Principal Software Development Engineer (Loyalty)

Expedia Group; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 249,000 - 349,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Paid time off

Employee Assistance Program

Wellness and travel reimbursement

Travel discounts

IATAN membership

Job summary

Expedia Group is seeking a Principal Engineer to set the technical vision for the AI-powered Loyalty charter. You will design scalable systems, mentor teams, and drive alignment across Product, Data Science, and platform leaders to deliver trusted experiences for travelers and partners.

You will lead architecture across multiple domains, focusing on security, performance, and reliability while maintaining a customer-first mindset and measurable business outcomes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 12+ years of relevant professional experience.
• Experience in large-scale system architecture and delivery across multiple domains.
• Strong depth in distributed services, cloud, and applied AI; frontend architecture strength.
• Hands-on experience building AI-powered products in production.
• Proven ability to build personalization, experimentation, loyalty, or growth platforms at scale.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to explain AI and architecture clearly to engineers and leaders.
• Ability to build alignment across teams without formal authority.

Responsibilities

• Set architectural vision and delivery approach for complex software across multiple domains for AI-powered loyalty experiences.
• Drive system design, API development, and data modeling for secure, scalable platforms.
• Tackle technically demanding problems across the loyalty ecosystem and close gaps.
• Mentor engineering teams to raise technical standards and foster innovation.
• Elevate and simplify architecture with focus on business problems and metrics.
• Champion rigorous software practices and scalable engineering processes.
• Develop deep understanding of loyalty and travel foundations and their architectural boundaries.

Skills

System architecture

Distributed services

Cloud infrastructure

Frontend architecture

Applied AI

AI in production

Leadership & mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Job description

At Expedia Group, we help travelers explore the world, one journey at a time. As a global travel company powered by passionate people, trusted partnerships, and leading technology, we connect travelers, partners, and advertisers through our consumer brands, B2B network, and travel advertising business.

Here, you'll do meaningful work that helps millions of people discover, book, and experience travel with more ease, confidence, and joy. Our five Behaviors-Traveler First, Think Big, Operate with Excellence, Ownership Mindset, and Succeed Together-help foster a supportive environment where people can grow their careers and have the flexibility, benefits, and support to do their best work. Join us and build for travelers everywhere.

Introduction To The Team

Expedia Technology teams partner with our Product teams to create innovative products, services, and tools to deliver high quality experiences for travelers, partners, and our employees. A singular technology platform powered by data and machine learning provides secure, differentiated, and personalized experiences that drive loyalty and traveler satisfaction.

The Loyalty Engineering organization powers continuous engagement, re engagement, and re acquisition for travelers worldwide. We build the systems that create a durable growth flywheel for Expedia, deepening traveler relationships while driving measurable business impact across brands and markets.

As a Principal Engineer, you will set the technical vision and architecture for the AI empowered Loyalty charter, designing and delivering intelligent engagement experiences powered by modern AI and agentic systems. You will shape system design across multiple distributed engineering teams and drive alignment with Product, Data Science, and platform leaders to build solutions that are scalable, reliable, and genuinely novel. Your influence will extend beyond any single team, shaping how Loyalty engineering approaches hard problems for years to come.

This role calls for deep, hands on technical leadership, sound architectural judgment, and the ability to build alignment across teams without relying on formal authority. You are expected to be a multiplier: the person other engineers look to when a problem is ambiguous, high stakes, or genuinely hard.

In This Role, You Will

• Set the architectural vision, design, and delivery approach for complex software solutions across multiple technical domains, enabling AI and machine learning powered loyalty offers and experiences.
• Drive system design, API development, and data modeling so our platforms remain secure, maintainable, and able to perform at scale.
• Take on the most technically demanding problems across the loyalty experience ecosystem, stepping in where existing solutions fall short and closing critical gaps.
• Mentor and raise the bar for engineering teams, fostering technical excellence and encouraging genuine innovation across projects and domains.
• Elevate and simplify, always keeping the underlying business problem and customer metrics in view rather than treating architecture as an end in itself.
• Strengthen operational excellence by championing rigorous software development practices and engineering processes that scale with the organization.
• Build a deep, functional understanding of the loyalty and travel foundations ecosystem, including its capabilities, dependencies, and architectural boundaries.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 12+ years of relevant professional experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in large scale system architecture, technical decision making, and delivery of complex solutions spanning multiple domains.
• Strong technical depth across distributed services, cloud infrastructure, and applied AI, with particular strength in frontend architecture.
• Hands on experience designing, building, and shipping AI powered products in production environments.
• Proven ability to build experiences for personalization, experimentation, recommendation, loyalty, or growth platforms at scale.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex AI and architectural concepts clearly to engineers, product partners, and senior leaders alike.
• Ability to build alignment across teams without relying on formal authority.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading architectural transformation and modernization initiatives for large, distributed systems.
• Expertise in full stack engineering with a frontend leaning, and a proven ability to operate across multiple technical domains and platforms.
• A track record of championing decisions grounded in data and operational excellence for mission critical systems.
• Sound judgment in weighing tradeoffs between innovation, speed, scalability, and reliability.
• A collaborative, positive presence who is known for attracting strong engineers and helping them grow.

The total cash range for this position in San Jose is $249,000.00 to $348,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $398,500.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.

Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.

Benefits And Perks

Expedia Group offers benefits and perks designed to support employees and their families, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, an Employee Assistance Program, wellness and travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) membership. Learn more about life at Expedia Group at https://careers.expediagroup.com/life.

Accommodation requests

Expedia Group is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruiting experience. If you need an accommodation or adjustment due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please submit a request at https://expedia.service-now.com/askeg?id=job_accommodation.

About Expedia Group

Expedia Group includes three flagship consumer brands - Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo - along with a leading B2B travel business and travel advertising offerings. Across our brands and business, we help travelers explore the world with confidence and ease.

Important notice

Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group's Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never share sensitive personal information unless you are confident of the recipient. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or messaging tools to individuals with whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official place to find and apply for roles is https://careers.expediagroup.com/jobs/.

Equal Opportunity

Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee's I-9 to confirm work authorization.