Senior Legal Counsel

Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch start-up to the third largest e-commerce company in the world. Booking.com is the largest business within Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) and accounts for the vast majority of Booking Holdings’ total revenue. Booking Holdings is a leading Fortune 500 e-commerce conglomerate with a market cap of approximately $80 billion.

With a mission to make it easier for everyone to experience the world, Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. Booking.com connects travellers with the world’s largest selection of incredible places to stay as well as the ability to book flights, rental cars, attractions and taxis as a one-stop-shop for the “Connected Trip

The Senior Counsel - Competition and Consumer Law drives enforcement matters as part of our global Competition and Consumer Law team, engaging proactively and reactively with regulators and courts across jurisdictions to mitigate risks across Booking.com products.

Key responsibilities:

• Collaborating with competition and consumer law authorities around the world, explaining Booking.com’s point of view in investigations / sector inquiries as well as in the context of litigations (working together with external counsel)
• Efficiently collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative input from business teams to provide accurate information to regulators 
• Exploring solutions in adversarial situations and providing legal recommendations to executives for case resolution
• Presenting to senior management on relevant matters and any solutions recommended
• Representing Booking.com in meeting with regulators 
• Managing and collaborating with external counsel 
• Contributing to define Booking.com’s overall strategy and providing internal updates on relevant matters, identifying recurring concerns

Skills and experience required:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent and competition and consumer law experience 
• 5 - 8 years experience in antitrust or with a legal qualification
• Previous experience in law firms, regulators and/or multinational companies working on complex competition and consumer law matters across jurisdictions
• Combine professional discipline with deep knowledge of theory in behavioral antitrust
• Strategic thinking and ability to be proactive and determine a long term vision 
• With limited supervision, ability to drive decision making and understand risk trade-offs 
• Ability to combine high quality legal work and organizational requirements (including budget setting)
• Flexible and adaptable, able to work under pressure, and learn from mistakes
• Ability to build constructive relationships across the business
• Ability to effectively communicate in small/medium groups; strong influencer in 1:1 and small groups 
• Ability to translate legal requirements and risks across different functions, teams, and roles
• Combine professional discipline with deep knowledge of theory in behavioral antitrust
• Organized with a natural inclination for planning strategy and tactics 

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 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 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

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.