Hopper

Ingénieur·e logiciel principal (Staff Software Engineer) – Commerce HTS

Hopper3 days ago
Location

Montréal - Remote

Workplace

Remote

Type

Full Time

Salary

CAD 180,000 – 280,000

Level

Staff

Role

Staff Software Engineer

Posted

Jun 30, 2026

Full TimeRemoteStaff

The role

Summary

Staff Software Engineer role at Hopper's Commerce HTS division, leading the development of a configurable, multi-tenant travel commerce platform that powers 410M cardholders across major banking and airline partners. You'll architect scalable systems, leverage AI-assisted development workflows, and own full-stack features from backend distributed systems through partner-facing surfaces, working with Scala, GCP services, React, and TypeScript in a low-process, trust-driven environment where technical vision directly influences product roadmap and company strategy.

What you'll do

Codebase Architecture & Optimization: Identify and execute improvements to the codebase and infrastructure that enable both human engineers and AI agents to move rapidly while maintaining high safety and reliability standards. Design patterns and abstractions that reduce friction and enable faster iteration cycles across the distributed system.
End-to-End Feature Ownership: Own complete features from conception through production, spanning backend distributed systems, API layers, and partner-facing interfaces. Drive technical decisions that balance scalability, performance, and user experience while managing complexity across the full technology stack.
AI-Assisted Development Leadership: Orchestrate AI agents and automated workflows to design, build, and maintain complex distributed systems. Establish guardrails, feedback loops, and quality gates that ensure AI-assisted development remains productive and reliable while maintaining code quality standards.
System Architecture & Scalability: Design and evolve foundational architectural patterns, data models, and service boundaries that enable the platform to efficiently launch new partner experiences and scale across 410M cardholders. Make critical tradeoff decisions between consistency, availability, and partition tolerance.
Cross-Functional Technical Leadership: Work directly with product managers, business stakeholders, and partners to translate business requirements into technical specifications and scalable solutions. Influence roadmap prioritization through technical feasibility analysis and architectural recommendations.
Asynchronous Decision-Making & Documentation: Drive technical decisions and consensus in a distributed, low-process environment through thoughtful documentation, architectural decision records (ADRs), and detailed technical specifications that enable autonomous execution and knowledge sharing.
Engineer Collaboration & Knowledge Transfer: Collaborate with senior engineering peers through code review, design feedback, and mentoring. Give and receive constructive feedback to foster continuous improvement and cultivate a culture of ownership and technical excellence within the team.

What we look for

Technical

Distributed Systems DesignDemonstrated expertise in designing and building large-scale distributed systems, including experience with service-oriented architecture, asynchronous messaging patterns, eventual consistency models, and handling complex failure scenarios.
Scala & Functional ProgrammingStrong experience with Scala or willingness to rapidly master it, with solid understanding of functional programming paradigms, immutability, type systems, and pattern matching as they apply to backend systems development.
Backend System DevelopmentProduction experience building scalable backend services and APIs, with expertise in database design, query optimization, caching strategies, and managing high-throughput data pipelines that serve millions of requests.
AI-Assisted DevelopmentAdvanced proficiency with LLM-powered development tools and AI agents for code generation, architectural design, and system maintenance. Deep understanding of LLM strengths, limitations, and failure modes with judgment about when to trust AI output versus manual intervention.
Full-Stack CapabilityAbility to navigate modern full-stack development including React with TypeScript on the frontend, understanding of API design patterns, and capability to own features end-to-end while primarily focusing on backend complexity.
Cloud Platform ArchitectureExperience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services, including Compute Engine, Cloud Functions, Pub/Sub, Datastore/Firestore, and understanding of serverless patterns, managed services, and cloud-native system design.
Production Systems ReliabilityDeep understanding of observability, monitoring, logging, and alerting for production systems. Experience implementing chaos engineering, incident response, and developing systems with built-in resilience and graceful degradation.

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related FieldFormal education in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related discipline providing strong foundational knowledge in algorithms, data structures, and computational theory. Equivalent hands-on experience and demonstrated mastery is equally valued.

