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Salary: USD 160,000 - 180,000 / annual
KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings, is a leading travel search engine processing billions of queries across global metasearch brands including momondo, Cheapflights, and HotelsCombined. You will join a high-powered engineering team building AI-assisted travel search and trip-planning experiences.
In this role, you will design, implement, and maintain reliable production software for KAYAK's travel-search platform. You'll build and evolve APIs and services supporting AI-assisted search, conversational travel planning, itineraries, and related user experiences. Key responsibilities include investigating technical problems and choosing practical solutions that improve reliability, performance, and maintainability; writing automated tests across unit, integration, and end-to-end testing; participating in code reviews and technical discussions; and collaborating with engineers, product managers, and designers to clarify requirements and deliver useful, accessible experiences.
You will contribute to features such as ASK AI, smart filters, AI-generated hotel review summaries, and Explore search experiences. You'll help make AI-assisted features dependable, transparent, and useful to travelers. Additional responsibilities include monitoring and improving production behavior through effective debugging, observability, and root-cause analysis; learning unfamiliar systems and sharing knowledge through documentation and pairing; and contributing to the evolution of development tools, engineering processes, and delivery practices.
This is a hybrid role requiring commuting to the Concord, MA office 3 times per week. Benefits include up to 20 days per year remote work flexibility, company-paid therapy and wellness subscriptions, a company-wide week off annually, no-meeting Fridays, paid parental leave, generous vacation, paid volunteer time, development dollars, leadership development, travel discounts, and free lunch 2 days per week.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Experience building and maintaining production software
- Proficiency in Java or another relevant programming language
- Familiarity with APIs, data structures, and software-design principles
- Experience testing software and investigating defects or production issues
- Ability to explain technical decisions clearly in writing and conversation
- Ability to take ownership of assigned work while asking for input or support when needed
- Experience contributing to projects from design through implementation, release, and maintenance
- Equivalent practical experience welcome in place of specific degree or educational path
DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:
- Experience with distributed systems, search, personalization, or high-volume consumer products
- Experience with AI, machine learning, or large language model applications
- Experience with relational databases or other structured data stores
- Experience working on web products, mobile products, or travel-related products
- Experience improving accessibility, reliability, or usability
- Experience with Java and Spring
- Experience with cloud services, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing frameworks
