Senior Director Fintech Transformation & Risk

Senior Director Fintech Transformation & Risk

About Booking.com

Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the largest ecommerce companies 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 roughly $166 billion (2025). Booking.com currently employs approximately 13,000 employees in 140 offices in 70 countries worldwide.

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 travelers with the world's largest selection of incredible places to stay, including everything from apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts and even tree houses. The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in over 44 languages, offer more than 28M total reported listings, and cover over 174,000 destinations in 229 countries worldwide. Offering 30 different types of places to stay, including homes, apartments, B&Bs, hostels, farm stays, bungalows, even boats, igloos, and treehouses. So whether travelling for business or leisure, customers can instantly book their ideal accommodation quickly and easily, without booking fees and backed up by its promise to price match. Via the customer experience team, customers can reach Booking.com 24/7 for assistance and support in over 44 languages, any time of the day or night.

At Booking.com, we are all involved in making hundreds of decisions every day. The decisions we make are a reflection of our Values - they reflect what is important to us, both as individuals and as an organisation.

When Values are made explicit, they provide clarity on what "good" looks like. And when they are shared, they build unity in a group. They build culture.

• Think customer first. We obsess about adding value for our customers - guests, partners, colleagues - to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.
• Own it. We deliver on our promises, make informed decisions and prioritize to get the important things done today.
• Learn forever. We are resilient, take time to reflect, and seek to learn - from colleagues, from the outside world and from our failures.
• Succeed together. We celebrate team success, through making connections, building trust and valuing the diverse perspectives of others.
• Do the right thing. We get the right results the right way. For each other, our communities and the world around us.

Profile

Fintech plays a vital part in delivering the 'connected trip' to our customers. Our FinTech business unit - with teams in Amsterdam, Bangalore (via our CoE) and London - develops new products and drives innovation to help us continue removing financial friction from the travel process. That makes buying and selling travel-related products and services simpler for both travellers and partners. The scope is massive and constantly increasing: 50+ countries, millions of partners, hundreds of millions of end customers and a hundred billion Euros in payments volume.

In this journey, Fintech is at the centre of the wider Booking Holdings group and of key importance for our customers and partners. The Fintech business unit not only creates novel financial products but helps to unlock the potential of other Booking.com functions, and of the other Holdings Brands. Fintech owns the design and build of the Tech infrastructure of Booking Holding's related tax and other financial regulatory requirements, which make the Booking Holdings Financial Services (BHFS) entity a critical partner. Fintech is the strongest contributor to new incremental revenue for the wider group and accountable to maintain flawless reliability across its system landscape. Ultimately, it aims to be a payments service provider for 3rd parties, an independent brand within the Booking Holdings group and generate new sources of revenue.

To enable all of this, some key large transformation programs are required to be run, and are required to ensure that our operational risk levels are maintained at levels that match our risk appetite.

To turn this vision into reality, we are looking for a Senior Director - Transformation & Risk with a strong proven track record in a highly complex & fast moving environment within the context of a regulated financial environment.

Responsibilities:

This role reports to Abhijit Prasad, VP Fintech Strategy Commercial Operations and is located in the Netherlands.

• Booking Holdings Financial Services Transformation Program delivery
• Other selected large transformation programs across Booking Holdings that have a Fintech/payments dimension
• BKNG Fintech transformation needed for Fintech regulatory & commercial matters to be considered at a Booking Holdings (BHI) level rather than at brand level
• First line risk team within Fintech as a longer term responsibility that will extend in scope as Fintech expands volumes and launches new products

