Lead Customer Service Operations Architect (For independent contractors)

Role Overview

Booking.com is building up its new Flights platform from the ground up. While our Product and Tech teams are scaling the software, we need a dedicated operational anchor to design our front-line and back-office customer service workflows.

As the Lead CS Operations Architect, you will bridge the gap between complex airline industry realities and Booking’s world-class, centralized Customer Service infrastructure. You will define the human workflows, agent protocols, and operational guardrails required to make this transition seamless and compliant. A major component of this role is mitigating flight financial risk—specifically Agency Debit Memos (ADMs).

The high-level strategic operating model (whether we utilize an outsourced model, an in-house incubator, or a hybrid setup) should be finalized right around your onboarding date. Your mandate is to step into this fluid environment, design the 3-way operational flows (Customer, Booking.com ,Airlines), translate operational needs into tech requirements, and partner with a fintech operations consultant to define the operational execution and agent protocol to handle Agency Debit Memos (ADMs).

Key Responsibilities

Service Design & Process Architecture

• End-to-End Mapping: Design and document detailed operational flows for all flight customer touchpoints, including complex scenarios: schedule changes (voluntary/involuntary), GDS queue management, automated vs. manual refunds, split tickets, and ancillary issues.

  
  

• Three-Way Interaction Design: Map clear operational boundaries and handoffs between the Customer, Booking’s agents, our Tech Platforms, and the Airlines.

  
  

• Legacy Integration: Partner with the centralized CS department to identify operational gaps between existing workflows and new flows, ensuring the existing infrastructure can support your designs.

Product & Tooling Collaboration

• Operational Requirements: Act as the "Voice of Operations" for Product and Engineering, translating agent workflow needs into functional tickets for internal CRM development, GDS integration, and desktop tooling.

  
  

• Delivery Model Execution: Immediately operationalize the chosen delivery model (BPO vs. In-house Incubator). If a BPO model is selected, define the exact operational protocols, compliance standards, and agent skill sets the vendor must guarantee.

  
  

• Automation Blueprinting: Identify high-volume, repetitive flight processes that can be automated (e.g., standard cancellations) to lower front-line headcount requirements.

ADM Operational Execution & Agent Protocol

• Human Workflow Definition: Detail the exact step-by-step process a customer service agent takes to review and action a specific ticket that has triggered an ADM.

  
  

• Root-Cause Analysis (Human Error): Investigate operational vulnerabilities to determine if ADMs are caused by front-line agents manually overriding fares, processing incorrect manual refunds, or providing inaccurate information to customers.

  
  

• Training & SOPs: Author comprehensive training guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure agents eliminate the manual errors that lead to airline fines.

  
  

• Dispute Evidence Gathering: Coordinate and design the process for collecting necessary audit trails—such as agent chat logs, customer histories, and GDS PNR histories—to hand over to the FinTech/FinOps team to prove Booking.com’s innocence in disputes.

Expected Milestone Deliverables (Contract Timeline)

Month 1: Discovery & Technical Alignment

• Complete a comprehensive gap analysis of Booking's legacy flight processes and central CS capabilities.

  
  

• Align with the Product/Tech roadmaps to map out immediate tooling constraints.

  
  

• Establish working relationships with the central CS Operating Model Director and internal Flights stakeholders.

  
  

• Align with the FinTech & Operations Consultant to map out where systemic financial plumbing meets human operational workflows.

Months 2–3: Blueprinting & ADM Protocol Design

• Deliver finalized, step-by-step service design maps for the core Flight lifecycles (Booking, Modification, Schedule Change, Cancellation, Disruption).

  
  

• Deliver the ADM Human Workflow & Audit Protocol, establishing exactly how agents investigate fines and gather dispute evidence (GDS histories, chat logs).

  
  

• Draft operational requirements for either the BPO RFP/SOW or the In-house Incubator staffing/training plan, depending on the strategic model selected.

Months 4–6: Tooling Definition & Alpha Preparation

• Deliver finalized operational user stories and requirements to the Product/Tech teams for the agent desktop/CRM environment.

  
  

• Author the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and escalation matrix for the initial trial/alpha launch phases.

  
  

• Draft training guidelines aimed at eliminating manual fare override and incorrect refund errors.

Months 7–9: Operational Readiness & Launch (If Extended)

• Oversee the operational readiness testing (shadowing tech tests, checking queue routing).

  
  

• Hand over a comprehensive, documented operational playbook to the permanent team.

  
  

• Define the "Transition Trigger Metrics" required to eventually hand over the ADM incubator to central corporate teams.

Required Experience & Expertise

• Flight Domain Mastery (Non-Negotiable): 8+ years of experience within an Online Travel Agency (OTA), Airline, Global Distribution System (GDS), or Flight-centric BPO provider. You must deeply understand ticketing lifecycles, GDS queues (Amadeus, Sabre, or Travelport), and ARC/IATA/BSP regulations.

  
  

• ADM and Back-Office Finance Acumen: Proven experience designing workflows that mitigate, audit, and successfully dispute Agency Debit Memos (ADMs). You understand how ticketing errors turn into financial penalties and know how to build operational firewalls against them.

  
  

• Service Design Excellence: Demonstrated success mapping complex customer journeys and back-office workflows from scratch using tools like Miro

  
  

• Strategic Versatility: Experience evaluating or deploying both outsourced BPO solutions and internal, specialized captive/incubator teams.

  
  

• Matrix Stakeholder Management: Experience working in matrixed, enterprise environments. You must have the communication skills and professional gravity to collaborate with a Director-level counterpart, influence central business units, and guide product managers.

  
  

• The Consultant Mindset: Comfort with ambiguity, a self-starting attitude, and the ability to rapidly produce high-quality, executive-level documentation under tight timelines.

What We Offer

• Greenfield Impact: The opportunity to shape the foundational human architecture of a critical, multi-year strategic growth driver for one of the largest travel platforms in the world.

  
  

• High Autonomy: You will be trusted as the singular operational domain expert in the early stages of this project, working hand-in-hand with senior leadership.

  
  

• Collaborative Environment: Access to Booking.com's top-tier product, data, and engineering minds, alongside dedicated support from our corporate Customer Service leadership.