Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch start-up to the third largest e-commerce company in the world. Booking.com is the largest business within Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) and accounts for the vast majority of Booking Holdings’ total revenue. Booking Holdings is a leading Fortune 500 e-commerce conglomerate with a market cap of approximately $80 billion.

With a mission to make it easier for everyone to experience the world, Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. Booking.com connects travellers with the world’s largest selection of incredible places to stay, including everything from apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts and even tree houses. The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in over 40 languages, offer more than +28 million total reported listings, and cover +140K destinations in +200 countries worldwide.

Booking.com is currently looking for a world-class Director - Legal, Payments to help solve complex regulatory challenges and enable the business to deliver on its ambitions for an increasing suite of Products across a variety of regulated environments.

As Director - Legal, Payments you will be accountable for collaboration and delivery to the Payments Track Leadership Team. Payments is a fast-growing business-enabler for Booking, sitting within Booking’s Product business unit and a key component of the long-term strategy towards creating a global experience marketplace and ‘The Connected Trip’. The ideal profile will sit with the Legal team, with Payments as their internal customer, and use their specialist Payments experience to champion Payments within the organisation.

Key Relationships:

• Reports to: Director - Legal, Payments and Product: Jonathan Collett
• Direct reports: n/a
• Booking.com: Director - Payments Compliances, VP Payments, Chief Technology Officer, Heads of BUs

As the Director - Legal, Payments you are responsible for:

Contributing to the development of an integrated regulatory and financial crime risk control framework, and help the Payments Track further its business objectives by:-

• Evaluating complex flows (funds, value, data, relationships) etc. against extant regulatory regimes and known expectations re required authorisation and control operation
• Researching, reviewing, assessing and defining external (legal & regulatory) expectations for business products and operations in this area
• Partnering with the business to shape relevant policy & procedure including highlighting risk and opportunities related to the Product & the Product roadmap
• Defining contracts, addenda, payments related agreements etc.
• Articulating and interpreting external direction and guidance in relation to Booking product suite
• Scanning the regulatory horizon and alerting the business to relevant requirements, helping the business to map obligations and roadmap responses
• Providing insight into the necessary licensing/authorisations, exemptions, maintenance & oversight programs required to meet Payment objectives

A deep understanding of the following regulatory regimes and of how Payments firms and products are affected is required, including:-

• The key EU legal and regulatory frameworks (PSD2 / SCA/MFA, AMLD, consumer law) that cover international money transfer, e-commerce, and online platforms
• Contract relationships and risk and technology (from a regulatory perspective)
• Permanent establishment and associated structuring and/or tax risks
• Familiarity with the following financial service products and the Fin-Tech space:-
• Digital Wallets such as WeChat, ApplePay, AmazonPay etc.
• Card schemes (Amex, VISA, MC) and other virtual credit card products (VCC) such as those provided by WEX and/or eNett (Optal).
• Experience identifying and liaising with local counsel around the globe, identifying suitable partners, commissioning work, challenging deliverables etc

Delivering all of the above directly and through others (internal resources - to be recruited, and external resources, aforementioned local counsel).

Leading Change:

• Publicly identifies needed changes or directions that need adjustment, challenges assumptions and norms
• The ability to “think big” and simultaneously understand and appreciate the details necessary to operationalize overarching strategies and goals; The ability to make sense of complex issues and ambiguous situations
• Challenges assumptions about “the way things are done”
• Communicates explicitly what must change, why changes are necessary, and possible outcomes and costs
• Adjusts communication style to the audience to help them understand and accept the change
• Encourages people to support and propose changes and ideas

Building relationships, Collaborating and Influencing:

• Establishes internal relationships and leverages external relationships
• Enhances the level of cooperation, collaboration, and trust between people
• Fosters a culture where people feel valued and respected and leverages even difficult or tense circumstances to enhance relationships
• Negotiates where appropriate, retaining respect for the control function the role occupies
• Takes time to identify and engage stakeholders, seeking consensus and/or understanding
• Identifies opportunities to build and enhance relationships that help others achieve their objectives, reaching out proactively

Driving Results:

• Responds resourcefully, flexibly, and positively when faced with new challenges and demands. Effectively deals with the stress and complexities of various situations Moves forward productively under conditions of change or uncertainty
• Demonstrates and fosters a sense of urgency, a “can-do” spirit, a sense of optimism, ownership, and strong commitment to achieving goals and organizational success
• Demonstrates a strong sense of ownership and a commitment to achieving meaningful results
• Checks work of self and others against required quality standards
• Reviews performance and progress on a regular basis to ensure the team is achieving results
• Tests to see if goals are sufficiently challenging and implements corrective action based on deviations

The ideal Director - Legal, Payments will have:

