record of building financial planning, forecasting, reporting, and analytical infrastructure in fast-scaling environments.
  • Experience evaluating pricing, monetization, new products, investments, headcount, and other strategic decisions.
  • A track record of communicating complex financial stories to investors, boards, and executive teams to drive decisions and build confidence.
  • Experience partnering directly with a CEO, executive team, and Board.
  • Experience building and developing high-performing Finance teams.
  • Ability to operate at both strategic and tactical levels, with strong execution and a bias toward action.
  • Strong commercial instincts and sound judgment, with the ability to bring a point of view and make decisions.
Responsibilities
  • Serve as the CEO's financial thought partner on growth strategy, investment priorities, resource allocation, and profitability.
  • Drive capital allocation decisions across the executive team, determining where Engine invests people, capital, and resources and where it makes tradeoffs.
  • Bring financial rigor to pricing, monetization, new products, markets, and partnerships.
  • Own fundraising, debt and liquidity strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and other strategic transactions.
  • Build investor relationships, lead the Board story on performance, and prepare Engine for future capital events, including public-company reporting, controls, governance, SOX readiness, audit committee partnership, and external guidance frameworks.
  • Own the financial plan, including quarterly forecasting, long-range modeling, scenario analysis, and the operating cadence across Engine.
  • Develop a deep understanding of revenue, margins, customer economics, pricing, payment economics, and cash flow, and build metrics and frameworks that make the business legible to leadership.
  • Communicate Engine's financial story to the Board, investors, lenders, and partners, turning complex numbers into actionable narratives.
  • Lead financial reporting and help the CEO communicate performance, outlook, risks, opportunities, and key decisions clearly.
  • Build and lead a high-performance Finance team, attract exceptional talent, modernize Finance through AI and automation, and establish scalable systems, processes, data infrastructure, and controls.
  • Partner with Accounting, Treasury, Legal, and external advisors to establish the financial foundation required for responsible growth.
Desired Qualifications
  • Investment banking or private equity background, with hands-on experience in valuation, transaction execution, and capital markets.

About the company

Hotel Engine serves businesses by managing lodging through a single platform that offers exclusive rates at over 700,000 hotels worldwide. Companies can book and manage all their lodging without contracts, commitments, or minimum spend, making it accessible for businesses of any size. Revenue comes from negotiated exclusive rates tied to booking volume, enabling discounts while sustaining profitability. The product’s strengths are its ease of use and responsive customer service, helping transform complex corporate travel into a simple, manageable process. The company aims to help organizations save money and time on lodging, streamline travel management, and scale their lodging programs across North America.

Company Size

201-500

Company Stage

Series C

Total Funding

$221M

Headquarters

Glendale, California

Founded

2013

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Engine announced the Navan partnership on September 8, 2026, expanding extended-stay and group bookings.
  • Engine acquired Options Travel on July 31, 2026, adding employees and client relationships immediately.
  • Salesforce said Engine’s Eva cut support handle time 15% and resolved 50% autonomously in 2026.

What critics are saying

  • Navan, SAP Concur, and Trimble control distribution; losing any partner cuts Engine’s pipeline quickly.
  • Engine’s AI automations depend on complex integrations; rollout failures damage trust and delay enterprise adoption.
  • A dominant platform like Navan can internalize Engine’s infrastructure, turning Engine into replaceable plumbing.

What makes Engine unique

  • Engine powers Navan’s 2026 booking stack, embedding infrastructure inside a larger travel platform.
  • Options Travel acquisition gives Engine a legacy TMC base and accelerates its AI-native OBT.
  • Engine’s SAP Concur, Trimble, and Salesforce integrations create sticky distribution across booking and support.

