Manager, Technical and Global Accounting

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is a leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. We're also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business.

As an employee of KAYAK, you will be part of a travel company that operates a portfolio of global metasearch brands including momondo, Cheap flights and Hotels Combined, among others. From start-up to industry leader, innovation is in our DNA and every employee has an opportunity to make their mark. Our focus is on building the best travel search engine to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.

Accuracy, completeness, and control are the foundation of everything Accounting does  goal is to build on that foundation with a close that is faster, cleaner, and better understood every quarter, run by people who know what is driving the numbers and can explain it. Modernizing how accounting gets done is a strategic priority for KAYAK and for Controllership, and this role will help shape it.

KAYAK is seeking a Manager, Technical & Global Accounting to lead a broad portfolio of accounting areas across our global entities, including areas that call for significant technical judgment, and help ensure the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of financial reporting. You will make and document accounting calls on complex transactions, own final review across your portfolio, and explain the story behind the numbers to senior leaders and auditors.

You will set the standard for how your areas operate, and lead and develop a team of senior and staff accountants. You will own modernization within your area, translating Controllership priorities into execution of our automation roadmap and implementation of agentic workflows, in partnership with our systems and process teams.

You will partner with Accounting, FP&A, Tax, Legal, Payroll, Operations, Product, and Technology, and bring an accounting perspective early, so decisions are made with the implications in view. The ideal candidate has sound judgment and is comfortable with ambiguity. They set direction, make the call when it needs to be made, and are committed to developing others. They are never satisfied with "that's how we've always done it."

This role will be required to work from our Norwalk, CT office at least 3 days per week.

• Own a broad portfolio of accounting areas that call for significant technical judgment, including revenue, accounts receivable and credit loss reserves, capitalized software and technology costs, technology-related prepaids, and legal, marketing, and other accruals.

• Perform technical revenue review (complex contract reviews, quarterly technical deliverables, reconciliations). Form, document, and defend positions on complex or judgmental transactions, and decide what to escalate to the Director and when.

• Lead the monthly close across your portfolio and global entities by planning the calendar, setting review standards, and giving final sign-off on reconciliations, flux analysis, and commentary. Act as final reviewer in Flo Qast, ensuring reconciling items are supported, resolved on time, and audit-ready.

• Lead close and balance sheet review meetings and present quarterly pre-close materials to senior leadership and the broader finance team. Communicate risks, open items, decisions, and progress clearly and early to the Director and other stakeholders.

• Serve as a primary contact for external auditors and Booking Holdings reporting, and support quarterly and year-end requirements as accounting responsibilities globalize.

• Partner with Tax, Legal, FP&A, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Product, and Commercial on allocations, cross-charges, and complex transactions. Engage early on new products and arrangements so leaders understand the accounting implications before decisions are made.

• Lead accounting policy changes, system transitions, and process redesigns by clarifying objectives, timing, outputs, and support needed.

• Apply a risk-based lens across the portfolio, and fix recurring issues at the source rather than relying on workarounds.

• Own modernization in your area. Ask why work is done the way it is, start with what each process needs to achieve, and lead improvements that simplify work, strengthen controls, and reduce manual effort, accounting…