Solution Architect Marketing

About the Team:
In Marketing we power one of the biggest online marketing operations in the world, providing our customers with relevant information and experiences that match Booking.com’s reputation and expectations. Our activities are a major driver of commercial performance and customer experience across the business.
Key Responsibilities and Duties:
Architecture Ownership
Own the Marketing technical architecture: understand our capabilities, systems and their major dependencies, and maintain an up-to-date catalog
Build trusted relationships with system and capability owners across Marketing and its key dependencies, acting as Marketing's technical representative in cross-functional discussions
Monitor the architectural and operational health and maturity of the marketing technology landscape; proactively identify risks, gaps and improvement opportunities
Participate in and guide architecture audits and budgeting processes, building funding cases grounded in data and linked to company and marketing strategy
Organise and evolve Marketing's data structures and data workflows to support reliable, high-quality decision-making
Ensure Marketing technology remains compliant with regulations and upholds the highest standards of customer data protection
Architecture Practice & Leadership
Own and expand the architecture practice: raise the bar on design documentation quality and adoption, lead architectural reviews, and guide senior engineers on architectural concerns
Lead by example - review important technical proposals and code contributions, apply and teach architectural best practices, and help engineers across Marketing grow their architectural thinking
Facilitate regular presentations to share architectural knowledge and best practices with both internal and external audiences
Strategic Delivery
Translate Marketing strategy into short, medium and long-term architectural projects; actively contribute to shaping the Marketing architecture north star
Lead multiple architecture projects per year: design systems following company architectural frameworks, guide execution teams through informal leadership, and ensure initiatives are well-structured with clear descriptions, dependencies, risks and deadlines
Qualifications & Skills:
Required
Proven technical leadership with a background in software development and hands-on experience in system design and software operations
Strategic thinker with the ability to set direction over a multi-year horizon, translating ambiguous business challenges into well-defined technical projects and roadmaps
Business mindset with clear understanding of how to use architecture to support business strategy and create value
Demonstrated experience influencing and leading engineering teams and technical leadership without direct authority, driving alignment across a wide range of stakeholders
Expert stakeholder management skills — able to navigate complex cross-departmental dynamics, build consensus and move initiatives forward across organisational boundaries
Ability to work confidently with more senior stakeholders, several levels above.
Ability to take decisions and kick-off execution even under situations of large complexity and uncertainty
Highly organised and able to manage multiple concurrent projects, switching context effectively across a broad portfolio of systems and capabilities
Proactive problem solver with a bias for action and a strong sense of ownership — you do what you say you will
Cultivates deep organizational insight through active networking rather than relying solely on automated systems; builds strong rapport with diverse colleagues and establishes comprehensive technical context through a visible and engaging presence
Solid understanding of agile delivery principles; able to validate hypotheses quickly and iterate with pace
Experience with capacity planning, estimation and budgeting for technology initiatives
Good to have
Experience with data management tooling and workflows
A passion for documentation and organisational clarity
Demonstrable experience of cloud technology (AWS or similar) and designing cloud native systems
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.