Booking Holdings Financial Services (BHFS) Transformation Program Delivery

• Lead the BHFS program team, with end-to-end responsibility for the program management and delivery across Booking.com and BHFS answerable to the Booking.com and Booking Holdings (BHI) leadership teams.
• Act as the key liaison to partner with other functions and business units across Booking Holdings for strategy alignment, execution, and effective resource use.
• Define Booking.com's objectives and roadmaps for the BHFS ecosystem, relative to products, customer cohorts, and geography, in line with the company's long-term strategy.
• Drive new services to reality: shape, define, and build processes and operational plans aligned with business needs, leveraging a deep understanding of dependencies across Booking.com and the wider Holdings Group.
• Make & drive decisions in complex and ambiguous situations and guide others by challenging assumptions and introducing relevant data.
• Support the strategic direction of e-money and other regulatory-related products, alongside the Senior Director of Product.
• Advocate for the needs of both our hotel partners and our travellers.
• Present to senior stakeholders, including the B.com and Booking Holdings (BHI) C-suite, and occasionally to the Audit committee and Board.
• Define and help drive new ways of working across Booking.com in line with regulatory requirements provided by BHFS.
• Communicate Booking.com's strategy and required operational changes in a compelling manner at all levels to support collaboration with BHFS.
• Drive ownership and accountability across departments and our brands.
• Foster a culture that innovates, collaborates effectively, partners with our other brands, and celebrates unified success.

BKNG Fintech Transformation

• Determine responsibilities / structure of the new BKNG Fintech organisation.
• Identify services that should be centralised across the brands and how they will be organised to deliver for each of the brands.
• Determine governance and leadership structure needed to enable effectiveness of the new BKNG Fintech structure.
• Determine a transition plan to move from the existing structure to the new BKNG structure.

Fintech First Line Risk

• Design, build and lead the Risk Management Lifecycle as it relates to Fintech owned risks as a first line of defence within the Fintech business unit.
• Accountable for the risk identification, assessment, management, monitoring and reporting of each new product / significant change within Fintech.
• Accountable to set a governance framework, key risk indicators, risk appetite, and defining procedures and standards
• Responsible for enabling the Fintech LT in the effective implementation and operation of risk management in the business unit, advising on key risks.
• Responsible to for optimal collaboration and alignment with 2nd line risk, including, but not limited to:
  
  • Required escalation of issues/risks to 2nd line where needed
  • Driving the adoption of frameworks and policies issued by 2nd line
  • Be the lead POC for 2nd line and Internal Audit, and other Risk/Compliance functions
• Responsible to drive the risk, security and compliance culture in Fintech
• Lead the Fintech risk forum/committee
• Responsible for ensuring that through its expertise and first line risk management team, all tech/operational teams are equipped to identify and assess risks, risk response plans, and design & implementation of controls.
• Responsible for the oversight of the review of New Initiatives via RAQ (in future IRP)
• Responsible for the oversight of the review of control execution exceptions to identify critical or thematic issues
• Responsible to coordinate and lead audit activities (Operational & SOx), including tracking/reporting on audit finding remediation

Ideal Experience & Skills:

• Substantial years of experience within Fintech or banking industry
• Experience in setting up digital payment products in regulated environments
• Ability to manage C-level stakeholders across Booking Holding brands
• Ability to create vision and buy-in on strategic topics at all levels of the business
• Ability to build and lead multidisciplinary teams with high level of content and people management expertise
• Demonstrated success in influencing leaders and direction without formal authority
• Able to balance long-term vision with short- and medium-term goals
• Solution driven with demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and deliver results
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and able to deal with ambiguity
• Experience in leading and coaching multidisciplinary teams
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with ability to break down complex topics and communicate at all levels in the organization
• Experience working in a fast-paced, technology-centric business

JOBS TO BE DONE / OBJECTIVES:

• Accelerate activation of Booking Holdings Financial Services, collaborate with Finance, Financial Systems, Onboarding of Partner product & tech enablement teams and our Accommodations business. Work with senior stakeholders whilst still resolving operational issues.
• Provide strategic insights (not just reporting) on the Booking Holdings Financial Services program and other programs

OTHER PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

• Willingness to roll up sleeves and get things done. Be humble and human
• Open mind, learning attitude, transparent behaviour, positive, overachiever, strong communicator, proactive and collaborative.
• Strategic thinker yet focused on execution
• Able to function in a fast-moving entrepreneurial environment.
• Data driven, experimental, ready to learn and open to change.
• Keep the customer at the centre of everything you do.
• Good cultural and organizational sensitivity.
• Committed to building a diverse, inclusive work environment.

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.

Client-provided location(s): Amsterdam, Netherlands

Job ID: booking-27868

Employment Type: OTHER

Posted: 2026-01-16T18:36:14