Functiebeschrijving
Role Description:
Booking.com's Legal department is looking to welcome a Senior Legal Counsel Product (Flights) to focus on supporting Booking.com’s rapidly growing Flights business.
Reporting to the Senior Managing Counsel (Connected Trip), the role is a ‘hands-on’ legal advisory support role, embedded in the business and working closely with the Product and Commercial teams to grow a world-class Flights product (and other travel-related products, as directed from time to time), as well as lead the assessment, interpretation and application of the law governing the sale of these products.
This role is a critical component in the construction of a safe, compliant and scalable global Flights product, which is a key feature of the Connected Trip, and therefore a vital contributor to Booking.com’s goals.
As Senior Product Counsel (Flights), you will have a global scope, so the Lawyer in this role should equally have a global worldview, and be capable of sourcing, critiquing and managing input form a range of internal and external stakeholders, to form a view even outside of their direct experience.
What You'll be Doing:
- Drives regulatory strategy that supports the Flights Product and also facilitates and enables broader product goals, across a range of travel-related services
- Negotiating and drafting of critical vendor contracts to enable the flights product, optimising for commercial outcomes whilst protecting the company from foreseeable circumstances.
- Where required works directly with relevant international regulatory bodies to support the Flights Product global strategy.
- Procures and interprets legal advice to the Flights Product team, to support the global roll-out plan for Flights, and ensure compliance with law and regulations.
- Coordinates legal support for the Flights Product team for new initiatives across different specialisms and areas (including Consumer, Data Protection, Public Affairs) as a single point of contact for the Flights product team.
- Works with other internal stakeholder groups, including Finance and other brands within the Holdings Group, to define and manage a regulatory strategy in support of travel services.
- Fosters collaboration and encourages best practices in ways of working and knowledge sharing.
Your Skills:
- Minimum of 5 years experience in a legal role or with a legal qualification
- Working knowledge of Flights and Travel industry and/or regulations is required
- Held a similar position in an international, fast-paced, fast-changing working environment
- Very strong organizational and project management skills. Capable of handling multiple projects/initiatives simultaneously and executing to completion
- Someone who is always looking for opportunities to drive efficiency through appropriate use of the right technologies
- Strong communication skills, particularly clear and concise written communication
- A proven track record of excellent negotiation skills and full resilience in handling pushback from the business
- A proactive self-starter and strategic thinker with a thirst for knowledge and continued growth - combined with a team-player mentality
- A quick and flexible learner; intellectually curious, open-minded, adaptable, comfortable with ambiguity and motivated by dynamic change
- An ambitious mindset that enables you to successfully work independently with little guidance but also to be pragmatic, use good judgment and call out issues
- Fluency in English .
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 & pragmatic problem solver
- Confident yet collaborative
- Ability to influence stakeholders across all levels within the organization
- Being proactive, resilient and having the drive to get things done
- Having sound judgment and the ability to see the big picture and simultaneously appreciate the details necessary to operationalize 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, prioritize 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 a transformational time for e-commerce and travel (think: growth, innovation, changes to how we operate); you will have an opportunity to actively shape the Department’s future.
The Legal & Public Affairs team is also a critical part of the enablement of 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 get involved 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 130 professionals -
representing more than 34 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 Uber, American Express, Airbnb, Amazon, Google, Nokia), tech and other startups, government entities (e.g., the Dutch Competition Authority), and reputable international law firms (e.g., Hogan Lovells, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Baker Mckenzie), and Public Affairs firms (e.g., FTI Consulting, FIPRA, Brunswick).
In addition to our day-to-day work, we actively seek opportunities for our team members to engage in the wider 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 also 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.
For example, 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 that can have a real impact on Booking.com’s future
- Booking’s mission of making it easier for everyone to experience the world. Travel helps people become more open minded, curious and flexible
- Allowing members of our teams to experience different areas or, if they want to be specialists, give them the tools 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, improving our Legal Operations function, innovating and exchanging best practices
- Accepting that it's okay to make mistakes as long as 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!