Senior Portfolio Release Manager — Flights Acquisition & Retention

Senior Portfolio Release Manager

This role is eligible for our hybrid work model: 2 days in-office.

This job posting is for an existing, currently vacant position

Senior Portfolio Release Manager — Flights Acquisition & Retention

Our Technology team is the backbone of our company: constantly creating, testing, learning, and iterating to better meet the needs of our customers. If you thrive in a fast-paced, ideas-led environment, you’re in the right place.

Why this job’s a big deal:

As a Senior Portfolio Release Manager, your role centers on orchestrating the successful, predictable, and scalable delivery across the Flights Acquisition & Retention group. This group sits in our Flights organization and is responsible for growing our market footprint through owned channels, meta and agentic distribution, and deal products that convert new and returning customers. The teams in this group manage our ability to attract & retain new customers through various channels (meta, agentic distribution, etc.).

You will operate at the Flights Acquisition & Retention group level, driving alignment and release coordination across the teams responsible for flight acquisition channels, customer deals and post booking experience. You will ensure releases ship with quality, transparency, and operational readiness, while continuously evolving release processes to support agility, compliance, and scale as the Flights shopping funnel grows in complexity.

As a senior leader, you will serve as a strategic partner to Flights Engineering, Product and Commercial leaders — reducing delivery risk and giving teams the confidence to ship shopping experience improvements quickly and safely.

In this role you will get to:

Portfolio Release Planning & Coordination

• Own and maintain the release calendar for the Flights Acquisition & Retention group, coordinating across product, engineering, commercial, and operations teams
• Orchestrate complex, cross-functional releases spanning different areas within flights with dependencies on various downstream and upstream teams across Priceline.
• Ensure releases are aligned to Flights strategic initiatives, roadmap milestones, and seasonal travel demand peaks (e.g., holiday and summer travel surges).
• Drive ways of working with the team - establishing processes, systems and controls as required to enable teams and manage risk. This includes how we work together with other teams.
• Manage cross-team dependencies and sequencing across the Flights Acquisition & Retention group and other Flights teams (e.g., Supply, Shopping Experience, etc).

Risk, Governance & Quality Management

• Identify and proactively manage risks to release quality, timing, shopping funnel stability, and rollback readiness — recognizing that shopping experience issues have an immediate, visible impact on conversion and revenue.
• Partner with Engineering, Data, and InfraOps teams to establish and enforce release criteria, validation gates, governance processes, and post-release monitoring
• Maintain controls required for compliance, audit, or change management, including fare display and pricing-related regulatory considerations.

Cross-Team Communication & Stakeholder Alignment

• Serve as the central point of coordination for Flights Acquisition & Retention group; coordinating releases, connecting Product, Engineering, Commercial, Analytics, and other teams (Finance, Customer Care, Security, Legal, and Operations stakeholders)
• Communicate release scope, timelines, dependencies, risks, and critical incidents to Flights leadership and partner teams.
• Partner with Product Managers and Engineering leaders to develop release communications, change advisories, and rollout strategies for launches.
• Drive alignment across Flight teams operating within the Product Operating Model (POM), ensuring transparency and accountability.

Process Improvement & Automation

• Continuously improve release management processes, tooling, and reporting to support faster, safer, and more predictable shopping experience releases.
• Partner with DevOps, SRE, and Platform Engineering teams to advance CI/CD pipelines, release automation, feature flagging, and model deployment processes for search, pricing, and ranking systems.
• Support the group’s transition toward continuous delivery and modern platform engineering practices for flight shopping and AI/ML-driven personalization.
• Develop scalable release frameworks and governance models that can extend across the broader Flights portfolio.

