Engineering Lead Post Booking Optimization - New York, NY

Product and Technology; New York (NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel perks/discounts

Health & Wellness Programs

401k with match

Paid Time Off and holidays

Job summary

Flight Centre Travel Group is seeking an Engineering Lead for Post Booking Optimization in New York. You will own the end-to-end solution design, drive architecture across multiple teams, and lead integrations with hotel and air content providers.

The role focuses on scalable, autonomous systems with AI-assisted development and strong governance. You will guide cross-functional teams, ensure delivery aligns with design, and champion modernization of the technology stack while maintaining

Qualifications

• 7+ years in software engineering with design/architecture/technical lead experience.
• Ability to own and drive architecture across multiple teams to a single design.
• Track record of delivering technical work through influence rather than direct reports.
• Strong backend engineering with distributed, event-driven systems.
• Experience integrating third-party systems with retries, idempotency, and versioning.
• Experience in cloud-native delivery (Azure preferred), containers, CI/CD, IaC, and test automation.
• Experience with systems where automated behavior has real financial or customer impact.
• Ability to automate manual production processes incrementally
• Grounded in travel tech: GDS, NDC, hotel/air content, booking workflows.
• Ability to explain trade-offs to business stakeholders without oversimplifying.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end solution design for Post Booking Optimization across hotel and air.
• Maintain architectural blueprint ensuring alignment across teams.
• Oversee design reviews and ensure delivery matches design.
• Coordinate with external teams and elevate priority/funding questions.
• Drive integrations with partner platforms (hotel/air content, mid-office, invoicing).
• Design partner integrations to minimize rebuilds when providers change.
• Own estimation and sizing of engineering work.
• Design scalable end-to-end system, including manual steps left in place.
• Establish observability, alerts, and SLAs for unattended systems.
• Explore AI/automation to improve outcomes while ensuring auditability and determinism.
• Champion AI-assisted SDLC across design, build, testing, review.
• Drive modernisation of tech stack and ways of working.
• Perform other duties; promote inclusive, safe work environment.

Skills

Architectural leadership

Distributed systems

Cloud-native engineering

Azure

CI/CD

Event-driven design

Observability

AI in software delivery

Cross-team leadership

Technical delivery

Education

Degree in Technology or Engineering

Tools

Azure

Kubernetes

CI/CD tooling

Infrastructure as Code

Job description

Engineering Lead Post Booking Optimization

Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) is one of the world’s largest travel retailers and corporate travel managers. The company, which is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia has company-owned leisure and corporate travel business in 23 countries, spanning Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, Europe, the United Kingdom, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Asia. FCTG also operates a global corporate travel management network, which extends to more than 90 countries through company-owned businesses and independent licensees. The company opened its first leisure travel shop in Sydney, Australia in 1982 and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1995. Our purpose is to “open up the world for those who want to see”. Every day, we give people all around the world the opportunity to experience something really amazing – travel!

About the Opportunity

We're looking for an Engineering Lead to own and drive the technical solution behind Post Booking Optimization. This is a high-impact opportunity to design and build systems that continuously monitor hotel reservations and air itineraries to secure better rates and fares for some of the world's largest corporate travel programs. You'll lead the architecture, solution design, integrations, and technical delivery across multiple teams, shaping a platform that operates safely, autonomously, and at scale. Working across both hotel and air, you'll play a critical role in modernizing travel technology, driving innovation, and harnessing AI to improve engineering outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end solution design for Post Booking Optimization across hotel and air, spanning the resources within the program and the teams we depend on.
• Own and maintain the architectural blueprint, keeping every contributing team building to the same picture, and making trade-offs explicit.
• Oversee the build and construction — design reviews, technical quality, and confidence that what is delivered matches what was designed.
• Act as the technical counterpart for engineering teams that contribute to Post Booking Optimization but sit outside the program: agree interfaces and sequencing peer to peer, and elevate to the Program Leader when the question becomes one of priority or funding.
• Drive integrations across partner platforms, including hotel and air content sources, mid-office, ticketing, and invoicing.
• Design partner integrations so that adding or changing a provider is contained work rather than a rebuild.
• Own engineering estimation and sizing, and push back where a requirement is not yet specific enough to size, or where the business rationale is not yet clear.
• Design the end-to-end system to scale, including the steps that remain manual.
• Establish observability, alerting, and service levels for a system that acts unattended on customer bookings, with staged rollout and kill-switches by market and client.
• Evaluate where AI and automation can improve outcomes while maintaining appropriate levels of auditability and deterministic logic.
• Champion an AI-assisted software development lifecycle, applying AI across design, build, testing, and review to lift both the pace and the quality of what we deliver.
• Drive innovation in how we build — modernizing the technology stack and our ways of working, and making the case for change where the current approach limits what Post Booking Optimization can become.
• Other duties and tasks as assigned
• Contribute to a safe, inclusive, and accessible work environment where all Flighties feel welcomed, respected, and supported to thrive

