Data & AI Specialist (For independent contractors)

As the Data & AI Specialist within [e-mailadres], you will hold a twofold mandate. First, you will own the department's data and reporting infrastructure — building the pipelines, dashboards, and measurement frameworks that give leadership and Agile coaches evidence-based insight into the progress and impact of our transformation work. Second, you will drive the conceptual and practical integration of AI into the department: shaping how Agile coaches themselves use AI in their day-to-day work, and evolving the agile practices we teach so they remain relevant for teams whose product development is increasingly AI-assisted.

You will operate as an internal expert, partnering with the Data & AI Lead, Agile coaching leads, and trainers to translate ambition into working systems and adopted practice.

Key job responsibilities include: building and operating the department's data infrastructure, designing and maintaining pipelines, data models, and reporting layers that turn engagement, training, and coaching activity into reliable metrics on progress, adoption, and outcomes; enabling insight and evidence-based decision-making by delivering dashboards and analyses that let Agile coaching leads, trainers, and leadership see where teams stand and where the programme needs to adjust; defining measurement frameworks for Agile coaching impact by partnering with Agile coaches and leads to translate qualitative coaching outcomes into measurable signals; integrating AI into the Agile coaches' workflow by identifying, prototyping, and rolling out AI-assisted tools and practices; evolving agile practices for AI-assisted product development by researching and codifying how core agile practices (backlog refinement, estimation, iteration planning, definition of done, quality practices, team topologies) need to adapt when teams work with AI coding assistants and AI-augmented workflows; coaching the Agile coaches through enablement sessions and working groups that upskill the department on AI tooling, data literacy, and the changing shape of the teams they coach; partnering with trainers and Agile coaches to embed AI-related content into baseline training and to feed back learnings from the field; contributing to the wider [e-mailadres] community by sharing findings and running experiments; and engaging with the broader Booking.com data and AI landscape to stay connected to internal data platforms and AI enablement initiatives.

Communication involves frequent cooperation with the Data & AI Lead and coaching leads within [e-mailadres], daily cooperation with agile coaches and trainers, regular cooperation with Product and Engineering teams and leaders adopting AI-assisted development, and occasional interaction with senior leadership stakeholders and external experts. Qualifications and skills include solid hands-on data engineering and analytics experience (SQL, a modern data stack, BI tooling); working fluency with AI/LLM-based tools and workflows; knowledge of Agile, particularly Scrum and Kanban and DORA metrics (experience as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach is highly advantageous); experience working within agile product development teams; proven ability to translate ambiguous conceptual problems into concrete measurement frameworks, prototypes, or adopted practices; strong facilitation and enablement skills; ability to work across the boundary between data/engineering craft and organisational change; and familiarity with how AI coding assistants and agentic workflows are changing engineering practice (highly advantageous).

Essential skills include 5+ years in a Software Engineering role, essential experience in applying agile ways of working in a software engineering context using data, and essential skills in applying AI to those skills. Highly desirable skills include data products and dashboard building.