Booking.com has welcomed 12 new software developers to its team as it prepares to move into its new £100m home at Manchester’s Enterprise City later this year.
The appointments form part of the company’s ongoing partnership with Tech Returners, an organisation specialising in upskilling engineers to return to the tech industry after a career break.
Booking.com’s Trips division has created the roles having sponsored its second cohort of candidates through Tech Returners’ Your Return to Tech programme.
The eight-week course is designed and proven to tackle the industry’s well-documented skills shortage and provide software developers – the majority of whom are women – with a free route back to high-quality employment after a career break.
The full-time appointments started in June and cover roles across the company’s Trips division, including its taxis, cars, insurance and data teams, and form part of its plan to significantly grow the business’ 1,000-strong presence in the city.
To date, the Tech Returners programme has placed more than 100 mid-level software developers into a range of UK-based organisations that value diversity in their technical teams, including The Guardian, Daemon and The BBC.
Matthias Schmid, SVP for Booking.com’s Trips division said: “As the travel industry experiences a resurgence following the pandemic, we have ambitious plans to create a vast range of new roles to join the 300 skilled professionals we’ve already hired across our Trips team this year alone. The city’s world-class talent is a key reason why we call Manchester home. Working with progressive organisations like Tech Returners means we can provide a platform and career pathways for diverse talent to shine, deliver game-changing innovation and ultimately fly the flag for the local tech scene internationally.”
