The posting
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.
Role description
As a Senior Research leader, you define and drive the understanding of customers - and the future of travel experiences. You partner with our teams to understand guests and partners. Your team identifies and shapes product strategy and inspires their cross-functional partners to create great experiences. Leading and growing a high performing team of skilled researchers who provide the foundation for well-informed, objective, data-oriented decision making across Booking.com accommodation business.
In this role, you will guide research processes, manage and mentor your team and partner with multidisciplinary product teams to identify customer needs and develop insights for product development.
You will build fundamental understanding of the current user experience, pull together customer data collected by teams across the business, develop an accurate and inspiring picture of our customers to guide ongoing product development and shape early product definition and strategy.
You are a strong and empathetic leader who manages and develops the members of the team. You bring expertise in research practices across all phases of the product life-cycle, excellent knowledge of primary research methods (surveys, diary studies, interviews and focus groups) as well as secondary & expert methods (such as lit reviews, cognitive walkthroughs and desk research), grounding in product development processes and effective cross-functional collaboration skills. You will define and lead research programs that influence the customer proposition, align UX research activities with wider plans and build user centred practices in product teams. You are a strong and empathetic leader who manages and develops the members of the team. You are an excellent communicator and will partner closely with senior stakeholders as a member of the research leadership team.
Key Job Responsibilities and Duties:
- Be the users' advocate, ensuring their needs are central to design and development decisions across the business.
- Provide vision and direction for a team of direct and indirect reports – including managing other managers; inspiring and challenging them in their day to day work and their career path.
- Collaborate closely with the Research Director to outline and roll out definitions of research quality, improvements to processes and other research craft improvements
- Translate broad corporate objectives into a cohesive, multi-year research & data and roadmap; experience partnering with Data Science and Data Engineering across predictive modeling, generative AI/LLM applications, experimentation testing, and causal inference modelling.
- Establish business requirements for architectural and data engineering choices for production machine learning systems, automated data pipelines, product feature roadmaps, and experimentation frameworks.
- Lead the collaboration across multiple data sources (customer service, experimentation, primary product research, in-product attitudinal and behavioral data, and marketing insights) to provide input to strategic planning and product roadmap decision making.
- Invest in and enable the team’s collective success, delivering business outcomes and building a cohesive, high performing organisation.
- Personally deliver and set an example for executive ready communication from the onset of all deliverables. Effectively translating technical, quantitative, and qualitative research into cohesive stories so that results are easily understood and ready to use by diverse leadership audiences.
- Be a thought leader on how to set up research and use data from multiple sources to inform the product experiences, roadmaps, and launches.
- Provide strategic insights, conduct independent research, collect and analyse behavior through a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, understand and incorporate complex technical and business requirements into research.
- Build strong collaboration with Analytics, Marketing and Data & Reporting teams to validate and spot connections across data sources and connect disparate data points across consumer insights and other business data.
- Define and measure quantitative UX goals, KPIs, and metrics in collaboration with Researchers, Designers, Analysts and Product Managers.
- Developing engaging methods of research dissemination to ensure impact throughout the organisation.
- Promote a user-centred design approach by educating and inspiring others throughout the business.
Qualifications & Skills:
- 10+ years' UX research delivery from an in-house or agency environment
- Degree or higher degree in psychology, behavioural sciences, HCI, economics or similar professional experience
- Required past experience performing quantitative research experience (statistics or data science or data analysis)
- Strong analytical skills, with a demonstrated ability to distill the output of complex datasets
- Extensive experience as the research craft point of contact to multiple senior (Director+) stakeholders within Product and Design teams
- Excellence in converting research results into influential Product and Design recommendations
- Experience managing other managers as part of a growing team of UX Researchers
- Experience delivering primary and secondary research methods in UX Research
- Experience with designing, leading and implementing UX Research projects at scale
- Nice to have: awareness of experimentation, product development principles, and e-commerce or travel industry exposure
Your qualities:
- Personable – Adaptable and able to make others feel at ease.
- Analytical – Investigative, inquisitive, always asking 'why?'
- Collaborative – Able to facilitate effective working among colleagues in various roles.
- Organised – Capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously
- Articulate – Able to convey customer insights persuasively and accurately.
- Principled – Focussed on the right outcome for your users.
Benefits & Perks: Global Impact, Personal Relevance
- Annual paid time off and generous paid leave scheme including: parental (22-weeks paid leave), grandparent, bereavement, and care leave
- Hybrid working including flexible working arrangements, working from home furniture and ergonomic support, and up to 20 days per year working from abroad (home country)
- A beautiful sustainable HQ Campus in Amsterdam, that offers on-site meals, coffee, and snacks, multi-faith and breastfeeding rooms at the office
- Commuting allowance and bike reimbursement scheme
- Discounts & Wallet credits to spend on our products, upgrade to Booking.com Genius Level 3, and friends & family Booking.com discount vouchers
- Free access to online learning platforms, development and mentorship programs
- Global Employee Assistance Program, free Headspace membership
DEI: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Booking.com
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) have been a core part of our company culture since day one. This ongoing journey starts with our very own employees, who represent over 140 nationalities and a wide range of ethnic and social backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations. Take it from our Chief People Officer, Paulo Pisano: “At Booking.com, the diversity of our people doesn’t just create a unique workplace, it also creates a better and more inclusive travel experience for everyone.”
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable adjustments to participate in the interview process. Please contact us to request adjustments.
Application Process
- The interview process will entail a total of 4 interviews, all conducted via Zoom video conferencing.
- This role does not come with relocation assistance.
Booking.com is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We strive to move well beyond traditional equal opportunity and work to create an environment that allows everyone to thrive.
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.
