Machine Learning Manager, Booking.com
Marketplace - Smart Positioning
More information about location
Leading travel accommodation and experiences marketplace
Open for applications
Leading travel accommodation and experiences marketplace
1001+ employees
Open for applications
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
Booking.com's mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. They do so by offering a platform that connects every part of a trip – from a great place to stay to getting there, getting around, seeing the sights and sampling local life.
Role
Who you are
- MSc or Ph.D in a quantitative field (e.g. Computer Science, Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, Physics, etc.)
- At least 5 years of industry experience and at least 2 years managing ML scientists and engineers. Involved in the application of Machine Learning to business problems
- Advanced knowledge and experience in areas like e.g. Recommender Systems, Online Machine Learning, Information Retrieval, Multi Armed Bandits, Causal Inference and Scaling ML models serving and training
- Experience designing and executing end-to-end research and development plans and generating impact through large-scale machine learning model development. Preferably evidenced by peer-reviewed publication, patents, open sourced code or the like
- Experience on multiple machine learning facets: working with large data sets, model development, statistics, experimentation, data visualization, optimization, software development
- Experience collaborating cross functionally in the development of machine learning products (e.g. Developers, UX specialists, Product Managers, etc.)
- Required working knowledge of Python and SQL. Knowledge of Kafka, Hadoop or Spark are an asset
- Excellent English communication skills, both written and verbal
- Successful experience driving technical, business and people related initiatives that improve productivity, performance and quality while communicating with stakeholders at all levels
- Leading by example, gaining respect through actions, not your title. Developing your team and motivating them to achieve their goals. Providing feedback timely and managing your key team performance indicators
What the job involves
- This role is based in Amsterdam
- The Smart Positioning team sits in the Marketplace ML department
- The goal of the team is to apply feedback loop ML technology to personalize the Booking.com website and application by displaying the right content to the right travelers
- Areas of active development are full control of the front pages of the website and apps, selecting UX elements and ordering them, selecting and sorting elements such as search filters banners
- The team develops and trains ML models, in both offline and online learning modes and integrates them to production code using the company’s frameworks
- As a Machine Learning Manager, you are responsible for leading a team of machine learning practitioners and the technology that the team owns
- You will not only work as a coach for your people but also as a technical leader, ensuring that the right technical decisions are made when building our product
- You would be managing 5-7 Machine Learning Scientists/Engineers and Data Engineers that span across more than one product team within our Customer Centric Data track
- People Leadership
- Build a strong team within their area, by coaching and developing individual contributors
- Lead by example by taking ownership, being proactive and collaborating
- Nurture, grow and develop ML talent in the team
- Foster a great culture that innovates, work together as a team, partner with other Booking.com com teams and roles and celebrates unified success
- Technology, Craft & Delivery
- Translate business problems into viable, reliable and robust ML and AI solutions, accounting for constraints of the production environment
- Monitor product health, performance and business impact and act accordingly when requirements are not met
- Actively contribute to Machine Learning at Booking.com through training, exploration of new technologies, interviewing, onboarding and mentoring colleagues
- Adhere to the default principles for Architecture, quality and non-functional requirements
- Drive a culture of ownership and technical excellence, including reactive work such as incident escalations
- Architecture & Product Strategy
- Thought partner for Product to define, shape and deliver the roadmap
- Build new products, processes and operational plans
- Negotiate on the strategic importance of the team’s product roadmap features
- Drive innovation in your team
- Own the architecture across your team
Application process
- The interview process will entail 2 technical interviews and 1 behavioural interview
Our take
Booking.com has established itself as a leading digital travel company. The company reaps the benefits of its status in the market and is currently in a stronger position than its up-and-coming competitors such as Expedia, Trivago and Trip.com. Airbnb represents the sharing economy and acts as a disruptive force in this market but still has ways to go to compete with Booking.com.
In recent years, there has been considerable growth in the number of travellers wishing to travel more sustainably. Booking.com is well positioned to attract these consumers, having introduced a Travel Sustainable badge on their platform which over 100,000 properties have achieved for their sustainability efforts.
The company was originally founded with a core focus on hotels, and the platform now offers more than 28 million accommodation listings. They have also expanded into different services, including flights, car rentals, and attractions.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Many candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
52% female employees
9% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company benefits
- Headspace Subscription
- Anniversary Leave
- Travel Credit
- Unlimited e-learning
- Booking Cares Volunteer Days
- Local Benefits: vary by country, but often include flex time, vacation days, health insurance, retirement savings, and much much more!
Company values
- Succeed Together - We celebrate team success, through making connections, building trust and valuing the diverse perspectives of others
- Own It - We obsess about adding value for our customer – guests, partners, colleagues – to make it easier for everyone to experience the world
- Learn Forever - We are resilient, take time to reflect, and seek to learn – from colleagues, from the outside world and from our failures
- Think Customer First - We obsess about adding value for our customer – guests, partners, colleagues – to make it easier for everyone to experience the world
- Do The Right Thing - We get the right results the right way. For each other, our communities and the world around us
Company HQ
Grachtengordel-Zuid, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Articles
Leadership
Glenn Fogel
(CEO, not founder)Previously Vice President at Morgan Stanley. They joined Booking Holdings in 2000 and have held several high profile and executive positions since. They are currently the President and CEO
People progressing
Responsible for all aspects of our Accommodations business unit, including Product and Tech, as well as leading Customer Service, Partner Services (commercial), Customer Insights and Product UX
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Booking.com
- We’re committed to fostering a more inclusive Booking.com experience for the millions of travellers, partners and communities around the world who use our platform every day. 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
- Directly linked to our mission to make it easier for everyone to experience the world, Inclusion, Diversity, Belonging and Wellbeing (IDBW) have been a core part of our company culture since day one. Creating a workplace where everyone feels welcome and able to do their best work is no easy job. It’s one that evolves over time and will never officially be ‘done’. But that’s ok, because it’s both highly rewarding and vitally important.
- Our ambition is to achieve gender parity (45-55%) in all units and at all levels of our organisation
- To give back to the places that have given us so much, we created Booking Cares – an employee volunteer programme that empowers our workforce to drive inclusion, wellbeing, and sustainability via volunteering, donations, and more – all during working hours. Since the programme began in 2014, over 172,000 work hours have been donated, by almost 6,000 employees, across more than 2,100 projects worldwide.
- B.Champion is our learning and development program for women who want to prepare for the next step in their career. During the six-month program, participants are grouped together in a supportive community cohort, are paired with a senior-level mentor from Booking.com and follow a structured personal development program.
- Every year we celebrate the achievements of inspiring colleagues at Booking.com and give them a platform for recognition: the Playmaker & Inclusionist Awards. The awards seek to recognize colleagues who empower and inspire others and who have done much to promote the mission of Inclusion, Diversity, Belonging, and Wellbeing.
- Booking.com was recently ranked #3 in the Financial Times’ 2021 Diversity Leaders list of European employers, and we couldn’t be more proud. It’s a great recognition for our colleagues around the world, who effortlessly work to create a welcoming and open environment in which people can connect and learn from each other.
- Driven by our employees with the support of the Booking.com IDBW team, our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are a driving force in creating the most open, welcoming and empowering work environment possible. Backed by members and allies, our ERGs not only foster inclusion, but drive our business goals and product evolution as well.
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