Senior Director Financial Systems - Product & Engineering

Senior Director Financial Systems- Product & EngineeringWith business operations in nearly every country and city on the planet, we’ve already built a truly global e-commerce company. But we’re not done yet. Can we provide additional flexibility for customers, mitigate more risks for partners, and build smarter integrations with payment networks to make it even easier for travelers and partners to pay and get paid across borders and in the currency of their choice? With strong leadership, financial smarts and the payment expertise you bring to the table, yes we can!Fintech is handling payments processes for 40+ global currencies.Top 5 Global payment merchants. one of the largest ecommerce merchants in any catalogueGlobal organisation with Fintech offices in London, Amsterdam and collaborating with our centre of excellence in Bangalore at Booking Holdings.In the western world, we are building the largest embedded finance organisation in any category.Are you ready to lead at the forefront of global financial technology?We’re seeking a visionary leader to shape long-term strategies, drive innovation in enterprise applications like SAP, and manage a world-class global organization of 180 professionals. This is a rare opportunity for an accomplished executive with deep expertise in IT/Engineering, Financial Systems and online payment processes to influence major business initiatives and partner directly with senior Finance and FinTech leaders worldwide.Responsibilities:This role will be the global functional and technical financial systems leader and reports to Metehan Soysal VP of Financial Systems at Booking and VP of Enterprise Applications at Booking Holdings. This role is located in Amsterdam and leads a team of 180 FTEs. This is a critical leadership role that will be responsible for defining the strategy and delivering a scalable financial infrastructure for areas like Payments, Billing, and Tax.Strategy and Planning: Develops and owns the long-term strategy and business plan for the O2C (Order to Cash), Payments, Billing, FPS (Financial Planning & Strategy), R2R (Record to Report), and Tax tracks. This must be in alignment with Financial Systems and company objectives to deliver a scalable financial infrastructure that supports long-term business needs.Organizational Leadership: Leads a global organization of 180 employees across multiple tracks, ensuring effective team performance, development, and succession planning.Execution and Delivery: Manages the end-to-end delivery, demand, and incident resolution for the assigned tracks, ensuring the successful execution of critical business initiatives and maintaining high system availability, in line with company objectives and priorities.Stakeholder Management: Manages relationships with senior executives/leaders across Finance and FinTech through frequent strategic alignment and persuasion, in order to collectively define and execute the vision for the company's finance & payment functions, as well as enterprise applications.Technology Innovation: Drives technology innovation by evaluating strategic needs and emerging technologies, aiming to provide critical business insights and enable finance transformation.Functional & Technical Oversight: Provides dedicated functional and technical leadership for the Financial Systems organization to mitigate decision-making bottlenecks on critical initiatives and create leadership bandwidth.Financial Management: Manages the financial budget for the tracks, based on the annual business plan, ensuring effective resource allocation in line with strategic priorities.External Relationships: Builds and manages strategic relationships with external vendors like SAP and consulting firms through commercial negotiation and quality steering, to ensure the continued delivery of technology innovation.JOBS TO BE DONE / OBJECTIVES:The role directly contributes to company results by ensuring the successful execution of major business initiatives, enabling FinTech product innovation, and future-proofing the company's financial and tax compliance.Deliver a scalable financial infrastructure that supports long-term business needs through developing and owning the long-term strategy and business plan for key financial tracks (O2C, Payments, Billing, R2R, Tax, etc.).Ensure high system availability and successful execution of critical business initiatives by managing end-to-end delivery and incident resolution for assigned tracks.Drive change and consensus among diverse stakeholders by engaging, influencing, and managing relationships with C-suite and senior-level stakeholders.Lead and develop a leadership pipeline for the global organization of 350+ employees.Ideal Experience & Skills:Experience & Leadership: Substantial experience leading large (80+) global Financial Systems or Enterprise Application teams, preferably in fast-moving, high-growth tech companies. Proven track record in managing senior leaders (Directors, Senior Managers) and building a strong leadership pipeline, while mentoring and developing high-performing teams.Technical & Domain Expertise: Deep functional and technical expertise in ERP platforms, particularly SAP S/4HANA, and its surrounding ecosystem (1st and 3rd party apps). Demonstrated experience leading large-scale financial system transformation programs and IT functional teams supporting Order-to-Cash (O2C), Record-to-Report (R2R), and Tax processes. Extensive experience in the fintech sector, with strong knowledge of payments, financial services, and online (CNP) payment processes, including cards and alternative methods.Strategic & Operational Skills: Strategic mindset with the ability to “think big” while executing with tactical precision. Skilled in developing and executing multi-year IT roadmaps aligned with business goals, driving business process re-engineering (BPR) and continuous improvement to enhance efficiency and scalability. Experienced in managing complex program budgets, vendor relationships, and SOWs for transformational projects.Stakeholder & Relationship Management: Proven ability to engage, influence, and manage relationships with C-suite and senior-level stakeholders, including VPs, CFOs, and Global Process Owners, ensuring successful execution of major business initiatives and compliance.Other Personal CharacteristicsStrategic & Execution-Focused: Thinks strategically while cutting through complexity to focus on what matters and maximize impact.Data-Driven & Adaptive: Uses data, experiments, and a learning mindset to drive alignment and embrace change.Agile & Results-Oriented: Thrives in fast-moving, ambiguous environments; delivers critical initiatives efficiently and sets high performance standards.Inclusive Leadership: Actively promotes diversity, inclusion, and diverse perspectives to build great talent and a positive culture.Customer-Centric: Keeps the customer at the center, advocating the core value of “Think Customer First.”Collaborative & Accountable: Communicates transparently, prioritizes collective goals, and models company values with a “Succeed Together” and “Own It” mindset.Pre-Employment ScreeningIf 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.