Director of Engineering - Data & Metadata Platforms (For independent contractors)

The Director of Software Development is responsible for accelerating our Software Development efforts by leading a department of self steering agile teams, focused on scaling our products and platforms. They guide the best and the brightest professionals we hire and aim to empower individuals rather than restrict them. This role supports the department and helps them to grow toward their goals, whilst keeping them in line with company vision / strategy. They engage in technical discussions and provide an environment wherein their reports can best perform their management responsibilities. This position primarily gets things done via influence not authority. They unlock the creativity of the team and inspire them to build the best for our customers.

This role encompasses leading the Product and Engineering teams for the Enterprise BigData & AI Storage and Compute teams as well as the Engineering teams for our nascent Metadata Platform and foundational metadata capture and recommender capabilities.

Within Central Tech, the Data & Machine Learning (DML) teams are the group that provides Booking.com’s core data and AI foundations for the rest of the company. In practice we run the company-wide data & AI platforms – building and operating the analytical data lake/warehouse stack (e.g. BDX on S3/Snowflake), ingestion, storage, and reliability tooling that handle 10s of TBs of events per day and 150+ PB of data.

Key Responsibilities

• Build a strong leadership team, by coaching and developing Software Development Managers as well as top technical talent, such as Principals and Seniors.

  
  

• Take a leading role in developing the craft of Data Science and Machine Learning across the business, by helping to make Booking a great place to work for our Data Science colleagues.

  
  

• Ensure that the Booking architecture principles and engineering practices are adhered to, and that there is direction and alignment for each product. Be on the lookout for significant technology impediments and scalability issues that need attention.

  
  

• Drive our “buy or build” strategy for our Machine Learning platform

  
  

• Contribute to the delivery of the Technology department’s goals. Own Technology-wide topics and help lead and grow the department.

  
  

• Work closely with product leadership and make sure that the organization structure supports the business goals.

  
  

• Organize team structure to achieve strategic business priorities. Continuously think and prepare for scaling

  
  

• Measure success KPI’s and report on tracks and team performance and business impact

  
  

• Ensure clear and effective communication at all levels: proactively keep all stakeholders informed of what’s happening, upcoming changes, projects, issues, etc.

  
  

• Identify, attract, hire, develop and retain IT talent from around the world

  
  

• Empower teams to do their best work at Booking.com

Requirements of Special knowledge/skills

• 7+ years experience in Agile coaching/leadership

  
  

• 5+ years experience in a similar leadership or managerial role

  
  

• Excellent communication skills

  
  

• Independent, pragmatic and proactive work attitude

  
  

• Technical background, ability to lead engineering teams and drive technology is a must

  
  

• Experience working on large scale platforms

  
  

• Knowledge of the travel industry is a plus