Staff Software Engineer, Flights

Navan; New City (NY); On-site; USD 129,600 - 288,000; Full time

Job summary

Navan is seeking a Staff Engineer for the Flights group to build and scale the next-generation flight platform powering global business growth. You will be a hands-on leader, shaping architecture, mentoring engineers, and delivering high-impact features with a product-first mindset.

You’ll work with engineers, PMs, and designers worldwide to improve reliability, performance, and user experience while maintaining strong code quality and documentation practices.

Qualifications

• This role requires 10+ years building and scaling complex systems in fast-paced environments.
• A strong product mindset with customer empathy and focus on experience.
• Hands-on coder with leadership experience and production-quality delivery.

Responsibilities

• Build at scale: provide technical leadership and craft high-performance architecture.
• Drive product-minded solutions with a deep understanding of customer needs.
• Solve ambiguous problems with creative, scalable engineering solutions.
• Own features end-to-end, monitor health, and ensure business impact.
• Collaborate across global cross-functional teams to deliver results.
• Elevate engineering culture with code quality, docs, and testing.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

AWS

Distributed systems

Microservices

API design

Leadership

Code quality

Cloud architecture

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's or Master’s in CS/Engineering

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

JVM tooling

Job description

At Navan, “It’s all about the user. All of them.” We’re passionate about providing a seamless one-stop experience for business travelers, no matter how they travel, where they stay, or where they’re going. Our engineers work closely with product managers, designers, and data scientists to build innovative tools and services that provide a frictionless, efficient, and enjoyable traveler experience.

This is a unique opportunity that combines the hyper-growth, fast-paced environment of a startup, with the perks, opportunity size, and impact of an established company. Our teams are at the forefront of the next-generation of modern airline retailing.

As a Staff Engineer in the Flights group, you’ll play an essential part in building and scaling the next-generation flight platform, Navan’s flagship product that drives global business growth. This is a high-scale, complex environment where your work will impact customers worldwide. You’ll solve challenging problems, collaborate with engineers, product managers, and designers across the globe, and contribute to a platform trusted by major enterprises.

As a technical leader and contributor on the Flights team, you will partner closely with other engineers to drive change and improve systems and developer experience. Although you will be at one of our highest levels of seniority, all individual contributors are expected to be hands‑on and contribute code.

What You’ll Do

• Build at Scale: Act as a prolific individual contributor while providing technical leadership and mentorship to engineers across the team. Design and develop robust, high-performance architecture and services that support our flagship product globally.
• Champion a Product Mindset: Cultivate a deep understanding of our customers' needs and strive for excellence in the customer experience, translating user insights into seamless, high-performance technical realities.
• Solve Complex and Ambiguous Problems: Apply deep technical expertise and creativity to turn highly ambiguous problem spaces into clear, actionable technical solutions, addressing large-scale engineering challenges, and driving improvements in reliability, performance, and user experience.
• Deliver End-to-End Business Impact: Own critical features end-to-end. Collaborate closely with product managers and designers, ship high-impact features, monitor their operational health, and ensure key technical decisions directly drive exceptional quality, user value, and positive business outcomes.
• Collaborate Across Teams: Work effectively as part of a global, cross-functional team, partnering with fellow engineers, product managers, designers, and business leaders to deliver impactful solutions and elevate team performance.
• Elevate Engineering Culture: Champion engineering excellence, setting the standard for code quality, scalability, documentation, and testing. Mentor team members to foster continuous growth and technical mastery.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of experience building and scaling complex systems in fast-paced, high-growth, or large-scale environments.
• A strong product mindset with genuine empathy for the user and a relentless drive to deliver an exceptional customer experience.
• A proven track record as a hands‑on coder who balances high-volume, high-quality code output with technical leadership.
• In-depth experience with Java, Spring Boot, and AWS (or other cloud provider), including a deep understanding of JVM performance, optimization, and cloud architecture.
• Strong expertise in distributed systems, microservices, and API design.
• Ownership mentality with a record of delivering production-quality, maintainable code, and supporting features post‑release through monitoring and troubleshooting.
• Demonstrated ability to operate comfortably in highly ambiguous environments, thinking creatively to develop and implement solutions.
• Collaborative team player able to work effectively with global, cross‑functional partners.
• Commitment to engineering excellence across the software development lifecycle.
• Problem‑solving mindset with a passion for tackling technically demanding and customer-impacting challenges.
• Domain knowledge in the travel industry (flights, bookings, or inventory management) is a strong plus.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent hands‑on experience.

The posted pay range represents the anticipated low and high end of the compensation for this position and is subject to change based on business need. To determine a successful candidate’s starting pay, we carefully consider a variety of factors, including primary work location, an evaluation of the candidate’s skills and experience, market demands, and internal parity. For roles with on‑target‑earnings (OTE), the pay range includes both base salary and target incentive compensation. Target incentive compensation for some roles may include a ramping draw period. Compensation is higher for those who exceed targets. Candidates may receive more information from the recruiter.

Pay Range: $129,600 USD - $288,000 USD