Software Development Engineer III

Expedia; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 146,000 - 205,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision coverage

Paid time off

Employee Assistance Program

Wellness and travel reimbursement

Travel discounts

IATAN membership

Job summary

Expedia Group is seeking a senior software engineer to design, build, and evolve highly available services across domains. You will lead end-to-end implementation, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and drive architectural decisions to improve reliability, performance, and security.

You will also safely integrate AI/ML-enabled components into production, emphasizing observability and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field or equivalent professional experience.
• 5+ years of relevant professional experience.
• Proven ownership of complex services or multi-service systems.
• Strong skills in system design, API design, and data modeling.
• Familiarity with AI-driven systems and safe integration of AI/ML concepts.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and evolve complex, highly available services and applications including system design, API design, and data modeling.
• Lead end-to-end implementation from requirements through deployment and support with high code quality.
• Drive technical direction by evaluating tradeoffs and influencing architectural decisions.
• Collaborate with product, design, data and other engineering teams to deliver reusable, extensible features.
• Safely integrate and operate AI/ML-enabled solutions to improve outcomes.
• Promote engineering excellence via automation, observability, and incident response.

Skills

Java

APIs

Distributed systems

Data modeling

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

AWS

Kafka

Kinesis

Redis/Couchbase/Memcached

Kafka Streams

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.

Our Technology Team partners with teams across Expedia Group to build innovative products, services, and tools that deliver high-quality experiences for travelers, partners, and employees. Powered by modern platforms, data, and strong engineering practices, we create secure, scalable, and reliable solutions that support the business and improve customer experiences.

In this role, you will:

• Design, build, and evolve complex, highly available services and applications, including system design (LLD), API design, and data modeling to support scalable customer and partner experiences across multiple domains.
• Lead end-to-end implementation of technical solutions, from requirements analysis and design through development, code review, testing, deployment, and ongoing support, ensuring high code quality and robust engineering practices.
• Drive technical direction for your area by evaluating tradeoffs, decomposing large problems into executable work, and influencing architectural decisions that improve reliability, performance, and security for multiple services.
• Collaborate closely with product, design, data, and other engineering teams to deliver features and platforms that are reusable, extensible, and adaptable across different lines of business and technology stacks.
• Safely integrate and operate AI/ML‑enabled solutions that improve outcomes, including familiarity with AI-driven systems, tools, or workflows and applying AI/ML concepts to real world products.
• Promote engineering excellence through automation, observability, and operational readiness, including incident response, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement of services under your ownership.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field; or Equivalent related professional experience.
• 5+ years of relevant professional experience.
• Proven ownership of complex services or multi-service systems, including responsibility for design, implementation, operational health, and iterative improvement.
• Strong skills in system design (including low-level design), API design, and data modeling, with the ability to build scalable, maintainable, and testable solutions.
• Familiarity with AI-driven systems, tools, or workflows and applying AI/ML concepts to real world products, with an emphasis on safely integrating these capabilities into existing services.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience designing and evolving architectures for large-scale, distributed systems, including cross-service integrations, data flows, and resilience patterns.
• Demonstrated track record of driving operational excellence, including monitoring, alerting, performance tuning, incident management, and building tools or frameworks that improve service reliability.
• Ability to influence technical strategy across teams or domains, mentoring other engineers, leading design reviews, and setting standards for code quality and system design (LLD, API design, and data modeling).
• Experience leveraging data and experimentation to inform technical and product decisions, including defining metrics, analyzing system behavior, and validating impact.
• Hands‑on experience integrating or extending AI/ML-enabled components in production systems (such as recommendation, ranking, or decisioning services), with a focus on reliability, safety, and responsible use of AI, including safely integrating and operating AI/ML‑enabled solutions that improve outcomes at the SDE III level.
• Hands‑on experience in software development using Java or similar object‑oriented programming languages, or Scala or Kotlin or similar functional languages.
• Proven experience building and operating scalable distributed systems and services within AWS cloud infrastructure or similar technologies.
• Designed and implemented distributed, event‑driven systems using Kafka Streams, AWS Kinesis, or similar.
• Optimize for low-latency and high-throughput processing (1M+ TPS) microservices.
• Implemented auto‑scaling, blue‑green deployments, and canary releases and Build and maintain SLAs, SLOs, and SLIs for critical services.
• Strong practical knowledge and experience developing robust caching solutions, utilizing technologies such as Redis or Couchbase or Memcached, or similar distributed caching tools.
• Experience working successfully on Agile development teams with a minimum of 5 engineers, understanding modern agile methodologies, version control systems, continuous integration, and continuous delivery practices.
• Understanding of relational and NoSQL databases, data structures, API patterns, and service‑oriented architectures.

The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $146,000.00 to $204,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $233,500.00, 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

• medical
• dental
• vision coverage
• paid time off
• an Employee Assistance Program
• wellness and travel reimbursement
• travel discounts
• International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) membership

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. Expedia Group (NASDAQ: EXPE) powers travel for everyone, everywhere through our global platform. Driven by the core belief that travel is a force for good, we help people experience the world in new ways and build lasting connections. Expedia Group's family of brands includes: Brand Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™. For more information, visit www.expediagroup.com. Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group’s Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never provide sensitive, personal information to someone unless you’re confident who the recipient is. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or any other messaging tools to individuals to whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official website to find and apply for job openings at Expedia Group is lifeatexpediagroup.com/jobs.