Founded in August of 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique travel experiences around the world. Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb allows people to Belong Anywhere through unique travel experiences at any price point, in more than 34,000 cities and over 191 countries. We promote a culture of curiosity, humanity, and creativity through our product, brand, and, most importantly, our people.
Airbnb’s public policy team aims to work closely with politicians, regulators, and legislators to educate them about Airbnb and the “sharing” or “collaborative” economy, highlight the significant social and economic impact our business has on local areas, and showcase best practices from around the world. We want policy makers to understand the regulatory challenges that affect our host community and find solutions that are good for cities and our thriving local communities.
In EMEA, we are engaged in well over a hundred local conversations and negotiations with governments big and small, and at local, regional and national levels across the region. We engage governments directly, but also by using innovative advocacy strategies that actively involve our host community in making the case for fair, progressive home sharing rules.
We structure our work in local campaign groups, drawing on a wide range of tools and campaign disciplines - from detailed policy work, through high-impact partnerships, proactive media relations, community organising, digital platforms and content, polling, and innovative data science and research.
Role:
The new Head of Campaign Operations role will join the central support group for the EMEA campaigns, and will assume responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the campaigns – line-managing and supporting the Campaign Managers as they execute their plans locally.
In their interactions with the Campaign Managers, they will ensure that the planned outputs of their campaigns are being delivered effectively, efficiently, and in line with the overall EMEA strategy. They will act as coach and mentor to the Campaign Managers, and ensure that they are drawing from the widest source of advice and guidance across the regional leadership.
The Head of Campaign Operations will report to the EMEA Public Policy Director.
Responsibilities:
- Ensuring that Campaign Managers have established strategies and plans for each geography, based on insight and analysis, with the full-buy in of the central policy support group, and with the support of local stakeholders (i.e. the in-country General Managers);
- Line-managing the Campaign Managers, providing regular feedback, advice and support – and has responsibility for the rolling cycle of performance management and compensation planning;
- Working with the other members of the central support group to provide coherent guidance and advice to the campaign managers;
- Using their vantage point to identify emerging pan-EMEA policy issues that might need to be discussed at global level (or with local teams as appropriate);
- Ensuring that processes for regular reporting and tracking are being delivered by each pod (e.g. weekly updates and monthly conference calls) and that campaign achievements and milestones are being properly recognised;
- Ensuring clear lines of communication between the Campaigns and San Francisco-based teams;
- Identifying operational roadblocks and bottlenecks – and best practices – making recommendations for process improvements that will increase the campaigns’ efficiency;
- Managing the overall campaign budget for EMEA, working with the team coordinator to track and reforecast budgets;
- Working to identify and establish new campaign pods that could be established, to cover new geographies;
- Deputising for the EMEA Public Policy Director as appropriate.
Profile:
- Deep experience of complex European policy and campaign environments is essential - with a strong track record of managing significant budgets and cross-functional teams of people. This could be in a political context, or through other kinds of advocacy groups (e.g. NGOs, unions, pressure groups, corporate campaigns etc.);
- Truly exceptional organisational skills. Detail-oriented and process-driven - with an ability to drive clarity in complex environments;
- Awareness of strategy development - but a natural preference to focus on operational excellence;
- A seasoned leader and manager of people, able to deploy the full range of leadership styles to get the most out of a very diverse team;
- Cool, calm and collected at all times - and especially when faced with significant pressure;
- A natural coalition-builder and collaborator - able to build and maintain strong working relationships with peers with diverse perspectives;
- First-rate communication skills - written and oral - in a wide range of formal and informal contexts;
- Experience of working across more than one geography would be a significant advantage, and at least one language in addition to English would be desirable.