Staff Backend Software Engineer - Commerce Foundations (100% Remote - USA)

📋 Description

• • As a Staff Backend Software Engineer on the Commerce Foundations team at Hopper Inc., you will play a pivotal role in architecting and developing the core systems that power global travel commerce for a multitude of leading brands. This is a unique opportunity to influence the foundational patterns of a highly scalable, resilient, and extensible platform, moving beyond feature development to shape the very 'how' of our booking, search, and checkout processes.
• • You will be instrumental in defining the architectural strategy for our distributed systems, ensuring they are robust, maintainable, and capable of supporting global scale. Your focus will be on building the underlying patterns for complex booking flows, intricate checkout journeys, and sophisticated multi-tenant configurations, setting the technical direction for the entire engineering organization.
• • A key aspect of this role involves driving excellence in multi-tenancy. You will lead the evolution of our platform towards a "configuration over customization" model, enabling partners to launch world-class travel booking experiences with minimal to zero-touch engineering. This requires a deep understanding of building modular, adaptable systems that can serve a diverse range of partners efficiently.
• • As a technical leader, you will provide crucial stewardship for our Scala-based distributed systems. You will define the "North Star" for our technology, ensuring our path towards global expansion is paved with reliable and maintainable architectural patterns. This includes championing functional programming principles to maintain high concurrency, type safety, and overall system reliability.
• • Your impact will extend through mentorship and influence. You will be expected to conduct deep-dive design reviews, mentor senior engineers, and foster a culture that emphasizes high ownership and effective asynchronous decision-making. This leadership will help raise the bar for the entire engineering team, promoting best practices and a collaborative environment.
• • Day-to-day, you will lead the design, build, and operation of API and full-stack solutions that serve as the definitive "source of truth" for Stays and Packages across all Hopper Technology Solutions (HTS) partners. This involves taking architectural sovereignty over critical components of the commerce engine.
• • You will proactively identify and address engineering improvements, seeking out and resolving bottlenecks in the codebase or infrastructure that might impede scalability. This proactive approach to system optimization is crucial for maintaining performance and efficiency.
• • Operating with extreme autonomy, you will work closely with fellow engineers, designers, and product managers to ensure high alignment on complex technical roadmaps. The emphasis is on achieving this alignment through clear communication and documentation, minimizing the need for constant, synchronous meetings.
• • Collaboration will be key, as you'll work cross-functionally with product teams, other Hopper teams, and external partner teams. Your goal will be to ensure that foundational logic is not only robust but also highly extensible to meet future needs and partner requirements.
• • You will champion asynchronous excellence, driving decision-making through high-quality documentation and effective asynchronous communication. This approach is central to Hopper's culture, enabling efficient collaboration in a low-meeting, high-alignment environment.
• • The ideal candidate possesses technical fearlessness, a natural drive to dive deep into complex codebases, untangle logic, and implement elegant abstractions while maintaining a focus on delivering results rapidly. You will also demonstrate strong product thinking, anchoring your conception of quality in the customer experience while understanding that a great experience is built upon a stable and predictable commerce engine.
• • Mastery of distributed systems, particularly in Scala, is essential. You should understand the trade-offs between consistency, availability, and latency in a global context. A multi-tenant mindset, prioritizing "configuration over customization" and building modular systems, is also critical. Finally, you will exhibit pragmatic vision, balancing the need for long-term system health with the imperative for speed and iteration.