Principal Enterprise Architect, Unified Search & Book

Priceline; Norwalk (CT); Hybrid; USD 175,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Generous PTO

Work-life support

Retirement plan

Travel perks

Tuition support

Pet benefits

Job summary

Priceline is seeking a Principal Enterprise Architect for Unified Search & Book to define architectural vision and technical strategy across search, recommendations, and booking platforms. You will drive performance, reliability, and scalability while partnering with product, data, and engineering teams.

The role emphasizes AI/ML opportunities, API-first design, and cloud-native patterns. Hybrid work model with in-office two days, plus remote options, and a focus on modernizing legacy systems.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in software engineering and architecture.
• Experience in search, recommendation, API-first and cloud-native architectures.
• Hands-on with Java/Spring Boot and Python.
• Experience with PCI DSS, SOX, SOC 2, GDPR.
• Ability to influence executives and engineers.

Responsibilities

• Define long-term architecture vision and roadmap.
• Strengthen search resolution, typeahead, AI-powered discovery, booking engine, and reservations systems.
• Design scalable distributed systems balancing performance and cost.
• Partner across teams to establish ownership and integration patterns.
• Create reusable API, event, data-exchange standards.
• Lead modernization efforts to reduce technical debt.
• Evaluate new technologies and ROI.
• Apply AI/ML to improve search relevance and checkout experience.
• Mentor senior and staff engineers.

Skills

Java / Spring Boot

Python

API design

Event-driven systems

Cloud-native (GCP)

OpenSearch / Elasticsearch

Kafka

PCI DSS / SOX / SOC 2 / GDPR

AI/ML in search

Leadership / mentoring

Tools

GKE

AlloyDB

Spanner

BigQuery

Elasticsearch

OpenSearch

Kafka

Job description

This role is eligible for our hybrid work model: Two days in-office

This role is eligible for remote

Principal Enterprise Architect, Unified Search & Book

Our Technology team is the backbone of our company: constantly creating, testing, learning and iterating to better meet the needs of our customers. If you thrive in a fast-paced, ideas-led environment, you’re in the right place.

Why This Job’s a Big Deal

As the Principal Enterprise Architect for Search & Book, you’ll define the architectural vision and technical strategy for both Search & Book platforms - that includes search & recommendation engine, unified search orchestration, checkout, booking-engine, and reservation management system & payment servicing across Priceline’s customer journey.

You’ll help shape the next-generation architecture that enables customers to search and book effortlessly through a modern, seamless, and trusted experience. Built on an extensible, high-performance platform that empowers other product teams to innovate faster and drive stronger search & checkout conversion.

In This Role, You Will Get To

• Define the long-term architecture vision for Search & Book, with a practical roadmap and clear milestones.
• Strengthen the systems behind search resolution, typeahead, AI-powered discovery, booking-engine, and reservations management systems to improve speed, reliability, and scalability.
• Design system or patterns that can be scaled for agentic commerce.
• Design distributed systems that balance performance, resiliency, cost, and maintainability at scale.
• Partner across Engineering, Product, Data, Analytics, Customer Care, and platform teams to establish clear ownership and integration patterns.
• Create reusable standards for APIs, event-driven systems, data exchange, experimentation, observability, and service integration.
• Lead modernization efforts that simplify legacy systems and reduce technical debt.
• Evaluate new technologies and vendors through technical analysis, proofs of concept, and ROI assessments.
• Identify practical opportunities to apply AI and ML to improve search relevance and checkout experience.
• Mentor senior and staff engineers while promoting clear thinking, simplicity, and strong engineering practices.

