Principal Software Systems Engineer

sabre; Kraków; Hybrid; PLN 300,000 - 500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working mode

Flexible working hours

Paid time off

Year‑End Break: fully paid days off

Paid parental leave

Paid volunteer time

Employee benefits platform

Job summary

Sabre Kraków seeks a Software Systems Engineer to join our global engineering team and guide the design and delivery of cloud‑native microservices, owning architectural decisions and steering engineering improvements.

You will work with cross‑functional teams to ensure high performance, scalability, and reliability, while applying AI‑assisted practices and best‑in‑class testing across the full SDLC.

Qualifications

• At least 6 years of hands‑on Java backend development, including Java 17+.
• Deep expertise in the Java ecosystem, Spring Boot and cloud‑native microservices design.
• Proven track record leading development teams or serving as a technical anchor in Agile/Lean delivery environments.
• Strong foundation in distributed systems, covering asynchronous messaging, service boundaries, consistency, failure handling and observability.
• Solid grasp of the end‑to‑end SDLC, including CI/CD automation, testing frameworks (JUnit 5, Mockito, AssertJ), code reviews and production support.
• Practical experience applying AI tools for code implementation, testing, debugging and documentation, along with evaluating their delivery impact.
• Excellent communication skills in English

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and architectural direction for distributed backend microservices within an Agile/Lean monorepo environment.
• Design and implement high‑performance service‑to‑service APIs, event‑driven integrations and scalable data architectures.
• Own the full software development lifecycle from technical design through code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD and production diagnostics.
• Guide development teams in modern testing standards, observability, resilience patterns and failure handling to safeguard production stability.
• Introduce and evaluate AI‑assisted engineering practices, using tools such as GitHub Copilot to improve code exploration, quality, testing and delivery speed.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to align service boundaries, optimize infrastructure with Terraform and container orchestration, and ensure robust security standards.

Skills

Java backend

Spring Boot

Cloud-native

Distributed systems

CI/CD

English

Leadership

Tools

Maven

Bazel

Kubernetes

Terraform

GCP

gRPC

REST/JSON

Job description

Powering the agentic revolution in travel. Sabre is an AI-native technology leader, backed by one of the world's largest travel data clouds. Built on an open, modular, cloud-native architecture, Sabre serves as the backbone for both established leaders and bold, new disruptors, guiding them to the next age of travel retailing through intelligent, connected, and personalized experiences. With AI at its core and operating at unparalleled scale, Sabre transforms insights into innovation, empowering airlines, hoteliers, agencies and other partners to retail, distribute and fulfill travel worldwide.

We are seeking a Software Systems Engineer to join our global engineering team, where innovation knows no borders. This team designs and delivers resilient, high-throughput cloud services that power critical travel transactions across the globe. By building modern distributed systems, the team ensures our platform operates with exceptional performance, scalability and reliability. With an inclusive culture and flexible work environment, we work together with boldness, curiosity and commitment so we can all win together.

As a Software Systems Engineer, you will serve as a technical anchor, guiding engineering teams through the design and delivery of cloud-native microservices. You will take ownership of architectural decisions, drive continuous engineering improvements and champion modern development practices across the software lifecycle. This role requires technical depth in distributed architectures, hands‑on engineering rigor and collaborative leadership to solve complex challenges sustainably.

What you'll do

• Provide technical leadership and architectural direction for distributed backend microservices within an Agile/Lean monorepo environment
• Design and implement high-performance service-to-service APIs, event-driven integrations and scalable data architectures
• Own the full software development lifecycle from technical design through code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD and production diagnostics
• Guide development teams in modern testing standards, observability, resilience patterns and failure handling to safeguard production stability
• Introduce and evaluate AI-assisted engineering practices, using tools such as GitHub Copilot to improve code exploration, quality, testing and delivery speed
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align service boundaries, optimize infrastructure with Terraform and container orchestration, and ensure robust security standards

What you'll bring

Required qualifications

• At least 6 years of hands‑on Java backend development experience, including recent production experience with Java 17 or later
• Deep expertise across the Java ecosystem, Spring Boot and the design of cloud-native microservices
• Proven track record leading development teams or serving as a technical anchor in Agile/Lean delivery environments
• Strong foundation in distributed systems, covering asynchronous messaging, service boundaries, consistency, failure handling and observability
• Solid grasp of the end‑to‑end SDLC, including CI/CD automation, testing frameworks such as JUnit 5, Mockito and AssertJ, code reviews and production support
• Practical experience applying AI tools effectively for code implementation, testing, debugging and documentation, along with evaluating their delivery impact
• Excellent communication skills in English

Preferred qualifications

• Familiarity with Java 21
• Domain experience in Order Management Systems (OMS) or travel/airline operations, including orders, PNRs, payments or booking servicing
• Experience managing builds and dependencies with Maven and Bazel within a monorepo
• Experience working with Google Cloud Platform, Google Cloud Spanner and distributed or NoSQL data stores
• Practical experience with Google Cloud Pub/Sub, event-driven architectures and message-driven workflows
• Hands‑on experience developing or integrating APIs using gRPC, Protocol Buffers and REST/JSON
• Familiarity with containerized cloud deployments on Kubernetes/GKE, infrastructure as code via Terraform, Envoy service‑mesh concepts or OAuth 2.0/Okta security

Work arrangements

• Hybrid working mode; 3 chosen days from the office in a week
• Flexible working hours: Maintain your work‑life balance by adjusting your working hours to your needs
• Paid time off
• Year-End-Break: enjoy additional fully paid days off during the last week of the year
• Paid parental leave: Take up to 12 weeks off with pay after birth or adoption of a child. Sabre Global Paid Parental Leave runs concurrently with local leave policies.
• Paid volunteer time: take up to 4 days annually to give your time to a charitable organization of your choice

Your money

• My Benefit platform/Multisport card: enjoy the benefit cafeteria system and use popular sport card
• Tax deduction: take the opportunity to claim deductible costs, reducing your income tax
• Employee Capital Plans: profit from long‑term saving scheme co‑financed by Sabre and the State Treasury
• Baby Bonus: ben