Engineering Manager, Back End - Generative Ai (Bangkok based, relocation provided)

Agoda; Helsinki; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Agoda is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead backend teams building scalable AI-enabled platforms. You will shape how Generative AI is adopted across the organization, setting standards for reliability, security, and operational excellence.

You'll own end-to-end backend initiatives, partner with product and security, and mentor engineers while driving KPIs and data-driven decisions in a fast-moving, global travel tech stack.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience building and operating backend systems.
• Strong experience in systems architecture for scalable, fault-tolerant services.
• Proficiency in Java, Scala, C#, or equivalent backend languages.
• Demonstrated system ownership with operational responsibility.
• Strong background in DevOps, automation, CI/CD, and agile delivery.
• Proven leadership with teams of at least five direct reports.
• Data-driven decision making and ownership mindset.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end backend and platform initiatives related to Generative AI.
• Define scalable, reliable and secure backend systems for AI-enabled experiences.
• Drive technical strategy, architecture, standards, and platform scalability.
• Remain hands-on by reviewing code and guiding engineers.
• Own service reliability, observability, and incident management.
• Promote DevOps culture with automation and continuous delivery.
• Partner with product, security, data, and engineering stakeholders.
• Improve productivity and help teams adopt new technologies.
• Hire, coach, and develop engineers and leaders.
• Set clear goals and KPIs with data-driven decisions.

Skills

Backend

Systems architecture

Leadership

DevOps

CI/CD

Agile

Kubernetes

APIs

Tools

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

Job description

About Agoda

At Agoda, we bridge the world through travel. Our story began in 2005, when two lifelong friends and entrepreneurs, driven by their passion for travel, launched Agoda to make it easier for everyone to explore the world.

Get to Know our Team:

At Agoda, our Backend Engineering team builds the scalable, fault-tolerant systems and APIs that power our global travel platform across pricing, inventory, customer data, bookings, payments, and more. We operate high-scale, mission-critical services with frequent releases, using modern engineering practices in CI/CD, automated testing, resilience, and observability.

Our engineers work on complex distributed systems using technologies such as Scala, Go, Kafka, and Aerospike — while also exploring how Generative AI can accelerate engineering productivity, improve developer workflows, and unlock new product innovation. This is an exciting opportunity to join a team solving large-scale engineering challenges while helping shape how AI is applied to the future of travel technology.

The Opportunity:

The Engineering Manager role at Agoda is one of the most significant and challenging roles at the company. We are looking for a technically strong and people-focused leader to join our Generative AI engineering organization.

You will lead backend engineering teams building scalable AI-enabled platforms and solutions that support Agoda’s products, engineering teams, and business functions. This role offers the opportunity to shape how Generative AI is adopted across the organization while establishing strong standards for engineering quality, reliability, security, and operational excellence.

In this Role, you'll get to:

• Lead the end-to-end execution of backend and platform initiatives related to Generative AI.
• Define and evolve scalable, reliable, and secure backend systems that support AI-enabled experiences and internal engineering workflows.
• Drive technical strategy, system architecture, engineering standards, and long-term platform scalability.
• Remain hands-on by writing and reviewing code, participating in technical designs, and providing expert guidance to engineers.
• Own the operational performance of services, including reliability, availability, observability, scalability, and incident management.
• Promote a strong DevOps culture through automation, continuous delivery, and effective engineering practices.
• Partner with product, infrastructure, security, data, and engineering stakeholders to deliver high-impact solutions.
• Improve engineering productivity and enable teams to adopt new technologies effectively.
• Build a culture of ownership, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Hire, coach, mentor, and develop engineers and emerging leaders.
• Establish clear goals and KPIs while making sound, data-driven decisions in an evolving technical landscape.

What you'll Need to Succeed:

• Extensive experience building and operating backend systems, platforms, or large-scale services.
• Strong experience in systems architecture, particularly complex, scalable, and fault-tolerant distributed systems.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language, such as Java, Scala, C#, or an equivalent backend language.
• Demonstrated experience as a system owner with operational responsibility.
• Strong understanding of backend engineering fundamentals, including concurrency, threading, memory management, garbage collection, and performance optimization.
• Experience with DevOps practices, automation, CI/CD, and modern software delivery methodologies.
• Good understanding of application security and secure system design.
• Experience working in a successful agile engineering environment.
• Proven experience leading engineering teams with at least five direct reports.
• Strong people leadership, coaching, hiring, and performance management skills.
• Ability to operate autonomously, make decisions, set KPIs, and demonstrate a strong sense of ownership.
• A data-driven approach to decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Passion for technology, software engineering, and the opportunities presented by Generative AI.

It's Great if you have:

• Experience building AI-enabled products, platforms, developer tools, or productivity solutions.
• Experience working with Generative AI or integrating AI capabilities into production systems.
• Experience with cloud platforms, microservices, APIs, containers, Kubernetes, or infrastructure as code.
• Proficiency in more than one programming language.
• Experience leading globally distributed engineering teams.
• Knowledge of observability, platform engineering, reliability engineering, or developer experience practices.

Discover More About Working At Agoda:

• Agoda Careers https://careersatagoda.com
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/agodacareers/
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/agoda
• YouTube https://www.youtube.com/agodalife

Equal Opportunity Employer:

At Agoda, we pride ourselves on being a company represented by people of all different backgrounds and orientations. We prioritize attracting diverse talent and cultivating an inclusive environment that encourages collaboration and innovation. Employment at Agoda is based solely on a person’s merit and qualifications. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity regardless of sex, age, race, color, national origin, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, citizenship, veteran or military status, and other legally protected characteristics.

We will keep your application on file so that we can consider you for future vacancies and you can always ask to have your details removed from the file. For more details please read our privacy policy.