Lead Customer Service Operations Architect

Role Overview

Booking.com is building up its new Flights platform from the ground up. While our Product and Tech teams are scaling the software, we need a dedicated operational anchor to design our front-line and back-office customer service workflows.

As the Lead CS Operations Architect, you will bridge the gap between complex airline industry realities and Booking’s world-class, centralized Customer Service infrastructure. You will define the human workflows, agent protocols, and operational guardrails required to make this transition seamless and compliant. A major component of this role is mitigating flight financial risk—specifically Agency Debit Memos (ADMs).

The high-level strategic operating model (whether we utilize an outsourced model, an in-house incubator, or a hybrid setup) should be finalized right around your onboarding date. Your mandate is to step into this fluid environment, design the 3-way operational flows (Customer, Booking.com ,Airlines), translate operational needs into tech requirements, and partner with a fintech operations consultant to define the operational execution and agent protocol to handle Agency Debit Memos (ADMs).

Key Responsibilities

Service Design & Process Architecture

• End-to-End Mapping: Design and document detailed operational flows for all flight customer touchpoints, including complex scenarios: schedule changes (voluntary/involuntary), GDS queue management, automated vs. manual refunds, split tickets, and ancillary issues.

  
  

• Three-Way Interaction Design: Map clear operational boundaries and handoffs between the Customer, Booking’s agents, our Tech Platforms, and the Airlines.

  
  

• Legacy Integration: Partner with the centralized CS department to identify operational gaps between existing workflows and new flows, ensuring the existing infrastructure can support your designs.

Product & Tooling Collaboration

• Operational Requirements: Act as the "Voice of Operations" for Product and Engineering, translating agent workflow needs into functional tickets for internal CRM development, GDS integration, and desktop tooling.

  
  

• Delivery Model Execution: Immediately operationalize the chosen delivery model (BPO vs. In-house Incubator). If a BPO model is selected, define the exact operational protocols, compliance standards, and agent skill sets the vendor must guarantee.

  
  

• Automation Blueprinting: Identify high-volume, repetitive flight processes that can be automated (e.g., standard cancellations) to lower front-line headcount requirements.

ADM Operational Execution & Agent Protocol

• Human Workflow Definition: Detail the exact step-by-step process a customer service agent takes to review and action a specific ticket that has triggered an ADM.

  
  

• Root-Cause Analysis (Human Error): Investigate operational vulnerabilities to determine if ADMs are caused by front-line agents manually overriding fares, processing incorrect manual refunds, or providing inaccurate information to customers.

  
  

• Training & SOPs: Author comprehensive training guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure agents eliminate the manual errors that lead to airline fines.

  
  

• Dispute Evidence Gathering: Coordinate and design the process for collecting necessary audit trails—such as agent chat logs, customer histories, and GDS PNR histories—to hand over to the FinTech/FinOps team to prove Booking.com’s innocence in disputes.

Expected Milestone Deliverables (Contract Timeline)

Month 1: Discovery & Technical Alignment

… lees de volledige omschrijving bij Booking.com.