• A minimum of 10 years’ experience of the Payments / financial services space
• A Law degree with relevant post-qualification experience in general commercial legal matters in a reputable law firm and/or as in-house lawyer for a multinational company, preferably in Payments / financial services, banking, financial technology and/or e-commerce sector
• Payments regulatory experience, including engagement with applicable regulatory bodies
• A strong interest in significant contact with business clients on a daily basis with respect to transactional issues as well as other strategic issues;
• A strategic mindset and be able to effectively discuss with and advise management regarding complex legal matters and challenging situations.
• Experience of multi-jurisdictional business operations is vital, and of the challenge of aligning central and ‘local’ regulatory positions
• Experience as a contributor to the development of a Payments reliant business informing of multiple business activities, including (but not limited to) -
• Strategy - articulating barriers vs. opportunities; and
• Risk appetite - articulating the risk/reward ratio
• Contributed to the public debate around payments regulation, interpretation, enforcement and outcome efficacy (either through published articles, seminars or other forum)
• The ability to translate conceptual understanding into a pathway to business success across immature or ill-defined regulatory regimes (navigating the grey space)
• Strong influencing skills, including the ability to collaborate and problem-solve in a data-driven, international business
• A strong understanding of e-commerce and/or the OTA industry is ideal, including understanding evolving Products and how these fit into a dynamic organisation
• Good commercial judgment, be solutions-oriented and have a creative approach to problem-solving
• A high level of confidence with technology and have a strong interest in financial technology and regulatory compliance issues
• Experience developing approaches to legal challenges and learning new areas of law and regulation in a variety of jurisdictions
• Fluency in English with first-class communication skills, both written and verbal - mandatory, additional languages are a plus

Further skills we are looking for:

• Aligning with Booking.com’s Values (Think Customer First, Succeed Together, Own It, Learn Forever, Do the Right Thing)
• Being curious, flexible, and a creative and pragmatic problem solver
• Confident yet collaborative
• Ability to influence stakeholders across all levels within the organisation
• Being proactive, resilient and having the drive to get things done
• Having sound judgement and the ability to see the big picture and simultaneously appreciate the details necessary to operationalise the strategy
• Having the courage to take positions and make tough judgment calls
• Being a team player, self aware and a good listener - a diverse group will always find the best solution!
• Ability to move with agility, prioritise workloads and meet deadlines
• Forward thinking with an interest in emerging issues in legal and policy

Booking.com ensures equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, colour, family or medical care leave, gender, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex, pregnancy and childbirth, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws and regulations. We aspire to have a workplace that reflects all of the diverse communities we serve and we welcome and encourage candidates from all backgrounds and experiences to apply for roles on our team. We work to cultivate an inclusive culture in which all of our employees can be their authentic selves.

Why join the Legal & Public Affairs Team now?

Booking.com’s Legal & Public Affairs team is on a transformational journey at an exciting time for e-commerce and travel, with constant growth and innovation in how we operate). You will have the opportunity to actively shape the Department’s future. The Legal & Public Affairs team is a critical part of realising Booking.com’s strategy of the Connected Trip (a travel experience that includes not just accommodation, but also transportation, attractions, experiences, payments, flights etc).

This is a journey that requires close business and Legal & Public Affairs partnerships to redefine our business model, navigate complex regulatory environments, build new products, and negotiate increasingly elaborate commercial deals, among other important projects our teams work on every day. To tackle this mission, it all starts with a strong team passionate about growing Booking.com in an ethical and sustainable way!

Who we are

To match our global footprint and the array of challenges we face, we are proud to highlight the diversity that exists across this group. We are a team of approximately 70 professionals - representing more than 20 nationalities - with lawyers qualified in many different countries, as well as non-lawyers with public policy, economics, compliance and risk backgrounds. Our team’s previous experience spans across a multitude of industries with team members having worked for major global companies (including Amazon, American Express, Google, Nokia and Yum! Brands), tech and other startups (e.g. AirBnB, Uber and WeWork), government entities (e.g., the Dutch Competition Authority), reputable international law firms (e.g., Hogan Lovells, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Baker Mckenzie), and Public Affairs firms (e.g., FTI Consulting, FIPRA and Brunswick).

In addition to our day-to-day work, we actively seek opportunities for our team members to engage in broader global legal and public affairs communities through speaking engagements, training programs, and association memberships. Some of our lawyers are Board members of Consumer Law associations, Competition Law associations, Privacy associations, etc. We believe in actively engaging with stakeholders to share our insights on policies affecting the travel experience and how travel tech innovations can fuel the digital transformation of the travel industry (e.g. we recently launched Booking.com’s Public Affairs blog, where we publish our position on key policy issues - A World Worth Experiencing).

As a team, we believe in:

• Integrating with the Business and Legal having a “seat at the table”: we are decision makers who can have a real impact on Booking.com’s future
• Booking.com’s mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. Travel helps people become more open minded and fuels curiosity
• Allowing members of our teams to experience different areas of the business or, if they want to be specialists, giving them the tools that will empower them to become more effective in their jobs
• Providing holistic legal and public affairs advice; our team should not work in silos
• Always looking for better ways of doing things, innovating and exchanging best practices
• Accepting that it's OK to make mistakes provided we learn from them
• Having a sense of humour and having fun working together; we are a team that likes to collaborate and share in joys and challenges together!