Head of Threat-Informed Cyber Defense & Engineering

Booking Holdings, Inc.; Amsterdam; Hybrid; EUR 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous paid leave

Hybrid work including up to 20 days ab

Product discounts & benefits

Job summary

Booking.com in Amsterdam seeks a senior leader to guide a mature Cyber Defence capability, shaping strategy and leading a team of threat researchers and engineers across Amsterdam and Bucharest. You will own detection engineering, validation programs, and metrics to prove value in a global tech environment.

The role requires 5+ years in cybersecurity and proven leadership, with a focus on adversary emulation, MITRE ATT&CK, and scalable automation.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in cybersecurity, security engineering, threat research, or detection & response.
• 2+ years directly managing and developing engineers, researchers, or other senior technical specialists.
• Breadth across threat hunting, adversary emulation, detection engineering, telemetry, SIEM, SOAR, and response automation.
• Fluency in adversary TTPs, MITRE ATT&CK, and modern detection engineering practice (detection-as-code, lifecycle management).
• Track record of moving initiatives from prototype to production.
• Strong stakeholder communication translating complex work into business impact.
• People-first leadership with empathy and accountability.

Responsibilities

• Shape strategy in partnership with leadership — translate Cyber Defence strategy into a risk-based plan and allocate resources.
• Expand coverage where it counts — lead telemetry and detection expansion across crown jewels, identity and cloud.
• Establish detection & response engineering at scale — implement detection-as-code, CI/CD, testing, tuning, and production readiness.
• Run validation as a program — manage adversary-emulation and control-validation to surface gaps and drive closure.
• Own the metrics — design and report KPIs like ATT&CK coverage, detection quality, and automation impact.
• Use AI as a force multiplier — drive automation to ship detections faster and reduce manual toil.
• Lead exceptional people — coach and develop a high-performing team.
• Build visibility & partnerships — represent the program to senior leadership and stakeholders across Enterprise IT and product security.

Skills

Cybersecurity

Threat research

Detection & response

MITRE ATT&CK

Adversary TTPs

Leadership

Stakeholder communication

Tools

SIEM

SOAR

CI/CD

Job description

Booking.com in Amsterdam seeks a senior leader to guide a mature Cyber Defence capability, shaping strategy and leading a team of threat researchers and engineers across Amsterdam and Bucharest. You will own detection engineering, validation programs, and metrics to prove value in a global tech environment.

The role requires 5+ years in cybersecurity and proven leadership, with a focus on adversary emulation, MITRE ATT&CK, and scalable automation.