Data & AI Governance Configuration Senior Specialist

Role Description

About the role

Booking.com is looking for a Data & AI Governance Senior Specialist to join the Data & AI Governance organization, working across the Data & Machine Learning department as an individual contributor. The Configuration Senior Specialist must have demonstrated experience in metadata management tooling configuration and experience working on large cross-organizational Data & AI Governance initiatives.

Ideal candidates have a technical background in Data & AI Governance Standards & Frameworks, Data Ownership & Stewardship, Risk Management, Regulatory Change, Business Operations, and various Data Governance tools. You should be able to thrive in an entrepreneurial environment, navigate ambiguity and competing priorities, and both drive high-level strategic initiatives and roll up your sleeves to help drive change.

This role is a mix of leadership (leading a small virtual team of specialists and analysts) and individual contribution. It demands skills as an evangelist and partner during a company-wide transformation and modernization of the data ecosystem. The role requires a blend of data architecture knowledge, platform-specific expertise, and software delivery discipline.

About the team

The Data & AI Governance department extends governance policies, standards, processes, and technology to drive excellence in leveraging secure, trusted, accessible data for data-driven decision making through:

• An overarching Data & AI Policy to include associated standards
• Data & AI Governance including meta and master data management
• Data & AI Delivery Governance
• Data & AI Quality including both technical and business quality measures

This enables the maturity of Data and AI capabilities across Booking.com, unlocking data and algorithms as assets for delivering innovative growth opportunities and cost saving operational efficiencies.

Key job responsibilities and duties

Data and AI Governance

• Data Stewardship: Own the ease of use and access for Data Ownership and Stewardship roles and responsibilities across tools, ensuring clear accountability and proper onboarding of data stewards with intuitive user journeys.
• Data & AI Governance Principles: Apply and enforce Data & AI Governance principles, processes, policies, and standards to ensure consistent and effective governance practices.
• Regulatory framework mapping: Ensure adherence to Data & AI regulatory policies, such as GDPR, DMA, SOx, and the EU AI Act, by staying updated on compliance requirements and translate frameworks like the EU AI Act or NIST into configurable assessments or checklists within the tool.
• Data & AI Governance Practices: Drive the adoption of Data & AI Governance capabilities including Data & AI Literacy, data cataloging, data profiling, metadata management, data classification, data lineage, master data management, and workflows, ensuring robust governance of critical data elements.
• Work with the broader Data & AI Governance team to ensure the continuous roll out of improvements and evolution of compliance controls to ensure the continual maturity of Data & AI Practice at Booking.

Configuration Management

• Metadata Management: Serve as the bridge between Data & AI Governance SMEs, Architecture, and Engineering to lead the end-to-end configuration of metadata environments (e.g., Collibra). Drive the technical roadmap for metadata schemas, ensuring alignment with organizational standards while identifying and executing continuous improvement opportunities to enhance data discoverability and lineage.
• Mentor and coach configuration team members.
• E2E Delivery & Lifecycle Management: Own the execution of high-complexity Data & AI Governance initiatives within an Agile framework, leading the full configuration lifecycle—from design and rigorous testing to reporting and the transition of tooling into Business-As-Usual (BAU) operations.
• Methodology & Governance: Design and implement project governance structures, applying structured change management and project methodologies (PMP/Agile) to ensure efficient delivery and adoption.
• Stakeholder Management: Act as the authoritative point of contact for all metadata management inquiries, engaging cross-functional working groups and presenting strategic updates to leadership up to the VP level.
• Risk Management: Identify, assess, track and mitigate issues and risks at multiple levels.
• Operational Excellence: Leverage the Atlassian suite (Jira/Confluence) to architect delivery workflows, track configuration changes, and maintain transparent documentation, ensuring output is measurable, visible, and aligned with departmental velocity goals.
• Change Leadership: Champion change management protocols, supporting and guiding the virtual team through technical transitions and organizational shifts to ensure new governance processes are adopted smoothly without disrupting the broader data community.

Role qualifications and requirements

Experience requirements

• 5-8 years of relevant technical experience, with 3+ years focused around Data Governance (or 5+ years in a broader Data/Analytical role).
• SQL Proficiency: Strong ability to query relational databases to validate metadata or troubleshoot integration issues.
• SDLC for Governance: Applying “Data Governance as Code” principles—using Git for version control of configuration scripts and managing Test, Staging, and Production environments.
• At least 1-2 years of experience in metadata management and 1-2 years managing data teams, including building and growing the team.
• Operating Model Configuration: Proficiency in defining and configuring Asset Types, Domains, Communities, and complex relationship mapping.
• Workflow Engineering: Ability to design and deploy automated governance workflows (e.g., using BPMN 2.0, Java, or Groovy) for approvals, issue management, and asset onboarding.
• Metamodel Design: Skill in creating logical structures that represent the organization’s data landscape (Business Glossaries, Data Catalogs, and AI Model Registries).
• AI Model Metadata Tracking: Understanding how to capture AI-specific attributes like model versions, training datasets, fairness metrics, and accuracy scores.
• Data Governance certification (e.g DAMA, DGI, etc.) or equivalent certification is a plus, though not a requirement.
• Self-driven learner, capable of proactively connect with many other teams to understand the intersection of regulation and data & AI governance capabilities.
• Excellent communication (written and spoken) and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build strong working relationships with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Benefits & perks

Booking.com offers a competitive compensation and benefits package 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
• Contributing to a high scale, complex, world renowned product and seeing real-time impact of your work on millions of travelers worldwide
• Working in a fast-paced and performance driven culture
• Opportunity to utilize technical expertise, leadership capabilities and entrepreneurial spirit
• Promote and drive impactful and innovative engineering solutions
• Technical, behavioral and interpersonal competence advancement via on-the-job opportunities, experimental projects, hackathons, conferences and active community participation

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.