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KAYAK is seeking a Software Architect to serve as a principal technical authority within our backend engineering organization. In this capacity, you will provide the technical vision and architectural governance required to sustain KAYAK’s industry-leading search and booking ecosystem. You will be responsible for the integrity of a high-concurrency platform that facilitates integrations with over 200 global travel partners, 500,000 hotel properties, and 550 airlines. As a Software Architect, your remit extends beyond individual feature delivery. You will act as a force multiplier, identifying cross-cutting technical challenges, mentoring senior engineering talent, and ensuring that our enterprise-grade solutions for KAYAK for Business (K4B) remain resilient, scalable, and strategically aligned with our global expansion goals.
Job Responsibility:
Ensure the search and booking logic maintains optimal performance under the rigorous demands of global enterprise clientele
Lead the design of high-performance, fault-tolerant integration frameworks for third-party APIs (NDC, GDS, and proprietary provider protocols), prioritizing low-latency execution and high availability
Serve as a primary consultant for multiple engineering squads, providing clarity on complex architectural trade-offs and ensuring technical consistency across the K4B ecosystem
Spearhead initiatives to improve the engineering lifecycle, from establishing sophisticated observability patterns and CI/CD matures to refining internal standards for code quality and distributed system design
Translate high-level business objectives into robust technical specifications, effectively communicating architectural risks and opportunities to executive leadership
Requirements:
A minimum of 9 years of professional software development experience, with a significant portion dedicated to the large-scale distributed systems
Expert-level mastery of the Java ecosystem and Spring Framework (Boot, Security)
Expertise in designing for high-throughput data environments using PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis
Good command of the English language
Understanding of airline distribution standards, specifically NDC (New Distribution Capability) and legacy GDS (Amadeus, Sabre) protocols
Knowledge of B2B integration patterns including SAML, OAuth2, OIDC, and SCIM for automated user lifecycle management via Okta, Workday, or Azure AD
Nice to have:
Previous experience with AI/LLM would be a plus
What we offer:
Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year
Focus on mental health and well-being: Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace
Company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!)
No meeting Fridays
Paid parental leave
Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday
Paid volunteer time
Focus on your career growth: Development Dollars
Leadership development
Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings
Travel Discounts
Employee Resource Groups
6 weeks paid vacation
Free lunch 2 days per week
Pension plan contributions
Public transportation subsidies
Bike leasing program
Monthly social events, Thursday happy hours, sports teams