Senior AI Software Engineer — Travel Tech

KAYAK; Concord (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Work from almost anywhere

Mental health support

Company-wide time off

No-meeting Fridays

Parental leave

Volunteer time

Career development

Travel discounts

Office perks

Job summary

KAYAK, a leading travel search engine, is seeking a Java Senior Software Engineer to design, implement, and maintain production software across AI-assisted search and travel planning features.

The role involves building APIs, improving reliability, and collaborating with product teams. The position requires commuting to the Concord, MA office three times per week and contributing to high-quality, scalable systems.

Qualifications

• Experience building production software.
• Proficiency in Java or another relevant programming language.
• Familiarity with APIs and software-design principles.
• Experience testing software and investigating defects or production issues.
• Ability to explain technical decisions clearly in writing and conversation.
• Ability to take ownership of assigned work while seeking input when needed.
• Experience contributing to projects from design through implementation, release and maintenance.
• Equivalent practical experience is welcome in place of a specific degree or educational path.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement and maintain reliable production software for KAYAK’s travel-search and trip-planning experiences.
• Build and evolve APIs and services supporting AI-assisted search, conversational travel planning, itineraries and related user experiences.
• Investigate technical problems, assess trade-offs and choose practical solutions that improve reliability, performance and maintainability.
• Write automated tests and contribute to quality across unit, integration and end-to-end testing.
• Participate in code reviews and technical discussions, providing constructive feedback focused on correctness, clarity and maintainability.
• Work with engineers, product managers and designers to clarify requirements and deliver useful, accessible user experiences.
• Contribute to features such as ASK AI, smart filters, AI-generated hotel review summaries, Explore and related search experiences.
• Help make AI-assisted features dependable, transparent and useful to travelers.
• Learn unfamiliar systems and share knowledge with teammates through documentation, pairing and technical discussions.
• Monitor and improve production behavior through effective debugging, observability and root-cause analysis.
• Contribute to the evolution of development tools, engineering processes and delivery practices.

Skills

Java

APIs

Software design

Testing

Ownership

Spring

Cloud

CI/CD

Communication

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

CI/CD

Job description

KAYAK, a leading travel search engine, is seeking a Java Senior Software Engineer to design, implement, and maintain production software across AI-assisted search and travel planning features.

The role involves building APIs, improving reliability, and collaborating with product teams. The position requires commuting to the Concord, MA office three times per week and contributing to high-quality, scalable systems.