Lean Portfolio Associate

at  Bookingcom

Role Description:
About Us: At Booking.com, data drives our decisions. Technology is at our core. And innovation is everywhere. But our company is more than datasets, lines of code or A/B tests. We’re the thrill of the first night in a new place. The excitement of the next morning. The friends you encounter. The journeys you take. The sights you see. And the memories you make. Through our products, partners and people, we make it easier for everyone to experience the world.
Our brand new FinTech business unit – with teams in Amsterdam, Bangalore, London and Shanghai – 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 travelers and partners.

QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:

• Experienced professional with 5+ years in similar positions (within Portfolio - or Lean Portfolio Management, Agile coaching, Project/Program Management) preferably within fast-paced technology organizations
• Experience in an online/ecommerce, payments processing, and/or financial systems is preferred
• Knowledge in the Atlassian suite is preferred (e.g. Jira (and its portfolio management plugins, e.g. Jira Align, Jira Advanced Roadmaps, Confluence)
• Proven working experience within an international environment - working both with Agile methodologies and Waterfall project management. Agile certification (e.g. Lean Portfolio Management) and/or Project Management are preferred
• Experience in (lean) portfolio management is a plus - supporting demands through their selection, prioritization and planning; portfolio roadmapping; creation of portfolio dashboards and reporting based on portfolio metrics; ability to interpret portfolio performance data
• Experience in (enterprise) agile coaching is a plus
• Ability to communicate effectively to business and technical stakeholders and facilitate effective discussions

ROLE DESCRIPTION:

As a Lean Portfolio Associate you will support the entire portfolio of Financial Systems’ initiatives by ensuring strategic alignment and efficient flow across all stages in their life cycle including initiation, demand management and successful delivery. As part of the Portfolio Management team (current team structure is as follows: 1 Portfolio Manager and 2 Lean Portfolio Associates), you will champion collaboration across the whole organization. Building and maintaining strong stakeholder relationships is critical as this position will work with various international teams every day.
You maintain the portfolio overview and ensure that the Financial Systems organization and leadership are advised - using the right tools and templates. You will provide standardized quality-assured information that enable data-driven decisions to optimally own the portfolio of initiatives. You must be able to thrive and succeed in an entrepreneurial environment. This means working with high-level pivotal initiatives, but also roll up your sleeves, dig in and help lead change on a day-to-day basis.
The position requires a hands-on professional with good analytical skills and a high level of energy and flexibility to get things done and thrive in a fast-paced, team-oriented product development environment.

KEY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES:

Portfolio Demand Management and Roadmap

• Support the Financial Systems demand of initiatives by facilitating alignment around strategic objectives, value based prioritization and enabling optimal flow across the portfolio funnel
• Support the annual- and quarterly planning cycles of the Financial Systems portfolio in line with the defined capacity planning process
• Support in maintaining a consolidated initiative roadmap for Financial Systems
• Support adoption and utilization of the defined Governance model and its respective artifacts

Portfolio Performance Reporting

• Provide insights (dashboards/reports) around portfolio metrics focused on optimizing the flow of value within the portfolio of Financial Systems
• Research and build insights for the information needs of various stakeholders e.g. portfolio status reports
• Independently use quantitative and qualitative data to support portfolio decision-making as well as tell a clear story with the data/ insights
• Support the continuous improvement of Portfolio Management practices by evaluating the impact of data-driven portfolio decisions

Stakeholder Management

• Prepare and when applicable conduct regular meetings and reviews with product teams, executives, business stakeholders and relevant teams to understand, define value, assess impact and prioritize demand of financial systems initiatives
• Support the preparation of regular meetings (Portfolio Sync, Quarterly and Annual planning sessions) with the senior executive bodies to make decisions and/or inform about progress on portfolio initiatives
• Support the Initiative Owners and relevant stakeholders with extracting the most value out of the portfolio processes and ways of working
• Build and maintain connections with diverse teams, across the organization and outside

Lean Portfolio Management Capability Development

• Support the introduction of changes as well as continuous improvement of the Lean Portfolio Management capability