Director - Business Operations, Accommodations

Director - Business Operations, Accommodations

Our Company

Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch start-up to the third largest ecommerce 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 empower people 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, tree houses and even igloos. 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 and territories worldwide. Each day, more than 1,550,000 room nights are reserved on its platform. So whether travelling for business or leisure, customers can instantly book their ideal accommodation quickly and easily with Booking.com, 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.

Financial and Operational Highlights

On 27 February 2019, Booking Holdings announced total revenues for the 4th quarter of 2018 were $3.2 billion, as compared to gross profit of $2.8 billion in the 4th quarter of 2017, a 16% increase from the prior year (approximately 21% on a constant-currency basis).

Booking.com Leadership Team

Chief Executive Officer, Gillian Tans                                                                                                       

SVP, Chief Finance Officer, Marcela Martin

SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Arjan Dijk

SVP, Head of Accommodations, Pepijn Rijvers

SVP, Chief Product Officer, David Vismans

SVP, General Counsel, Maria Barros

SVP, Commercial Operations & interim Chief People Officer, James Waters

For more information on the leadership biographies: please visit https://globalnews.booking.com/executive-biographies/

 

Profile Director - Business Operations, Accommodations

Accommodations is setting up a central programme management office (PMO), reporting within the Strategy and Business Operations department.

The Business Operations Director will lead a small department which is responsible for the governance and programme management of strategic initiatives within the unit and the unit’s  dependencies with other Business Units and Functions across the company - essentially establishing the connective tissue between strategy and operational execution on many fronts. The scope of the role goes beyond program management, and requires strategic and business thinking to contribute to the quality of all programs and initiatives. On occasion, the role will be in the lead of an initiative and own it.

This role will lead or partner with a team of programme managers that proactively work with different functions within and outside Accommodations.

The Business Operations team will ensure that critical cross-functional initiatives are on track to achieve their goals and that the dependencies across functions are transparent and managed.

Examples of topics which would be in scope for the role are the unit’s cooperation with Operations, Payments,  the unit’s Go-To-Market strategy, the GDT release cycle, ensuring a coherent New Partnership strategy and any specific initiative which is not covered by the Product Core and Segments organization (eg essentially topics on our Core segment when they arise).

 

Key Relationships:

Reports to: Director Strategy & Business Operations for Accommodations, Marc Otten

Direct reports: ~3 FTE

 

Key Responsibilities

You Will:

Manage a team of program managers (~ 3 FTE) who are accountable for managing key initiatives and programmes that the unit has identified.

Program Management

• Work with key stakeholders to identify and develop programs for the unit’s most critical programs/ change initiatives
• Lead change initiatives within the PMO and within the function for the unit
• Track and report status and progress of all streams of work, highlighting where required, risk/issues to governance groups or team members
• Keep a record of all decisions, minutes from meetings and next steps with regard to the roadmap or project charter
• Work in partnership with the ABU Strategy and Strategy and ALT to ensure resource is allocated to the right work, within headcount and P&L budget.

Governance

• Responsible for success of major programs and is accountable for driving an efficient update and decision-making process
• Ensure that governance decisions at steering committee / ALT level are cascaded down correctly, and where necessary, decisions required are elevated to ALT governance
• Hold teams/colleagues to account of next steps and objectives, records where these have been missed

Strategic

• Influence the creation of the unit’s vision and strategy with the objective to grow the Accommodations on Booking.com
• For specific topics which don’t have ownership elsewhere in the unit, the role needs to own these topics including strategic and operational direction setting

Management

• Develop, coach, lead and inspire a team of marketing professionals to deliver results

IDEAL EXPERIENCE & SKILLS:

• Proven thought leader with >10 years in senior strategic or operational roles, ideally in e-commerce, retail, payments, and/or consumer-facing products
• Bachelor’s degree. Masters degree is preferred
• Skilled in operational management, including running cross-functional initiatives, financial and business modeling, strategic options identification, consensus building, and implementation
• Knows how to run change management across the organization, both vertically as well as horizontally
• Ability to influence on all levels including executive stakeholders
• Ability to learn fast and adapt to a fast moving environment
• Experience leading change management efforts
• Creativity and “out of the box” thinking that drives innovation. The ability to “see around corners” and “connect the dots” that enable business to proactively drive business, not just respond to it

OTHER PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

• Strong interpersonal skills, flexible and a positive attitude
• Self-motivated and able to take ownership of key topics
• A strategic thinker yet focused on execution; able to roll up the sleeves to get things done
• Strong executive presence and ability to communicate strategy clearly and simply
• 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 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 team is achieving results.
• Tests to see if goals are sufficiently challenging and implements corrective action based on deviations.

Reward philosophy - designed to give you the best ‘deal’ possible:

• Opportunity to grow professionally and to shape the future of a global experiences marketplace
• A high-scale, complex, world-renowned product
• Smart, driven colleagues and a fast-paced, performance driven culture
• Great headquarters in Amsterdam, one of Europe’s most cosmopolitan cities
• Competitive compensation and benefits package and great added perks