Software Engineer (Backend)

Duffel; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary + equity

Work from anywhere policy

Duffel travel allowance

Matched parental leave

Sabbatical programme (3 months fullpay

Office in Shoreditch

Job summary

Duffel is expanding its London engineering team. As a Software Engineer you’ll design and build the core API powering travel bookings, collaborating with product and platform teams to deliver scalable solutions.

Ultimately, you’ll own API quality, performance, and developer experience while working in a hybrid London setting with a supportive, fast-moving environment.

Qualifications

• Experience designing robust and scalable APIs.
• Strong focus on API usability and developer experience.
• Experience shaping system design decisions and trade-offs.
• Excellent communication and collaboration across teams.

Responsibilities

• Build and evolve Duffel's core API powering travel bookings.
• Design with the developer experience in mind and ensure high quality code.
• Collaborate with product, data, and infra teams to scale usage and performance.

Skills

API design

Developer experience

System design

Communication

Tools

Elixir

Phoenix

Kubernetes

Google Cloud Platform

Job description

Software Engineer London | Full-time | Hybrid | Shoreditch/Liverpool Street

Create the Future of Travel With Us

Whether it's visiting the people closest to us, starting an exciting adventure, or a career-defining business trip, travel is essential.

Yet we've all experienced the aches and pains of getting to our destination.

More than 4 billion airline passengers rely on technology that hasn't kept up with modern expectations. That's why we're rebuilding the infrastructure that underpins the travel industry - simplifying systems and building tools that will make the future of travel effortless.

We were part of Y Combinator S18's cohort and we're backed by Benchmark, Blossom, Index Ventures, and Kima Ventures - a fantastic set of investors that has helped build some of the world's largest companies.

Our London team is growing, and we're looking for talented people to join us on our journey.

Engineering at Duffel

We're building tools to simplify travel distribution, search, and booking through one seamless API. The technical challenge? Design a beautiful API, then integrate it with hundreds of travel providers - each with different systems and requirements - whilst delivering a fantastic developer experience.

We work with Elixir, Phoenix, Kubernetes, and Google Cloud Platform, but we value strong engineering fundamentals over specific tech experience.

You’ll Thrive Here If:

• You're passionate about designing beautiful APIs and creating great developer experiences
• You have a high bar for code quality and API design
• You have opinions on good engineering standards and processes as we define ours at Duffel
• You think big picture - making tradeoffs between technical work and business impact
• You communicate clearly, articulating what you're working on and why in a structured way
• You thrive collaboratively - you believe in your methods but stay open to feedback and suggestions

Bonus

Experience in travel, flights, hotels, or cars

What You’ll Get

• Competitive salary + equity (you'll own part of Duffel)
• Work from anywhere policy
• Duffel travel allowance (use what we build)
• Matched parental leave
• Sabbatical programme (3 months full pay)
• Office in Shoreditch + regular team socials

Why Now Matters

You’ll work on the core API powering millions of travel bookings. Early-stage role = outsized impact on how we build and scale.