Experience

Staff or Senior+ Engineering ExperienceMinimum 8+ years of software engineering experience with at least 3+ years at senior or staff level, demonstrating consistent ability to tackle complex system design challenges, influence technical direction, and deliver high-impact solutions at scale.
Commerce or Fintech Platform DevelopmentPreferred experience building commerce platforms, payment systems, or fintech products that handle transaction integrity, regulatory compliance, and high-volume payment processing. Understanding of travel industry e-commerce dynamics is valuable.
Multi-Tenant System ArchitectureExperience designing and operating multi-tenant platforms that serve diverse customers with varying requirements, including data isolation, configuration management, and tenant-specific customization without code branching.
Rapid Prototyping & IterationTrack record of rapidly prototyping, iterating, and shipping features in fast-moving environments. Demonstrated ability to balance speed and quality, knowing when to prioritize immediate delivery versus long-term technical debt management.

Skills

Required skills

Scala ProgrammingProduction-level proficiency with Scala for building backend services, comfort with functional programming constructs, and ability to design type-safe systems that leverage Scala's advanced type system.
Distributed Systems EngineeringDeep expertise in distributed systems patterns including eventual consistency, consensus algorithms, fault tolerance, and architectural patterns like CQRS or event sourcing that enable reliable systems at scale.
LLM-Powered Development ToolsExpert-level proficiency with AI-assisted coding tools and ability to architect workflows that leverage LLM capabilities for design, implementation, and maintenance while maintaining quality and reliability standards.
Backend API DesignStrong skills in designing RESTful APIs, gRPC services, and asynchronous message-driven architectures. Understanding of API versioning, backward compatibility, and designing APIs that scale across diverse partner integrations.
GCP Cloud ServicesHands-on expertise with Google Cloud Platform including Compute Engine, Cloud Functions, Pub/Sub, and managed databases. Understanding of GCP-specific patterns for building globally-distributed, fault-tolerant systems.
Database Design & Query OptimizationStrong understanding of both relational and NoSQL database design patterns, including schema design for scalability, query optimization, indexing strategies, and choosing appropriate databases for specific workload characteristics.
Product-Centric System ThinkingAbility to anchor architectural and quality decisions in customer experience and business impact rather than technical elegance alone. Understanding of how system design directly affects user outcomes and business metrics.

Nice to have

Java or Go DevelopmentExperience building large-scale systems in Java, Go, or other statically-typed languages. Strong fundamentals in these languages demonstrate ability to quickly master Scala and other backend technologies on the team's stack.
React & TypeScript FrontendFamiliarity with React and TypeScript for building partner-facing user interfaces, even if not your primary focus. Ability to navigate frontend codebases and collaborate with frontend engineers on end-to-end features.
Travel or Booking Platform ExperiencePrior experience in travel technology, hotel/flight booking systems, or comparable commerce platforms dealing with complex pricing, inventory management, and integration with external suppliers and partners.
Fintech or Payment SystemsBackground working on fintech products, payment processing, or fraud detection systems that handle sensitive financial data, regulatory compliance, PCI requirements, and high-stakes transaction integrity.
Data Pipelines & ML IntegrationExperience building data pipelines that feed machine learning models or integrate ML predictions into production systems. Understanding of how to operationalize ML and handle model updates in live systems.
Incident Response & ObservabilityHands-on experience with production incident response, designing observability solutions, and implementing monitoring and alerting strategies that enable rapid detection and resolution of issues.
Leadership in Low-Process EnvironmentsTrack record of thriving in flat, autonomy-driven organizations where trust-based management and asynchronous communication enable rapid decision-making without layers of process or approval.

Compensation & benefits

Salary

CAD 180,000 – 280,000 (annual)

Stock options

Available

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Hopper

Hopper

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Hopper is a travel booking app and online marketplace, leveraging data-driven technology to predict prices and help users book hotels, flights, and car rentals at the best rates.

Montreal, QC, CanadaFounded 2006hopper.com

Tech Stack

Languages
ScalaTypeScriptPythonGo or Java
Frameworks
ReactPlay FrameworkAkkagRPC
Databases
PostgreSQLBigQueryFirestore or Cloud DatastoreRedisCloud Spanner
Tools
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)KubernetesDockerGitHubDatadog or Cloud MonitoringClaude, ChatGPT, or Copilot
Other
Microservices ArchitectureAPI Design & REST PrinciplesEvent-Driven ArchitectureData Modeling for CommerceCompliance & Security in FintechInstrumentation & Observability
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