Role description

Booking.com, the world's leading accommodation website, is looking for a Head of Brussels office to join our Legal and Public Affairs team and to help drive our EU public affairs function.

In an increasingly complex and broad regulatory landscape, and with the new institutional mandate just starting, we are looking for an experienced public affairs leader with a genuine interest in travel, tech and the platform economy to help us level-up our presence in Brussels.

You will have a key role in shaping, managing and implementing our public policy strategy towards the EU institutions. You will be representing the interests of Booking.com before policy makers and other relevant policy and regulatory stakeholders in Brussels and help us analyze and prioritize complex legal, regulatory and policy developments.

To be successful, the candidate will be a strong networker and team player who is comfortable operating independently in a fast paced tech environment. They should have the ability to work proactively with various internal and external stakeholders and build consensus across a wide range of different interests. In addition, the candidate will need to have experience with managing a team.

The successful candidate will report into the Director Public Affairs EMEA and will work closely with the other members of the EU Affairs team in Brussels. The candidate will also collaborate and coordinate closely with the rest of the Public Affairs team located at our global headquarters in Amsterdam and at strategic hubs in EMEA and around the world, as well as with other departments within the company and external partners such as consultancies and trade associations.

This is a great opportunity for a strategic self-starter and hands-on team player wanting to make a real impact as part of a small, global team.

Key Job Responsibilities & Duties:

• Shape, manage and execute effective public policy strategies to support business priorities and Booking.com's corporate profile and to make sure our voice is heard in relevant processes
• Represent the company's interests by engaging with relevant political and regulatory audiences at all levels
• Ensure continuous monitoring and evaluation of relevant legislative discussions, regulatory developments and stakeholder activity on key public affairs / reputational issues and assess their impact on our business
• Draft annual strategies, engagement plans, position papers, consultation responses, presentations and briefings for internal and external meetings, and organize campaigns and events to advance those messages
• Proactively coordinate and communicate internally to align messaging and provide colleagues with a thorough understanding of developments
• Facilitate high-level meetings with key stakeholders to promote and advocate the company's public policy priorities and brief, prep and advice leadership for these meetings
• Work with relevant external partners such as agencies, trade associations, think thanks and other relevant organizations in the travel and tech ecosystem

Role Qualifications and Requirements:

• Masters degree in policy, European Studies, international affairs, or other relevant field
• A proven track record of 10+ years of relevant experience in the EU, ideally in one of the EU institutions combined with inhouse or consultancy experience in the area of public affairs
• Experience with managing a team
• Deep understanding of policy and legal challenges facing the tourism and tech industry and affinity with the travel and platform industry
• Excellent oral communications skills and ability to distill complex information into clear messages that will resonate with political and regulatory audiences, as well as into succinct updates for the business teams
• High quality written skills and practical experience in drafting materials for use by regulators, senior executives or politicians
• Experience developing creative and effective public affairs campaigns that underpin the company's business objectives
• Outstanding organizational abilities, in particular, the capacity to manage multiple work streams at one time and the proactivity to drive work programmes forward and co-ordinate the involvement of all relevant stakeholders; vendor management and budget management
• The company is energetic, fast-paced and always evolving. The candidate brings energy and enthusiasm to work and has a hands-on, can-do, results-focused attitude.
• Strong influencing skills and ability to inspire confidence, as well as the ability to establish and maintain effective relationships at all levels
• High level of integrity with ability to develop both internal and external credibility
• Self-starter who can work with a high level of autonomy and who is also an excellent team player
• Commercial awareness and experience working in fast-paced, multicultural environments
• Experience with managing sensitive reputational issues and/or crises
• Fluency in English with additional European languages a strong benefit

Further skills we are looking for:

• Aligning with Booking.com's Values (Think Customer First, Succeed Together, Own It, Learn Forever, Do the Right Thing)
• Being curious, flexible, and a creative and pragmatic problem solver
• Confident yet collaborative
• Ability to influence stakeholders across all levels within the organisation
• Being proactive, resilient and having the drive to get things done
• Having sound judgement and the ability to see the big picture and simultaneously appreciate the details necessary to operationalise the strategy
• Having the courage to take positions and make tough judgment calls
• Being a team player, self aware and a good listener - a diverse group will always find the best solution!
• Ability to move with agility, prioritise workloads and meet deadlines
• Forward thinking with an interest in emerging issues in legal and policy

Booking.com ensures equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, colour, family or medical care leave, gender, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex, pregnancy and childbirth, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws and regulations. We aspire to have a workplace that reflects all of the diverse communities we serve and we welcome and encourage candidates from all backgrounds and experiences to apply for roles on our team. We work to cultivate an inclusive culture in which all of our employees can be their authentic selves.

Why join the Legal & Public Affairs Team now?

Booking.com's Legal & Public Affairs team is on a transformational journey at an exciting time for e-commerce and travel, with constant growth and innovation in how we operate. You will have the opportunity to actively shape the Department's future. The Legal & Public Affairs team is a critical part of realising Booking.com's strategy of the Connected Trip (a travel experience that includes not just accommodation, but also transportation, attractions, experiences, payments, flights etc).

This is a journey that requires close business and Legal & Public Affairs partnerships to redefine our business model, navigate complex regulatory environments, build new products, and negotiate increasingly elaborate commercial deals, among other important projects our teams work on every day. To tackle this mission, it all starts with a strong team passionate about growing Booking.com in an ethical and sustainable way!

Who we are:

To match our global footprint and the array of challenges we face, we are proud to highlight the diversity that exists across this group. We are a team of approximately 165 professionals - representing more than 35 nationalities - with lawyers qualified in many different countries, as well as non-lawyers with public policy, economics, compliance and risk backgrounds. Our team's previous experience spans across a multitude of industries with team members having worked for major global companies (including Amazon, American Express, Google, Nokia and Yum! Brands), tech and other startups (e.g. AirBnB, Uber and WeWork), government entities (e.g., the Dutch Competition Authority), reputable international law firms (e.g., Hogan Lovells, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Baker Mckenzie), and Public Affairs firms (e.g., FTI Consulting, FIPRA and Brunswick).

In addition to our day-to-day work, we actively seek opportunities for our team members to engage in broader global legal and public affairs communities through speaking engagements, training programs, and association memberships. Some of our lawyers are Board members of Consumer Law associations, Competition Law associations, Privacy associations, etc. We believe in actively engaging with stakeholders to share our insights on policies affecting the travel experience and how travel tech innovations can fuel the digital transformation of the travel industry (e.g. we recently launched Booking.com's Public Affairs blog, where we publish our position on key policy issues - A World Worth Experiencing).

As a team, we believe in:

• Integrating with the Business and Legal having a "seat at the table": we are decision makers who can have a real impact on Booking.com's future
• Booking.com's mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. Travel helps people become more open minded and fuels curiosity
• Allowing members of our teams to experience different areas of the business or, if they want to be specialists, giving them the tools that will empower them to become more effective in their jobs
• Providing holistic legal and public affairs advice; our team should not work in silos
• Always looking for better ways of doing things, innovating and exchanging best practices
• Accepting that it's OK to make mistakes provided we learn from them
• Having a sense of humour and having fun working together; we are a team that likes to collaborate and share in joys and challenges together!

Pre-Employment Screening

If your application is successful, your personal data may be used for a pre-employment screening check by a third party as permitted by applicable law. Depending on the vacancy and applicable law, a pre-employment screening may include employment history, education and other information (such as media information) that may be necessary for determining your qualifications and suitability for the position.