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Benefits

  • 401(k) Company Match
  • Company Equity
  • Hybrid Work Options
  • Performance Bonus

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

-14%
TechCrunch
Oct 9th, 2026
Gamma's Grant Lee, Engine's Elia Wallen, and GV's Crystal Huang on landing your first 1,000 customers

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Gamma CEO Grant Lee, Engine CEO Elia Wallen, and GV general partner Crystal Huang will discuss strategies for acquiring the first 1,000 customers. They'll cover community building, product-led growth, founder-led sales, and word of mouth tactics for early-stage startups. Lee co-founded Gamma, an AI-powered visual communication platform approaching 100 million users that reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025. Wallen bootstrapped Travelers Haven in 2008 before shifting to Engine, which now serves over 30,000 businesses and one million travellers. In July, Engine acquired Options Travel and TempoTrip. Huang, who focuses on SaaS, infrastructure, and AI investments at GV, will provide the investor perspective on early customer traction.

Yahoo Finance
Sep 20th, 2026
Navan partners with Engine to expand travel booking options and boost platform loyalty

Navan has partnered with Engine, a travel and spend technology provider, to expand booking options for its users. The collaboration will integrate Engine's payment and fintech solutions into Navan's platform, streamlining bookings, adjustments and cancellations. Initial offerings will launch this month, with additional features following in subsequent months. The partnership aims to enhance platform stickiness by providing greater flexibility and control over travel plans. The move follows Navan's acquisition of AI-driven meetings platform BoomPop. In the second quarter, Navan reported 45% growth in gross bookings, exceeding $3 billion, whilst revenue reached $233 million, up 35% year-over-year. However, the integration introduces technical risks, including potential disruptions during rollout. Relying on external infrastructure also creates dependency risks if Engine faces operational or financial challenges.

Associated Press
Jul 31st, 2026
Engine acquires Options Travel to build AI-native booking tool for travel management companies

Engine has acquired Options Travel, a corporate travel management company with over 30 years of experience. Options Travel will continue operating independently under its current leadership, with all employees joining Engine. The acquisition follows nine months of collaboration, during which Engine identified significant technology gaps in the travel management company sector. Engine is now developing an AI-native online booking tool for the industry, featuring booking, payments, reporting, and customer management in a single dashboard. The new platform reduces booking times to 2.5 minutes, compared to the industry average of nearly 15 minutes. According to the Global Business Travel Association, nearly a third of corporate travel buyers are reconsidering their travel management company this year, primarily due to outdated technology rather than service quality. Engine will demonstrate the new platform at the GBTA Convention in Chicago from 3–5 August.

Business Wire
Jun 4th, 2026
Engine launches Omni lodging booking API, Trimble to embed technology across transportation products

Engine, a travel and spend management platform, has launched Omni, a free hotel booking API that allows companies to integrate Engine's booking capabilities into their own platforms. The API provides access to over one million properties worldwide with sub-second search performance, real-time rates and 24/7 support. Trimble, a global industrial technology company, is the first adopter, integrating Omni into Trimble Places, Trimble Road Call and Trimble CoPilot. These solutions serve nearly 800,000 customers across North America, primarily truck drivers who will gain seamless hotel booking access within their existing tools. Engine, backed by Telescope Partners, Blackstone, Elefund and Permira, serves over one million travellers and 30,000 businesses. The Omni integration with Trimble Places is currently available in North America, with other integrations expected soon.

Business Wire
Apr 15th, 2026
Engine cuts travel support time 15% with Salesforce's Agentforce AI agent Eva

Engine, a business travel platform serving over one million travellers, has expanded its collaboration with Salesforce, deploying Agentforce and Slack to manage complex travel operations. The company now handles over 800,000 annual customer support cases, with 50% resolved autonomously by its AI agent Eva. Engine built Eva using Agentforce Vibes in just 12 days. The system handles complex tasks like modifying group bookings and has reduced average handle time by 15% whilst improving customer satisfaction scores. Slackbot serves as the interface, enabling sales teams to access real-time traveller intelligence and reduce research time by 40%. The platform processes thousands of daily trip modifications, with group travel doubling over the past year and 80% of trips booked within seven days of departure. Engine's deployment is built on Salesforce's Data 360 and Trust Layer.