Lead Software Engineer (Level 5) | BackEnd (Gurugram based)

Agoda; Chennai District; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Agoda is seeking a Lead Backend Engineer in Chennai to own critical systems and drive technical direction. The role involves mentoring engineers and leading initiatives to build scalable, reliable solutions for Agoda’s global platform.

Ideal candidates will have extensive experience in backend system architecture and hands-on coding. Key skills include Java, Scala, Go, and distributed system design. Join us in connecting the world through travel.

Qualifications

• Experience building and operating large-scale backend systems in production environments.
• Proven experience delivering complex distributed systems at scale.
• Strong expertise in Java, Scala, Kotlin, or Go.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and development of complex distributed systems at scale.
• Own the technical direction, delivery, and evolution of critical systems and platforms.
• Drive system design, API standards, software architecture, and engineering best practices.

Skills

Java

Scala

Kotlin

Go

API design and microservices

Distributed systems and architecture

Tools

AWS

GCP

Kafka

Job description

About Agoda

Agoda bridges the world through travel. Founded in 2005 by two friends driven by a passion for exploring, it is now part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) and employs over 7,000 people worldwide. Agoda’s mission is to connect people to destinations and experiences, offering a wide range of hotels, flights, and activities.

About the Team

Our Backend Engineering organization builds high‑scale, fault‑tolerant distributed systems that power a global travel platform serving millions of users daily. We focus on inventory, pricing, booking, payments, and customer/partner platforms, with a strong emphasis on high availability, low latency, and zero‑downtime expectations. Core technologies include Scala, Go, Java, Kotlin, Kafka, and Aerospike, supported by CI/CD, automation, observability, and engineering excellence.

Lead Backend Engineer – The Opportunity

As a Lead Backend Engineer you will own critical systems end‑to‑end, drive technical direction, and lead large initiatives. You will combine architecture, execution, and technical leadership to build scalable, reliable, and high‑quality solutions that power Agoda’s global platform. Your influence will extend beyond your immediate team, mentoring engineers, shaping development practices, and raising the organization’s technical bar.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the architecture, design, and development of complex distributed systems at scale.
• Own the technical direction, delivery, and evolution of critical systems and platforms.
• Drive system design, API standards, software architecture, and engineering best practices across teams.
• Lead complex technical initiatives involving multiple services, teams, and stakeholders.
• Make key technical decisions, balancing business priorities with scalability, reliability, and maintainability goals.
• Remain an active contributor to production systems through regular coding, code reviews, system design, and technical problem‑solving.
• Mentor and coach engineers, raising technical capability, code quality, and engineering standards.
• Drive continuous improvements in development processes, engineering effectiveness, and agile ways of working.
• Align stakeholders and drive execution across cross‑functional teams.
• Lead production stability, incident management, root‑cause analysis, and long‑term reliability improvements.
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve products, platforms, developer productivity, and customer experience.

What We’re Looking For

• Experience building and operating large‑scale backend systems in production environments.
• Proven experience delivering complex distributed systems at scale.
• Strong expertise in Java, Scala, Kotlin, or Go.
• Strong software architecture skills with a track record of driving architectural decisions.
• Proven experience leading technical initiatives, projects, or engineering teams with end‑to‑end ownership.
• Recent and ongoing hands‑on coding experience in production environments is required.

Deep Expertise in

• Distributed systems and architecture
• API design and microservices
• Performance, scalability, and system reliability
• System design for high‑throughput, highly available applications

Nice to Have

• Experience building or owning large‑scale platforms across multiple services or domains.
• Experience designing and operating event‑driven architectures using technologies such as Kafka.
• Experience with cloud‑native architectures on AWS or GCP and strong understanding of CI/CD, DevOps, automation, and modern software delivery practices.
• Experience driving cross‑team technical initiatives, platform modernization, or large‑scale migrations.
• Familiarity with high‑volume data systems, Spark, Hadoop, or related data platform technologies.
• Experience working in global product organizations with distributed engineering teams.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Agoda is proud to foster a diverse and inclusive work environment. Employment at Agoda is based solely on 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. Eligible applicants will not be discriminated against on the basis of any of these characteristics.

Disclaimer

We do not accept any terms or conditions, nor do we recognize any agency’s representation of a candidate, from unsolicited third‑party or agency submissions. If we receive unsolicited or speculative CVs, we reserve the right to contact and hire the candidate directly without any obligation to pay a recruitment fee.