Expedia Group brands power global travel for everyone, everywhere. We design cutting-edge tech to make travel smoother and more memorable, and we create groundbreaking solutions for our partners. Our diverse, vibrant, and welcoming community is essential in driving our success.

Why Join Us?

To shape the future of travel, people must come first. Guided by our Values and Leadership Agreements, we foster an open culture where everyone belongs, differences are celebrated and know that when one of us wins, we all win.

We provide a full benefits package, including exciting travel perks, generous time-off, parental leave, a global hybrid work setup (with some pretty cool offices), and career development resources, all to fuel our employees' passion for travel and ensure a rewarding career journey. We’re building a more open world. Join us.

Join our dynamic team that builds and maintains the core search platform for millions of travelers worldwide. We focus on delivering highly personalized, relevant, and real-time search results at scale. As part of this team, you’ll work with cutting-edge technology and have the opportunity to solve complex, large-scale problems. We operate in a fast-paced environment, and your work will directly impact millions of users globally.

As a Software Development Engineer on the Search team, you will design, develop, and maintain large-scale distributed systems that power our search functionality. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to build high-performance, scalable services and features that enable a seamless user experience. You are expected to take ownership of key technical decisions, contribute to system architecture, and mentor junior developers.

In this role, you will:

Design and develop scalable, high-performance backend services that handle millions of search requests per day

Implement efficient data structures and algorithms to optimize search orchestration, relevance, ranking, and retrieval using technologies like Elasticsearch and Redis

Work on messaging and event-driven systems with Apache Kafka to ensure reliable and low-latency data flow between services

Collaborate with product managers, engineers, and stakeholders to deliver high-quality, user-focused features

Maintain and improve our existing Kotlin-based codebase, following software engineering best practices including CI/CD, automated testing, and monitoring

Optimize and tune search performance in distributed systems, handling fault tolerance, replication, and failover scenarios

Mentor junior engineers by conducting code reviews, sharing knowledge, and providing feedback

Take part in on-call rotations and work to improve system reliability and operational excellence

Stay up to date with the latest technologies and contribute ideas to continuously improve our systems and processes

Experience and Qualifications:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field

3+ years of experience in backend software development with a focus on scalable, distributed systems

Proficiency in Kotlin, or strong experience in another JVM-based language (e.g., Java) with a willingness to learn Kotlin

Hands-on experience with Redis, Elasticsearch, and Apache Kafka in a production environment

Strong understanding of algorithms, data structures, and system design principles

Experience with cloud-based environments and technologies (AWS, GCP, or Azure - Preferably AWS)

Proven ability to debug, troubleshoot, and optimize distributed systems in production

Experience with CI/CD pipelines, test automation, and containerization tools (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)

Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across teams and influence technical decisions

Preferred Skills:

Knowledge of microservices architecture and event-driven design patterns

Experience with monitoring, logging, and observability tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana)

Experience in orchestration services, recommendation engines, or e-commerce search platforms

Familiarity with machine learning or data-driven personalization techniques

The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $112,000.00 to $156,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $179,000.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.

Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.

Accommodation requests

If you need assistance with any part of the application or recruiting process due to a disability, or other physical or mental health conditions, please reach out to our Recruiting Accommodations Team through the Accommodation Request.

We are proud to be named as a Best Place to Work on Glassdoor in 2024 and be recognized for award-winning culture by organizations like Forbes, TIME, Disability:IN, and others.

Expedia Group's family of brands includes: Brand Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™. © 2024 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. CST: 2029030-50

Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group’s Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never provide sensitive, personal information to someone unless you’re confident who the recipient is. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or any other messaging tools to individuals with whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official website to find and apply for job openings at Expedia Group is careers.expediagroup.com/jobs.

Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee's I-9 to confirm work authorization.