Experience & Qualifications

• 7+ years in software engineering, including significant time in a solution design, architecture, or technical lead capacity.
• Proven ability to own and drive architecture across multiple contributing teams, ensuring alignment to a single design
• A track record of driving technical delivery through people you do not manage.
• Deep backend engineering grounding, with distributed, event-driven systems running in production.
• Proven at integrating third-party systems you do not control — retries, idempotency, partial failure, versioning, and vendor service levels.
• Experienced in cloud-native delivery (Azure preferred), containerization, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and test automation.
• A track record of building systems where incorrect automated behavior carries real financial or customer consequences, and where every minute of degraded service costs money, credibility, and reputation.
• Skilled at automating a previously manual process in production, incrementally rather than by rebuilding it wholesale.
• Grounded in travel technology — GDS, NDC, hotel and air content, and the servicing workflows behind a booking.
• Informed about where AI genuinely adds value in systems that must remain auditable and deterministic.
• Able to explain technical trade-offs to commercial and operational stakeholders without flattening them.
• Comfortable supporting more than one product roadmap at once, and effective at driving outcomes with distributed or fully remote teams.
• Degree in Technology, Engineering, or a related field preferred.

Work Perks! - What’s in it for you:

F CTG is renowned internationally for having amazing perks and an even better culture. We understand that our people are our most valuable asset. It is the passion and dedication of our teams that keep the company on top of the industry ladder. It’s also why we offer some great employee benefits and perks outside of the norm.

• Have fun: At the heart of everything we do at Flight Centre is a desire to have fun.
• Reward & Recognition: Celebrate the success of yourself and others at our regular Buzz Nights and at the annual Global Gathering - You'll have to experience it to believe it!
• Use your smarts: Our people use their quick thinking, expertise, and tenacity to always figure things out.
• Love for travel: We were founded by people who wanted to travel and want others to do the same. That passion is something you can’t miss in our people or service.
• Personal connections: We are a big business founded on personal relationships.
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion through initiatives like Diversity Day (paid leave to observe a holiday or cultural celebration of your choice) Employee Resource Groups (Racial Equity, Gender Equity, LGBTQ2IA+, Accessibility, Environmental Justice), DEI education initiatives, and equitable practices, including regular equity assessments and inclusive recruitment protocols.
• A career, not a job: We offer genuine opportunities for people to grow and evolve
• We back our people all the way: We are strongly committed to supporting every single employee in their professional and personal development.
• Giving Back: Our Corporate Social Responsibility program supports nominated charities through volunteering and fundraising, complemented by our Office Environmental Program, LEED® Gold-certified office spaces, and 1 paid Volunteer Day per calendar year.

Benefits Include:

• Paid Time Off: A comprehensive time off package, including up to 15 vacation days (prorated upon hire and increasing to 20 days after 2 years of employment), 5 sick days, 3 personal days, 1 Diversity Day, 1 Volunteer Day, and 9 recognized holidays annually.
• Travel perks/discounts
• Health & Wellness Programs and Employee Financial Wellness Services
• National/International Award Nights and Conferences
• Health benefits including, medical, dental, vision, gender affirming care, and fertility care
• Insurance including hospital indemnity, AD&D, critical illness, long-term and short-term disability
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Employee Assistance Program
• 401k program with partial match
• Tuition Reimbursement Program
• Employee Share Plan – Ability to purchase company stock on Australian Stock Exchange with partial company match, subject to terms and conditions
• Global career opportunities in a network of brands and businesses

Vacation, Personal, and Sick time accrual rates will vary based on full-time or part-time employee status. Recognized Holidays are either paid time off or, if required to work due to job requirements, holiday pay rate, and may vary depending on state.

Location – New York, USA

For this position, we anticipate offering an annual salary of $140,000 - $180,000. Base salary is dependent on relevant factors, including experience, geographic location, and job requirements.

As part of our recruitment process, we may use AI tools to assist in various stages, including the screening and assessment of applications. These tools support our evaluation of candidates based on role relevant qualifications, skills and experience. All decisions are made by our hiring team and stakeholders.

We thank all candidates for their interest; however, only those selected to continue in the process will be contacted.

Our number one philosophy? Our people. Flight Center Travel Group USA’s promise is to provide an environment with equality of respect, dignity and opportunity for all our employees. We value an inclusive and supportive workplace which truly reflects the diversity of our society.

We are an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer committed to providing a barrier-free pathway throughout our recruitment process. We welcome accommodation requests to help make our hiring and onboarding experience as accessible as possible. Please advise us about accommodation needs at any point by contacting our Recruitment Team at [e-mail]

GBTA WINiT Top 50 Award Recipients (2018–2025) CHHR: 5-Star DE&I Employer (2023, 2024, 2026) Seramount, FCTG Mexico: Member of the Global Inclusion Index (2023–2025) Newsweek: America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity (2024) Benefits Canada: Health/Wellness Program and Mental Health Program (2023, 2025) OutThere Awards: Inclusive Travel Finalist (2025) Canadian HR Awards: Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Awardee (2025) 2026 Disability Index®: World’s Top Disability Inclusive Business

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Applications close: 04 Dec 2026 Eastern Standard Time