Senior Backend Systems Engineer, Ads Platform

Traveltechessentialist; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 136,000 - 218,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Travel discounts

IATAN membership

Job summary

Expedia Group is seeking a Software Development Engineer II to design and scale high-performance backend systems for the advertiser network. The role blends backend focus (70–80%) with some frontend (20–30%) using React to support customer-facing experiences.

You will work on a multi-year initiative to unify ad products into a scalable platform, influencing advertiser experiences and shared capabilities across the system.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of software development experience building and supporting production systems and services.
• Strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, and core computer science fundamentals.
• Experience owning components or services, including implementation, testing, deployment, and operational support.
• Experience designing and building scalable backend systems and APIs.
• Expertise in Java or Kotlin and familiarity with React.
• Experience with API design and consumption, including REST and/or GraphQL.
• Experience working across multiple technical systems or services, with the ability to debug and deliver maintainable solutions.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, test, and maintain scalable backend services and APIs that power the advertiser portal and enable third-party integrations.
• Contribute to the development of a unified ads platform, delivering reusable capabilities across multiple advertising products.
• Own features and services end-to-end—from design and implementation to deployment and operational support.
• Apply strong coding fundamentals to deliver high-quality, maintainable, and extensible solutions.
• Participate in system design, API design (including GraphQL), and data modeling.
• Build customer-facing features (primarily backend-driven, with some React frontend contributions).
• Drive improvements in scalability, performance, and reliability for high-traffic advertiser systems.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, operations, and distributed teams to translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Troubleshoot production issues and improve system health through monitoring, debugging, automation, and observability practices.
• Write secure, well-tested code, participate in code reviews, and follow engineering best practices.
• Leverage AI-enabled solutions and AI-assisted development tools to improve developer productivity and product outcomes.

Skills

Backend development

Java/Kotlin

React familiarity

APIs (REST/GraphQL)

System design

Code reviews

AI-assisted development

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or related field

Tools

React

REST

GraphQL

Job description

Expedia Group is seeking a Software Development Engineer II to design and scale high-performance backend systems for the advertiser network. The role blends backend focus (70–80%) with some frontend (20–30%) using React to support customer-facing experiences.

You will work on a multi-year initiative to unify ad products into a scalable platform, influencing advertiser experiences and shared capabilities across the system.