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Originally from Italy, Ornella, a Senior Engineering Manager in our FinTech Business Unit, shares her passion for traveling as well as her passion for problem-solving. Having spent the last 8 years at Booking.com in Amsterdam in a variety of different roles, Ornella brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our business.

I have always considered traveling as one of the most important learning experiences. It inspires me to seek out new places, keeping my pool of knowledge constantly topped up. It’s a great way to not only learn new things and immerse yourself in a new culture – it also has provided me with a constant urge to continue learning. And that’s what I am bringing in my daily working adventure at Booking.com. This also falls in line with one of our core values “learning forever”. I bring this desire to learn new things, to discover all the financial business processes and their integrations with Booking.com products and to translate them into new functionalities to make it easier for the users to experience the world. All of this happens in the finance area which is my domain here in Booking.com.

I am currently working as Senior Engineering Manager in the Financial Systems team (within the FinTech business unit) that provides technical expertise to the Finance Department and is responsible for supporting and innovating the main financial system SAP ERP/S4HANA and integration with many other connected external systems.

Working as Senior Engineering Manager means providing, together with my team of Engineers and SAP Specialists, the best solutions based on the up-to-date industry-specific technology practices. This means building an application platform that supports the simplification of business processes and empowers the finance community with better integrations and financial insights.

Being an Ethics Ambassador means supporting Booking.com in reinforcing the company’s commitment to maintain and promote the highest ethical standard. It means being a role model and showing commitment to integrity, living the company values and encouraging our colleagues to do the right thing by also committing to integrity and raising concerns in a timely manner. I also help to promote a “speak up” culture in reporting issues or ethical dilemmas so Booking.com can take the proper actions for the safety of everyone in the organisation. I was also delighted to have been awarded the Playmaker and Inclusionist Award in both 2019 and 2020. This award is voted on by my peers at Booking.com, so it’s a great honour to know my peers value me and my impact at Booking.com too.

I have been fortunate to work on an important initiative which may seem like a small change but it had a big business impact. We were able to implement a scalable solution for bank statement processing. Normally it took about 13 hours to process a bank statement with 100,000 lines, but we found a solution that could process it in just 1.5 hours. This allowed us to process the statements 9 times faster than before!

Working in tech at Booking.com means working in a very diverse and dynamic environment where innovation and development are promoted and people are encouraged to build new products for our customers and partners. A career in tech has a stimulating culture that isn’t just based on work but there are also interesting opportunities for experimentation. One example at Booking.com is the FinTech Hackathon where participants can show off their skills, propose new ideas and socialise with like-minded people.

Looking to make an impact in your next role? Check out our available opportunities at www.careers.booking.com .

At Booking.com it’s more than a job, it’s a journey. #mybookingcomjourney