Technical Program Manager (For independent contractors)

About Us: At Booking.com, data drives our decisions. Technology is at our core. And innovation is everywhere. But our company is more than datasets, lines of code or A/B tests. We’re the thrill of the first night in a new place. The excitement of the next morning. The friends you encounter. The journeys you take. The sights you see. And the memories you make. Through our products, partners and people, we make it easier for everyone to experience the world.

The opportunity: The Application Data Services department provides world-class database and streaming solutions, both on-premise and on public cloud, to our infrastructure and product development teams. We ensure secure, reliable, and scalable transport and storage of data for our business and infrastructure services. Our data services currently cover technologies like MySQL, Cassandra, Kafka, Confluent, and Elasticsearch. We plan to expand this with complementary cloud database technologies. This track oversees Streaming services both on-premise services such as Kafka Confluent Platform and Apache Flick, and shapes the future of our Cloud offerings on top of managed services like Confluent Cloud.

What you’ll be doing:

• Define and champion the strategy for our Streaming & Flink product offering, aligning with the broader cloud and data modernisation strategy.

  
  

• Work closely with engineering teams to translate requirements into robust and scalable technical solutions.

  
  

• Drive the adoption of new technologies and best practices.

  
  

• Collaborate with product teams across the organisation to champion Cloud adoption and data modernisation, whilst understanding their needs and ensure our data solutions and infrastructure meets those requirements.

  
  

• Define and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for our products and drive improvements.

  
  

• Effectively communicate technical concepts and project status to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

What you’ll bring:

• Proven experience (typically 3+ years) as a Technical Product Manager or similar role, with a focus on data-related products or infrastructure.

  
  

• Understanding of data streaming patterns and various data movement technologies.

  
  

• Experience working with large-scale data platforms and cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).

  
  

• Familiarity with data governance and data quality frameworks.

  
  

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with a data-driven approach.

  
  

• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional teams.

  
  

• Experience working in an Agile development environment.

  
  

• Fluency in English (written and spoken).

Nice to have:

• Experience with specific data streaming platforms, Kafka, AWS MSK, Flink, Confluent Cloud.