Lead financial analyst FFPO

Role Description

About Us: At Booking.com, data drives our decisions. Technology is at our core. And innovation is everywhere. Through our products, partners and people, we make it easier for everyone to experience the world.

The Role

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Lead Financial Analyst (LFA). This position is responsible for overseeing strategic financial planning, complex modeling and ensuring accountability for the company's significant transformation initiatives.

This is a high-impact, senior-level role requiring a professional with a proven track record of operating with a very high degree of autonomy and independent judgment. The core responsibility of this experienced professional is the independent development and maintenance of complex financial models designed to forecast outcomes, evaluate risks, and measure the performance of strategic initiatives.

Beyond technical expertise, a critical function is the ability to effectively translate intricate financial data and complex model outputs into clear, concise, and actionable business insights and strategic recommendations.

The role demands proactive communication, persuasive presentation of findings, and the ability to challenge assumptions constructively to drive superior financial performance and strategic decision-making.

The LFA will be the primary financial liaison between the Program Office, executive sponsors, and cross-functional FP&A and Accounting teams, ensuring financial accountability and providing the key insights required to inform critical, complex strategic decisions across the business.

The Future Fit Program Office is a dedicated team driving transformative projects to enable Booking.com's strategic vision. They are tasked with establishing robust governance, tracking project value, and managing change and communication. Moreover, they are instrumental in uncovering and enabling additional efficiency opportunities across departments and empowering them to achieve the overarching objectives of the program. Through relentless coordination and communication, the FFPO ensures seamless implementation and continuous improvement in meeting the program's overarching objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Value tracking

• Ensure adherence to our Program principles to govern target setting and tracking.

• Develop a deep understanding of all benefits, including benefits calculation methodology and how this relates to budget and forecasting.

• Track benefits against targets at an aggregate level supporting business controllers in their engagements with the department owners.

Program cost management

• Track investments at program and initiative level.

• Review new investment requests.

• Review the monthly results of our program cost centers.

• Ensure adherence to Accounting policies regarding transformation cost.

Stakeholder engagement

• Partner directly with Workstream leads and key Program stakeholders to interpret financial performance of their Program initiatives, challenge underlying assumptions, and drive alignment on priorities.

• Liaise with FP&A and Accounting on implementing the realised costs/savings into the regular financial planning and reporting cycle.

• Act as a point of contact regarding the content and methodology of set targets for FP&A and Workstream leads.

Management information

• Prepare and present concise, executive-level financial reporting packages, summarizing complex financial data into clear narratives for leadership.

• Own and manage FFPO forecasting of our Program benefits and cost during the annual budgeting and quarterly forecasting processes ensuring accuracy and alignment with our Program objectives.

• Lead monthly and quarterly financial performance reviews, providing deep-dive variance explanations against forecast and targets. Proactively identify and quantify financial risks and opportunities to program delivery.

People Management

• Provide mentorship, guidance, and coaching to ensure high-quality financial output and professional development of more junior team members.

• Be accountable for the team member's deliverables, overseeing their contribution to program cost tracking, reporting, and adherence to financial governance frameworks.

Requirements of special knowledge/skills

• Significant prior experience as a (lead) project controller in large multi-year programs with strong coordination experience across functions.

• Analytical Acumen: Proven ability to analyze large datasets, synthesize complex information, and communicate financial concepts clearly to non-financial stakeholders.

• Strong communication skills and ability to present to different audiences.

• Business acumen: deep understanding of business operations, drivers, and the impact of transformations is essential for connecting financial data to the overarching business strategy.

• Independence: Demonstrated ability to work mostly autonomously in a dynamic and unstructured environment, proactively identifying and leading solutions to complex issues.

• Comfortable working in cross-functional teams and working in an unstructured environment.

• Solid knowledge of Accounting concepts.

• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple competing priorities simultaneously and drive projects to completion.

• Team player with strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills.

• Experience in using Google Sheets & Slides is preferable.

Benefits & Perks - Global Impact, Personal Relevance:

Booking.com’s Total Rewards Philosophy is not only about compensation but also about benefits. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, as well unique-to-Booking.com benefits which include:

• Annual paid time off and generous paid leave scheme including: parent, grandparent, bereavement, and care leave.

• Hybrid working including flexible working arrangements, and up to 20 days per year working from abroad (home country).

• Industry leading product discounts - up to 1400 per year - for yourself, including automatic Genius Level 3 status and Booking.com wallet credit.