Metrics & Post-Release Analysis

Define, track, and report on release health metrics, including:

• Deployment frequency
• Failed deployments
• Change lead time
• Change failure rate
• Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR)
• Funnel and conversion metrics
• New Customer Acquisition metrics
• Data quality/reliability metrics (e.g., search latency, availability accuracy)
• Facilitate release retrospectives and drive continuous improvement initiatives across Flights Shopping Experience teams.
• Assess the operational, business, and customer impact of major acquisition & retention releases, including conversion, new customer growth and booking-funnel effects

Who you are:

• 7+ years of experience in Agile delivery, Technical Program Management, Release Management, or Portfolio Management, with significant experience supporting large-scale e-commerce shopping organizations.
• Deep understanding of how release management integrates into Product Operating Models (POMs) and modern iterative delivery frameworks.
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional release planning across search, shopping, pricing, personalization/ML, or experimentation systems, ideally within travel, e-commerce, or another high-volume consumer shopping environment.
• Familiarity with growing new customers via various channels (i.e. Meta)
• Fluent in Agile methodologies and frameworks, including Scrum, Kanban, and continuous delivery practices.
• Proven ability to coordinate dependencies across multiple teams while balancing delivery speed with shopping funnel stability and operational excellence.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence leaders across Product, Engineering, Business, and Operations.
• A proactive problem solver who identifies risks and opportunities early and makes sound decisions with incomplete information.
• A detail-oriented operator who thrives in fast-paced environments and can manage multiple competing priorities.
• Illustrated history of living the values necessary to Priceline: Customer, Innovation, Team, Accountability, and Trust.
• The Right Results, the Right Way is not just a motto at Priceline; it’s a way of life. Unquestionable integrity and ethics are essential.

Nice to have

• Experience driving new customer growth via Agentic Commerce channels
• Proficiency leveraging AI and automation tools to improve reporting, release processes, and operational workflows.
• Familiarity with Agentic AI technologies and AI-assisted software delivery practices.

There are a variety of factors that go into determining a salary range, including but not limited to external market benchmark data, geographic location, and years of experience sought/required. In addition to a competitive base salary, certain roles may be eligible for an annual bonus and/or equity grant.

The salary range for this position is $115,000-135,000

Who We Are

WE ARE PRICELINE.

Our success as one of the biggest players in online travel is all thanks to our incredible, dedicated team of talented employees. Priceliners are focused on being the best travel deal makers in the world, motivated by our passion to help everyone experience the moments that matter most in their lives. Whether it’s a dream vacation, your cousin’s graduation, or your best friend’s wedding - we make travel affordable and accessible to our customers.

Our culture is unique and inspiring (that’s what our employees tell us). We’re a grown-up, startup. We deliver the excitement of a new venture, without the struggles and chaos that can come with a business that hasn’t stabilized.

We’re on the cutting edge of innovative technologies. We keep the customer at the center of all that we do. Our ability to meet their needs relies on the strength of a workforce as diverse as the customers we serve. We bring together employees from all walks of life and we are proud to provide the kind of inclusive environment that stimulates innovation, creativity and collaboration.

Priceline is part of the Booking Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKNG) family of companies, a highly profitable global online travel company with a market capitalization of over $80 billion. Our sister companies include Booking.com, BookingGo, Agoda, Kayak and OpenTable.

If you want to be part of something truly special, check us out!

Flexible work at Priceline

Priceline is following a hybrid working model, which includes two days onsite as determined by you and your manager (ideally selecting among Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday). On the remaining days, you can choose to be remote or in the office.

Perks & Benefits at Priceline

Our benefits are designed to support your health, wellbeing, and life inside and outside of work. Eligible Priceliners have access to:

Health & wellness coverage including medical, dental, vision, and mental health resources

Generous time off including PTO, holidays, a company-wide Priceline Pause reset week, and paid volunteer days

Work/life support including the ability to work up to 4 weeks per year from anywhere, parental leave, dependent care and family support resources, Summer Fridays, and office perks like stocked kitchens and catered meals (varies by location)

Financial security programs such as retirement plans with company contributions, life and disability coverage, and tax-advantaged accounts

Signature travel perks including employee-only discounts on hotels and flights, VIP deals, and Big Deal Bucks credits

Additional perks & discounts like travel and partner discounts, tuition support, legal support, and pet benefits

A people-first culture with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), social events, recognition programs, and service awards that help you connect, grow, and celebrate together

Specific benefits and programs vary by location.

Inclusion is a Big Deal!

To be the best travel dealmakers in the world, we believe our team should reflect the broad range of customers and communities we serve. We are committed to cultivating a culture where all employees have the freedom to bring their individual perspectives, life experiences, and passion to work.

Priceline is a proud equal opportunity employer. We embrace and celebrate the unique lenses through which our employees see the world. We’d love for you to join us and help shape what makes our team extraordinary.

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