Senior Software Engineer, GraphQL - API Platform

Gudejobs; Berlin; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual personal growth budget

Hybrid working

Work from anywhere 30 days/year

Monthly transport & fitness budget

Language reimbursement

Health & wellness benefits

Discounts on GetYourGuide activities

Job summary

GetYourGuide's Berlin HQ is seeking an experienced backend engineer to own and evolve the GraphQL API layer that powers our search, discovery, and checkout experiences.

You will design schemas and federation patterns, enforce API platform standards, tackle performance bottlenecks in production, and mentor engineers while collaborating with product teams for scalable, reliable APIs at scale. Join a hybrid team focused on observability and customer-first delivery.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend software engineering experience.
• At least 3 years focused on GraphQL in production.
• Excellent English communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the GraphQL API layer serving core surfaces (search, discovery, checkout).
• Design schemas and query patterns balancing flexibility with performance at scale.
• Enforce API Platform standards: governance, deprecation, federation, query cost controls.
• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks in production systems under real traffic.
• Collaborate with product engineering teams as an internal platform owner to raise quality across the org.
• Drive observability: tracing, latency analysis, SLA monitoring for the GraphQL layer.
• Mentor engineers across the org on GraphQL best practices.

Skills

Backend experience

GraphQL

Distributed systems

Java/Go/Node.js

Communication

Mentoring

Tools

GraphQL (Apollo Federation)

Resolvers & Dataloader

Persisted queries

Caching strategies

Job description

Change the way the world travels

Join the GetYourGuide journey to connect people with unforgettable travel experiences around the world. Millions look to us for unique activities they can trust, and it’s all powered by our commitment to make every single journey extraordinary - including yours.

Ready to unlock your potential with a community of fellow explorers? Find your next role at our Berlin HQ or one of our local offices around the globe, from New York to Bangkok. Head to getyourguide.careers to take the first step.

Team mission

The API Platform team enables product and engineering teams across GetYourGuide to build fast, reliable, customer- and supplier-facing experiences by owning and evolving our GraphQL API layer. We define the standards, tooling, and infrastructure that govern how data flows from our services to our clients — at scale, with high availability, and under constant traffic from millions of travelers.

Your mission

• Own and evolve the GraphQL API layer serving our most critical customer-facing surfaces, including search, discovery, and checkout.
• Design schemas and query patterns that balance flexibility for consumers with performance and reliability at scale.
• Establish and enforce API Platform standards: schema governance, deprecation policies, federation patterns, and query complexity controls.
• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks — N+1 patterns, over-fetching, slow resolvers — in production systems under real traffic.
• Partner with product engineering teams as an internal platform owner: unblock them, onboard them, and raise the quality bar across the org.
• Drive observability: query tracing, latency analysis, and SLA monitoring for the GraphQL layer.
• Mentor engineers across the org on GraphQL best practices.

Your toolkit

• 5+ years of backend software engineering experience, with at least 3 years focused on GraphQL in a production environment.
• Deep, hands-on GraphQL expertise: schema design, federation (Apollo Federation or equivalent), resolvers, dataloader patterns, persisted queries, and query cost analysis.
• Proven track record operating GraphQL at scale — high-throughput, customer-facing APIs where reliability and latency directly affect user experience.
• Strong grasp of distributed systems: how to design services that are observable, resilient, and easy to reason about under load.
• Fluency in at least one of: Java, Go, or Node.js.
• Ability to prioritize and manage stakeholders; known for good communication and collaboration skills.
• Positive, proactive team player who is passionate about their craft. You find mentoring and sharing knowledge fulfilling.
• Customer-centric prioritization and data-driven decision-making mindset.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

Extras that give you an edge

• Familiarity with caching strategies for GraphQL (CDN-level, persisted queries, response caching).
• Experience building internal developer platforms or managing APIs as a product.
• Prior experience working in the e-commerce space.
• Prior experience in start-up environments.

How we’ll make your career journey extraordinary

• Annual personal growth budget and mentorship programs for continuous learning and development
• Work from anywhere in the world for 30 days per year
• A hybrid working approach with three days of in office collaboration (Mon, Tue, Thur) and two days of optional at home focus time.
• Opportunities to collaborate and socialize with team members through quarterly team events and yearly company-wide events
• Monthly transportation and fitness budget
• Discounts for you, your friends, and family on GetYourGuide activities
• Language reimbursement program
• Health and wellness benefits

And more…

We’re an equal opportunities employer

Our commitment is that every qualified person will be evaluated according to their skills, regardless of age, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability status, or religion. Please refrain from including your picture and age with your application.