Senior Commercial Finance Analyst

Job Description

At Booking.com, we make it easier for everyone to experience the world. We began by taking hotel bookings online over 20 years ago and we’ve been shaping the travel industry ever since. Today, we’re building a platform that connects all parts of the trip – from accommodation to transport, tickets, tours and more.

From our HQ in Manchester, our Transportation team helps people get where they want to go, anywhere in the world. Whether customers want the freedom of a car, the ease of a taxi or the economy of public transport, we make it all possible.

Our team is passionate about helping people travel. They see challenges as opportunities. And they’re always ready for change.

Role Description

As Booking.com continues its journey to be a fully data driven organisation, we are looking for an exceptional self-led data analyst who wants to join the Rides Team. This team focuses on offering pre-booked and on-demand taxis plus public transport options, we are on track to sell 3 million taxis this year, with more than 100% year on year growth

This Senior Commercial Finance Analyst role provides the opportunity to be a close business partner of our supply team within Rides, and will provide opportunities to drive seven-figure improvements in EBITDA by improving our tracking and management of contracts. You’ll sit within our excellent in-house planning team, which is led by an ACA-qualified accountant (ex. BDO) and has full responsibility for our end to end management P&L. You’ll also get involved with day to day performance tracking, and forecasting processes

An ideal candidate would combine strong analytical skills, intellectual curiosity and a collaborative and communicative style. It’s the ideal role for someone with a finance skill set, who wants to develop in an “industry role” by working day to day with senior stakeholders.

Core activities: The analyst would focus on...

• Supporting our Supply team from a Commercial Finance perspective
• Our supply team work with 1100+ suppliers in 900+ cities, each with rebate targets, SLA agreements and varying rates
• The process for tracking, optimising and collecting these is not currently designed or implemented
• You would work with the commercial teams, our insights and the core finance teams to design and implement a fit for purpose process to allow us to maximise and collect these amounts in a compliant way
• Using our various data sets you will support in negotiating future contracts with suppliers to ensure these are beneficial for both parties. Then design and implement reporting which allows us to understand the risks and opportunities through the year and maximise the benefit we receive
• Business partnering with the supply team to ensure they appropriately target the maximum value
• Understanding our optimum pricing strategy
• Gain an understanding of our current competitive position in key cities
• Ascertain context for the importance of competitive position - work with the product teams to allow price testing and understand our price elasticity
• Work closely with product teams and FP&A in Amsterdam to understand the impact of discounting streams for both our own benefit and also group level ROI
• Understanding current performance
• Provide information and insight into current trading understanding
• Feed in to weekly performance meetings with management team
• Highlight opportunities and risks to improve business performance
• Planning and forecasting
• Modelling to net margin to feed both formal and short term forecasts including
• Anticipated trends in selling price
• Margins (driven by channel mix)
• Advertising costs
• Potential value reclaimed from suppliers through rebates and SLAs
• Highlight potential P+L risks and opportunities for commercial finance fortnightly reviews

Core skills and experience that we are looking for

• Relevant accountancy qualifications (CIMA / ACA etc.) – or working towards these
• Strong excel skills and comfortable combining data sets and taking insights
• Experience of business partnering / stakeholder management
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to clearly communicate complex ideas to varied and non-technical stakeholders
• Commercial awareness, linking behaviours to business benefit, identifying trends and opportunities
• Ability to prioritise work effectively

Additional experience that would be beneficial

• Relevant degree in Accountancy, Mathematics, Statistics or Economics / Business
• Experience of working in eCommerce, retail and/or travel would be beneficial
• Working knowledge of BI tools such as Power BI and Tableau would be a strong plus
• Knowledge of SQL (or other database tools) for querying and exploring data sets