Our Company

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 and revenues of $12.7 billion (2018). Booking.com currently employs more than 17,000 employees in 214 offices in 70 countries worldwide. 

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 travelers 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 28,984,513 total reported listings, and cover 142,259 destinations in 229 countries worldwide. Each day, more than 1,550,000 room nights are reserved on its platform. So whether traveling for business or leisure, customers can instantly book their ideal accommodation quickly and easily, without booking fees and backed up by its promise to price match. Via the customer experience team, customers can reach Booking.com 24/7 for assistance and support in over 40 languages, any time of the day or night. 

At Booking.com, we are all involved in making hundreds of decisions every day. The decisions we make are a reflection of our Values -  they reflect what is important to us, both as individuals and as an organization. 

When we use our Values to make decisions, we make a deliberate choice to focus on what is important. When Values are made explicit, they provide clarity on what “good” looks like. And when they are shared, they build unity in a group. They build culture.

• Think customer first. We obsess about adding value for our customers - guests, partners, colleagues - to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.

• Own it. We deliver on our promises, make informed decisions and prioritize to get the important things done today.

• Learn forever. We are resilient, take time to reflect, and seek to learn – from colleagues, from the outside world and from our failures.

• Succeed together. We celebrate team success, through making connections, building trust and valuing the diverse perspectives of others.

• Do the right thing. We get the right results the right way. For each other, our communities and the world around us.

Financial and Operational Highlights

On 7 November 2019, Booking Holdings announced total revenues for the 3rd quarter of 2019 were $5.0 billion, a 4% increase from the prior year (approximately 7% on a constant-currency basis). Net income in the 3rd quarter was $1.9 billion, an 8% increase versus the prior year.

Booking.com Leadership Team

Chief Executive Officer, Glenn Fogel                                                                                                    

SVP, Chief Finance Officer, Marcela Martin                                                                                                 

SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Arjan Dijk

SVP, Accommodations, Pepijn Rijvers       

SVP, Chief Technology Officer, Matt Swann                                                                                                                                             

SVP, Chief Product Officer, David Vismans

SVP, Chief Legal Officer, Maria Barros                                                                                                                                                                               

SVP, Commercial Operations, James Waters

SVP, Chief People Officer, Paulo Pisano

Key Relationships

Reports to: VP Customer Insights

Key Responsibilities

As Senior Director of Data Science & Analytics based in the Customer Insights team your responsibility is twofold. First, you will be responsible for building the measurement and metrics of Booking.com’s new product vision of the “Connected Trip”. In this role you will build our understanding of our customer base, how our new product offerings affect customers’ behaviors and how these verticals create value for our core global business. You will build innovative and unique data science models to impact Product development and ensure we continue to make data-driven decisions which add intrinsic value to the products which impact our bookers. To do so, you will work across Data Science, Product, Engineering, Finance, Marketing and Supply.

 Second, you will be responsible for leading the entire Data Science craft across the business. Your responsibilities will include building the global Data Science strategy with leaders from different business units, ensuring that Data Science is best utilized by the business and leading the Data Science Council that will establish career progression, performance management and ways of working for all Data Scientists. To achieve success in this role, you will need to build strong collaborations with other Data Science and analytical leaders.  

Success in this role will include (but not limited to) require you to:

• Build the vision, set the strategy, and define the roadmap for the effective use of data and the data engineering services for Data Science in Central Product.
• Ensure that high quality data and data products are continuously available to generate business and customer insights for the purposes of new product development.
• Ensure strong data governance and controls through data pipelines and workflows that incorporate privacy and security elements.
• Lead and Chair the Data Science & Analytics Council and be the primary subject matter expert in topics related to Data Science & Analytics.
• Lead and mentor (Senior) Data Science & Analytics leaders across the business.
• Recruit, retain and grow world-class talent in Data Science, Data Engineering and Analytics across the business.
• Always look for innovative ways to use Data Science & Analytics to drive business performance and build new products that  meet our company and department objectives.
• Be able to advise, consult and conduct large scale Data Science projects that solve problems in the company’s primary priorities.
• Design online and offline large scale experiments that involve multiple areas of the business.
• Build and maintain strong connections with the global analytics functions across the entire business including Central Product, Marketing, Accommodation, Transport, Finance, Operations and Central Technology, as well as demonstrated ability to manage stakeholders across these departments.
• Be the trusted advisor for the Central Product Leadership Team with regards to all Data Science & Analytics topics and use your skills to explain complex problems in simple terms.
• Be the point of reference of the larger Data Science & Analytics craft and community in Central Product . Ensure that everyone in this community has the right support and is able to do their best work and grow in their craft

IDEAL EXPERIENCE: 

• 10+ years of experience leading large analytics and/or data engineering teams at a high growth enterprise.
• Hold a PhD in a Data Science field such as Mathematics, Economics, Business or a related field.
• Able to lead world-class data science products  that will include changes using excellent stakeholder management, change-management, and story-telling skills.
• Subject matter expertise in Data Engineering, Data Science and Analytics with a proven track record of working on successful innovative products at a global scale. Set the vision and strategy to use data to steer the business and maximize the success of the product aligned with team and business goals.
• Experience with managing and coaching large teams of senior Data Scientists and managers and an ability to build and grow Data Science teams as needed.
• Experience working with Product and Technology departments and cross functional senior stakeholders.
• Expert in leading through influence with stakeholders including executives.

OTHER PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

• Able to function in a fast-moving entrepreneurial environment
• Humble yet confident, with high self-awareness
• Demonstrated ability to lead data science teams across geographies and departments
• A strategic thinker yet focused on execution; able to roll up the sleeves to get things done
• Self-starter with high energy and drive; fast-paced and results-driven; forward-thinking
• Experimental, ready to learn and open to change
• Keep the customer at the centre of everything you do
• Data-driven
• Good cultural and organizational sensitivity
• Committed to building a diverse, inclusive work environment

CRITICAL LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES:

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 relationships and enhances the levels of cooperation, collaboration, and trust that exist between people, interacting with others personally, competently, and effectively. Establishes relationships inside and outside of the organization. Fosters a culture that makes people feel valued and respected and leverages even difficult or tense circumstances to enhance relationships.
• Negotiates with a genuine give-and-take approach, where both acts as true peers and decisions are shared.
• Spends time identifying all stakeholders necessary and meets or connects with all of them, neglecting no one to shape a collective consensus.
• Identifies opportunities to build relationships that will help others achieve their objectives and reaches out to those people or new people.

Driving Results

• Responds resourcefully, flexibly, and positively when faced with new challenges and demands. Willingly and 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 team is achieving results.
• Tests to see if goals are sufficiently challenging and implements corrective action based on deviations.