Darren Haken in

Darren Haken

Commander · DISC type D
Director of Engineering - Data & AI Products, Platform at Booking.com
📍 Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

Darren is a global engineering executive leading the Data & AI organization at Booking. com. He focuses on building the "Intelligence Layer" that powers the customer experience through experimentation, GenAI, and machine learning. His colleagues have described him as intelligent, motivated, and a superb software engineer.

Originally from Manchester, he now lives in Amsterdam and is a proud husband who publicly supports his wifes career as a backend engineer. In a past life, he was a DJ in Manchester, is a huge fan of Japan having visited five times, and enjoys photography while backpacking through Europe.

He once vowed he would never work in data early in his career after a bad experience with GUI-based ETL tools.

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Experience
8 Years
Current Role
Director of Engineering - Data & AI Products, Platform
Job Level
Mid-senior
Location
Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands
Personality Overview

How Darren shows up

Decisive
Strong-Willed
Risk-Taker

They prefer to move quickly, and expect the same from others. They like to stay in control of the negotiation or defining of the terms. They put a lot of effort into ensuring personal success.

Priorities

Topics Darren cares about

AI in Travel
He is driving the shift toward AI-native travel experiences, highlighting Booking. com's integration with ChatGPT as a foundational step for the company's growth in this area.
Data-Driven Products
Leads the engineering for Booking. com's Experimentation Platform, which uses data and ML to validate product decisions and drive personalization and commercial growth.
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Career

Work history

10-2024
Director of Engineering - Data & AI Products, Platform
Booking.com
9-2024
Advisor (Product, Tech and Strategy)
Snowplow
3-2017 - 10-2024
Director of Engineering
Autotrader
2-2017 - 10-2018
Director
Shinko
2-2017 - 4-2017
Engineering Manager, Software Architect
Equal Experts
In the press

Media appearances

No media yetWe could not find public media appearances for this person.
Education
2006 - 2010
BSc (Hons) Computing
The Manchester Metropolitan University
Social presence
in
Behavioral profile

DISC profile (public)

D

Dominance (D)

Dominance (D) reflects how goal and task oriented a person is, and their ability to accomplish results irrespective of how demanding the circumstances might be. Those scoring high tend to be motivated by winning, competition, and success.

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