Who You Are

• Strategic thinker and clear communicator who can influence executives, peers, and engineers.
• 12+ years in software engineering and architecture with experience designing systems across search, recommendation, API-first and cloud-native architectures, microservices, and AI/ML (including generative AI); experience with checkout, booking, or related travel and ecommerce journeys a plus.
• Hands-on software engineering background with strong full-stack technical credibility; strong preference for Java or Spring Boot and Python, plus fluency in API design, event-driven systems, CI/CD, testing, and observability practices.
• Proficient in data modeling across relational and non-relational stores, selecting fit-for-purpose datastores with the right access pattern, consistency, resiliency, indexing, and partitioning strategies.
• Cloud-native experience—ideally GCP (GKE, AlloyDB, Spanner, BigQuery, Elasticsearch) and Aiven (OpenSearch, Kafka).
• Experience working in environments requiring PCI DSS, SOX, SOC 2, and GDPR, with strong practices in auditability, traceability, and data governance.
• Bias for clarity and simplicity—reducing complexity and enabling teams to move faster and smarter.
• Analytical problem-framer who reduces ambiguity into clear, actionable components.
• Illustrated history of living the values necessary to Priceline: Customer, Innovation, Team, Accountability, and Trust.
• The Right Results, the Right Way is not just a motto at Priceline; it’s a way of life. Unquestionable integrity and ethics are essential.

There are a variety of factors that go into determining a salary range, including but not limited to external market benchmark data, geographic location, and years of experience sought/required. In addition to a competitive base salary, certain roles may be eligible for an annual bonus and/or equity grant.

The salary range for this position is $175,000- $230,000K USD.

Who We Are

WE ARE PRICELINE.

Our success as one of the biggest players in online travel is all thanks to our incredible, dedicated team of talented employees. Priceliners are focused on being the best travel deal makers in the world, motivated by our passion to help everyone experience the moments that matter most in their lives. Whether it’s a dream vacation, your cousin’s graduation, or your best friend’s wedding - we make travel affordable and accessible to our customers.

Our culture is unique and inspiring (that’s what our employees tell us). We’re a grown-up, startup. We deliver the excitement of a new venture, without the struggles and chaos that can come with a business that hasn’t stabilized.

We’re on the cutting edge of innovative technologies. We keep the customer at the center of all that we do. Our ability to meet their needs relies on the strength of a workforce as diverse as the customers we serve. We bring together employees from all walks of life and we are proud to provide the kind of inclusive environment that stimulates innovation, creativity and collaboration.

Priceline is part of the Booking Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKNG) family of companies, a highly profitable global online travel company with a market capitalization of over $80 billion. Our sister companies include Booking.com, BookingGo, Agoda, Kayak and OpenTable.

If you want to be part of something truly special, check us out!

Flexible work at Priceline

Priceline is following a hybrid working model, which includes two days onsite as determined by you and your manager (ideally selecting among Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday). On the remaining days, you can choose to be remote or in the office.

Perks & Benefits At Priceline

Our benefits are designed to support your health, wellbeing, and life inside and outside of work. Eligible Priceliners have access to:

• Health & wellness coverage including medical, dental, vision, and mental health resources
• Generous time off including PTO, holidays, a company-wide Priceline Pause reset week, and paid volunteer days
• Work/life support including the ability to work up to 4 weeks per year from anywhere, parental leave, dependent care and family support resources, Summer Fridays, and office perks like stocked kitchens and catered meals (varies by location)
• Financial security programs such as retirement plans with company contributions, life and disability coverage, and tax-advantaged accounts
• Signature travel perks including employee-only discounts on hotels and flights, VIP deals, and Big Deal Bucks credits
• Additional perks & discounts like travel and partner discounts, tuition support, legal support, and pet benefits
• A people-first culture with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), social events, recognition programs, and service awards that help you connect, grow, and celebrate together

Specific benefits and programs vary by location.

Inclusion is a Big Deal!

To be the best travel dealmakers in the world, we believe our team should reflect the broad range of customers and communities we serve. We are committed to cultivating a culture where all employees have the freedom to bring their individual perspectives, life experiences, and passion to work.

Priceline is a proud equal opportunity employer. We embrace and celebrate the unique lenses through which our employees see the world. We’d love for you to join us and help shape what makes our team extraordinary.