Manager People Operations - NL

Role Description

At Booking.com, data drives decisions, technology is at the core, and innovation is everywhere. Through its products, partners and people, the company makes it easier for everyone to experience the world.

The Regional Manager People Operations (NL) is responsible for leading the end-to-end People Operations strategy and service delivery for the company’s largest and most complex employee population.

The role translates global People strategy into high-quality, compliant, and employee-centric operations at Netherlands level, while ensuring alignment with global standards and adapting to headquarters-specific needs. The role leads operational excellence across the employee lifecycle, drives continuous improvement, and ensures delivery of reliable, scalable People services.

In addition, this role holds oversight of Talent Coordination (TC) services, ensuring effective operational partnership, performance governance, and long-term evolution of the Talent Coordination operating model in alignment with People Operations strategy.

Due to the scale and complexity of the headquarters population, significantly larger than other regions, this role operates with increased scope, stakeholder exposure, and operational impact.

You report to the Global Senior Manager People Operations.

Key Job Responsibilities and Duties:

People Operations Leadership

• Define the Netherlands People Operations objectives, priorities, and roadmaps aligned with the wider People Ops and PST strategy.
• Translate global frameworks into effective regional execution, tailored to headquarters needs.
• Represent People Operations in key regional and cross-functional initiatives.
• Own the senior People Operations lead for the Netherlands headquarters population.

Service Delivery

• Accountable for the team’s accurate, compliant, and timely personnel administration and payroll inputs.
• Own service delivery performance, including SLAs, KPIs, quality standards, and compliance.
• Drive continuous improvement of People Operations processes to enhance employee experience and operational efficiency.
• Accountable for monitoring data integrity and process adherence across People systems (e.g., Workday, ServiceNow).
• Identify operational risks and implement mitigation plans.
• Review quarterly business reviews (QBRs), scorecards, and performance insights; challenge and endorse improvement actions.
• Ensure successful integration and maturity of Netherlands Ops team as part of the tiering model.
• Drive integration of knowledge management within the day-to-day operations.

Talent Coordination Oversight

• Accountable for overall Talent Coordination (TC) performance, service quality, and outcomes.
• Define success measures, reporting expectations, and performance governance for TC services.
• Review quarterly business reviews (QBRs), scorecards, and performance insights; challenge and endorse improvement actions.
• Make decisions impacting TC service levels, scope, prioritization, or investment.
• Own senior stakeholder relationships related to Talent Coordination services.
• Act as escalation point for high-risk issues and persistent performance challenges.
• Ensure onboarding effectiveness and readiness in partnership with TC, aligned with broader People Operations strategy.
• Own prioritization decisions where capacity, risk, or service constraints exist.
• Drive the evolution and long-term maturity of the Talent Coordination operating model in alignment with global direction.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of People Operations Specialists and Senior Specialists.
• Conduct regular 1:1s focused on performance, engagement, and development.
• Own performance management processes, including bi-annual reviews and ongoing goal tracking.
• Allocate work and projects based on team capacity, strengths, and development goals.
• Foster a high-performance, service-oriented, and continuously improving team culture.

Workforce & Capacity Management

• Own Netherlands capacity planning and workforce forecasting across People Operations and Talent Coordination.
• Assess current and future workload trends to ensure appropriate resourcing levels.
• Make data-driven recommendations on internal FTE growth, reallocation, or role redesign.
• Evaluate and manage Netherlands contingent workforce strategy, including decisions to extend, convert, or roll off contingent workers.
• Balance service levels, budget constraints, and operational risk when making resourcing decisions.
• Partner with Finance and Global People leadership on headcount planning and budget alignment.
• Ensure optimal allocation of resources across peak periods and strategic initiatives.

Compliance, Governance & Risk

• Ensure regional compliance with Dutch labor law and internal policies.
• Oversee implementation and operationalization of company policies and procedures.
• Maintain audit readiness and documentation standards.
• Partner with key stakeholders such as Legal, Payroll, Comp & Ben on regulatory changes impacting People Operations.

Process Improvement & Transformation

• Drive capacity management for Netherlands team.
• Proactively identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate processes.
• Lead or contribute to regional and global People Operations improvement initiatives.
• Use data and insights to drive operational decisions and resource planning.
• Support scaling of People Operations services in line with organizational growth.

Stakeholder & Partnership Management

• Build and maintain strong relationships with senior stakeholders, including but not limited to Payroll, HR Advisory, Legal, and global People teams.
• Act as escalation point for high-risk issues and persistent performance challenges.
• Lead alignment conversations to ensure Netherlands needs are reflected in global process design.

Qualifications & Skills:

• 5+ years of people leadership experience in an international HR or People Operations environment.
• Strong experience in People Operations service delivery, payroll processes, and HR systems (Workday experience strongly preferred).
• Demonstrated experience leading process improvement and operational excellence initiatives.
• Experience managing complex stakeholder environments and senior business relationships.
• Solid knowledge of Dutch labor law and HR compliance requirements.
• Experience working with outsourced or centralized service models (e.g., Talent Coordination, shared services, or RPO-style environments) is a strong plus.
• Proven ability to manage performance through KPIs, SLAs, and service metrics.
• Strong coaching and people development skills.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-changing, scaling organization.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a data-informed mindset.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Project and change management experience.
• Fluent in English (written and spoken); additional languages are a plus.

Benefits & Perks

• 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 of up to 1400 per year for yourself, including automatic Genius Level 3 status and Booking.com wallet credit.