Head of Brussels office
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.
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
Qualifications & Skills:
- 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 Englishwith 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
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 - ).
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!
Booking.com’s Total Rewards Philosophy is not only about compensation but also about benefits. We offer a competitive , as well unique-to-Booking.com benefits which include:
Annual paid time off and generous paid leave scheme including: parent, grandparent, bereavement, and care leave
Hybrid working including flexible working arrangements, and up to 20 days per year working from abroad (home country)
Industry leading product discounts - up to 1400 per year - for yourself, including automatic Genius Level 3 status and Booking.com wallet credit
Application Process:
This section should provide:
Let’s go places together:
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.
