Director, Legal Strategy and Business Operations
The Director, Legal Strategy and Business Operations is a cross-cutting role with joint objectives of developing the Legal & Public Affairs (LPA) long-term strategy and ensuring the effective operationalization of its delivery.
As the department's Strategy lead, the role is responsible for crafting the strategic trajectory of the department. This includes identifying emerging and existing strategic topics, timely positioning them in front of the right leadership teams for discussion and delivering recommendations on strategic decisions through analytical thinking and senior judgment. The role works closely with the Booking.com Strategy team, Departmental Heads of Strategy, and senior leaders (Senior Director and above) around the business in order to shape the company strategy in pursuit of its strategic ambitions.
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As the department's Business Operations lead, the role has the responsibility to continuously improve the people (including culture), processes and tech, critical to effective ways of working across the entire department. The role also maintains close working relationships throughout the rest of the business in order to ensure alignment around achieving shared goals and with legal operations counterparts at our parent company Booking Holdings and sister brands. The role has a particular focus on continuously improving the ways of working between LPA and Chief Business Officer.
The role is both an individual contributor and also a manager. As an individual contributor, the role is an extension of the LPA Leadership Team because it is a sounding board / thought partner for the Chief Legal Officer (LPA SVP) and VP Product and Commercial Legal specifically and other LPA LT members as needed. As a manager, the role is directly responsible for a team of business operations professionals and program managers - and dotted line responsibility for the head of the LPA Services Team in the Booking Holdings International Centre(s) of Excellence.
Responsibilities:
LPA Long Term Strategy and Annual Plan
- Lead responsibility for ensuring department's delivery of 3 year strategy
- On an annual basis, with the Departmental Leadership Team, review and evolve the strategy in response to changing internal and external circumstances
- Lead responsibility for defining and delivery department's operations roadmap
- Overall responsibility for the annual planning cycle (financial planning and strategic objectives planning) as well as throughout the year reporting on progress (i.e., QOR, SPM, etc)
- Partner with the Booking.com Strategy team as well as Departmental Heads of Strategy to further sustained value creation by incorporating legal and policy considerations into Company strategy and annual plan
- With the Departmental Leadership Team, develop and drive execution of the department's annual plan to ensure delivery on the Company and departmental priorities
- Manage competing and fluctuating priorities across a broad range of topics, working effectively with ambiguity and able to keep multiple projects moving with minimal direction
Advisor to Senior Leaders
- Sounding board / thought partner for the CLO (LPA SVP) and VP Product and Commercial Legal
- Credible & trusted advisor to the LPA LT and the VP Product and Commercial Legal LT as well as other internal and external senior audiences on people, operational and strategic topics
Team Management and Delivery
- Directly oversee and manage a team of business operations and program management professionals dedicated to continuously improving the people (including culture), processes and tech of the global department (approx. 4 direct reports and 3 skip-level reports)
- Indirectly oversee and manage the Team Lead of the LPA Services Team in the BHI Centre(s) of Excellence in order to ensure effective delivery of legal and operational services to the department (1 dotted line report managing a team of approx. 30)
- Identify and introduce resourcing efficiencies to scale impact and efficiency including
- Contributing to data-driven decisioning by identifying and tracking department metrics and KPIs (including external benchmarking where relevant)
- Optimal utilization of technology by the department, including by selecting, implementing, and managing technology resources in high-impact focus areas
- Additional opportunities to leveraging the BHI Centers of Excellence, alternative legal service providers, and other innovative solutions)
Ad hoc projects
- Identify and deliver ad-hoc projects (including projects with BHI/sister brands) that tackle complex/strategic questions that the operating teams do not have the skills, analytical capability, or business context to address on their own
- Conduct structured and unstructured problem solving
- Conduct workshops and training with stakeholders
- Ultimately come to a recommendation for decision by departmental or company leadership
- Independently manage multiple complex projects with senior stakeholders to drive major business change over multiple years
Single Point of Contact for People, Comms and FP&A partners to the department
- Partner with People on continuously improving the employee experience within the department particularly through learning and development programming
- Partner with Comms on departmental engagement (e.g., All Hands) as well as embedding the LPA identity and strategy within the department and across the company
- Partner with Finance specifically
- FP&A on (i) annual financial (workforce and budget) planning cycle as well as throughout the year management and reporting; and (ii) cost conscious management of the overall departmental budget including working with FP&A and individual cost centre owners to address financial management issues in specific cost centres (e.g., overspend, accurate forecasting)
- Procurement to (i) continuously improve the cost effectiveness of the selection and engagement of outside vendors; (ii) drive cost-efficient fees arrangements including vendor consolidation and alternative fees arrangements
Stakeholder Communication, Network and Influence
- Building relationships and fostering an environment of trust across all stakeholder groups
- Ignites and leverages vast network across the organization, also outside of direct sphere of influence
- Communicating effectively across written and verbal mediums to diverse, global audiences and driving teams to consensus
- Ensure communication and collaboration within the Department and the Department's engagement with internal stakeholders and BHI and Brand Legal Operations colleagues
Operational and Solutions-Oriented Mindset
- Independently resolving complex issues and challenges, looking beyond the obvious for creative and innovative solutions that drive high levels of value
- Strategic and pragmatic solutioning that strikes optimal balance between making business impact and driving simplicity
- Ability to unlock inertia to galvanize the team, maintain momentum in forward progress
- Harnessing superior problem-solving capabilities, analytical skills, curiosity, and persistence to operationalize high priority functional initiatives and goals
Business Acumen
- Very strong business & market knowledge across a wide area
Culture
- Take a leading role in driving culture change within the Department Leadership and their teams with a focus on embedding strategic thinking, operational / process mindset, and impactful adoption of technology
Soft skills
- Independently solve problems or overcome stalemates
- Stay calm and focused when faced with a challenging situation
- Makes trade offs and decisions in interest of the business, not for self
- Looks first at what they can do themselves when faced with a challenge
Ideal Experience & Skills:
- Master degree or comparable professional experience
- Significant years' professional experience with a minimum of 6 years of experience in (i) consulting, business development, and/or corporate strategy and operational planning; and (ii) leading a function focused on operational excellence
- Experience working with legal and public affairs professionals (at a reputable law firm and/or in-house) is required with a strong preference towards firsthand experience in
- Legal, compliance and public affairs / policy subject matters
- Operational processes of a legal team / department
- Financial management of a legal budget
- Management of legal projects and/or programs
- Skilled in strategy development and execution including problem identification, scoping, recommendations of options, consensus building, and translation into implementation plan
- Ability to learn fast and adapt to a fast moving environment as well as experience leading change management efforts
- Creativity and "out of the box" thinking that drives innovation
- Ability to "see around corners" and "connect the dots" in order to enable proactive (not reactive) approaches
- Ability to work effectively in a global environment; sensitivity to and an understanding of cultural differences.
- Proven ability to lead a team as well as collaborate and build relationships at all levels of the organization
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.