Hopper

Senior Backend Engineer - Lodging and Cars

Hopper2 days ago
Location

Netherlands - Remote

Workplace

Remote

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 160,000 – 220,000

Level

Senior

Role

Backend Engineer

Posted

Jul 1, 2026

Full TimeRemoteSenior

The role

Summary

Join Hopper's Lodging and Cars Supply team as a Senior Backend Engineer to scale a global hotel and cars ecosystem handling high-volume, real-time transactions. As a senior individual contributor, you'll navigate a complex microservices environment to deliver reliable booking fulfillment, integrate new lodging and cars partners into the core stack, and optimize system monitoring. This role is ideal for a self-directed engineer with strong Scala/JVM expertise who excels at exploring complex systems and executing end-to-end technical solutions in a high-growth travel fintech environment.

What you'll do

End-to-End Technical Integration: Execute comprehensive technical integrations with external lodging, cars, and GDS (Global Distribution System) partners while navigating complex communication protocols and distributed data schemas to expand Hopper's booking infrastructure.
High-Performance Microservices Development: Write clean, performant code in Scala and other JVM languages to maintain, evolve, and uphold rigorous engineering standards for mission-critical lodging services handling high-volume transaction throughput.
Production Issue Resolution: Explore and troubleshoot complex codebases to deep-dive into infrastructure issues and resolve production problems in a distributed system environment, ensuring minimal booking disruption and customer impact.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Product Managers and Operations teams to decompose business requirements into technical tasks, provide accurate delivery timeline estimates, and ensure alignment between technical implementation and product strategy.
Full Lifecycle Feature Ownership: Take full ownership of the development lifecycle for new product features, from initial technical implementation and comprehensive testing to production deployment, monitoring, and optimization.
System Resilience and Performance: Contribute to the design of highly resilient, low-latency services that ensure a seamless booking experience for customers under high load, with a focus on scalability and fault tolerance.
Code Quality and System Optimization: Participate in thorough code reviews and identify opportunities to optimize scalability, performance, latency, and overall system health while maintaining high engineering standards across the team.

What we look for

Technical

Scala or JVM LanguagesStrong proficiency in Scala, Java, or Kotlin with demonstrated expertise in building scalable, high-throughput services that can handle millions of transactions and maintain performance under extreme load.
Microservices ArchitectureProven track record of owning technical implementation, testing, and deployment of features within microservices architectures, with deep understanding of service orchestration and inter-service communication patterns.
Distributed SystemsPractical experience with distributed systems and service communication methods including gRPC, Pub/Sub messaging patterns, REST APIs, and event-driven architectures in production environments.
System Exploration and DebuggingAbility to independently explore complex codebases, navigate unfamiliar systems, debug production issues effectively, and execute technical plans within existing infrastructure without extensive hand-holding.
Real-Time Transaction ProcessingExperience building or maintaining systems that handle real-time transaction processing, high-volume booking systems, or similar mission-critical applications with strict performance requirements.

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related FieldFormal education in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience demonstrating core computer science fundamentals and software engineering principles.

Experience

Backend Software Engineering5+ years of professional backend software engineering experience with at least 2+ years at a senior level, demonstrating technical depth, architectural thinking, and the ability to lead technical initiatives independently.
Travel, Fintech, or E-CommerceProfessional experience or deep familiarity with travel technology platforms, fintech systems, booking engines, or high-volume e-commerce environments where system reliability and performance are critical success factors.
Production System OwnershipDemonstrated ownership of production systems from design through deployment and monitoring, with experience responding to incidents, optimizing performance, and scaling systems to handle growth.
Cross-Functional CollaborationTrack record of effectively collaborating with product managers, operations teams, and other engineering squads to translate business requirements into technical solutions in fast-paced environments.

Skills

Required skills

ScalaExpert-level proficiency in Scala for building scalable, high-performance backend services with functional programming principles and strong understanding of Scala's type system and concurrency models.
Java/KotlinStrong proficiency in Java or Kotlin as alternative JVM languages, with ability to write clean, maintainable code and leverage JVM ecosystem libraries and tools effectively.
Microservices ArchitectureDeep understanding of microservices design patterns, service decomposition, distributed tracing, and strategies for managing complexity in large-scale distributed systems.
gRPCPractical experience implementing and troubleshooting gRPC-based service-to-service communication, understanding protocol buffers, and managing high-performance RPC frameworks.
Pub/Sub MessagingExperience designing and implementing event-driven architectures using Pub/Sub patterns for asynchronous communication between microservices and handling message delivery guarantees.
REST API DesignProficiency in designing and implementing RESTful APIs, understanding HTTP semantics, error handling, versioning strategies, and best practices for API scalability and maintainability.
Distributed SystemsStrong conceptual and practical knowledge of distributed systems principles, including consistency models, consensus algorithms, fault tolerance, and handling network partitions.
Database Design and OptimizationExperience designing database schemas, query optimization, indexing strategies, and understanding trade-offs between different data storage solutions for high-performance applications.
System Debugging and TroubleshootingStrong ability to debug complex systems, read stack traces, use profiling tools, and independently diagnose performance issues and production problems in distributed environments.

Nice to have

Akka FrameworkExperience with Akka toolkit for building concurrent and distributed systems in Scala/Java, particularly for handling actor-based concurrency and scaling patterns.
KafkaFamiliarity with Apache Kafka for building event streaming platforms, understanding topics, partitions, consumer groups, and managing high-throughput data pipelines.
Kubernetes and Container OrchestrationExperience deploying and managing services using Kubernetes, Docker, and containerization technologies for modern cloud-native application deployment and scaling.
Cloud PlatformsWorking experience with major cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) for infrastructure, networking, observability, and understanding cloud-native architectural patterns.
Observability and MonitoringHands-on experience with monitoring tools like Datadog, Prometheus, ELK stack, or similar platforms for collecting metrics, logs, and traces to diagnose system health and performance.
SQL and NoSQL DatabasesPractical experience with both SQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL solutions (MongoDB, DynamoDB, Cassandra) and understanding when to apply each technology.
Travel or Booking SystemsBackground working on travel booking platforms, hotel/airline integration systems, GDS connectivity, or similar domain-specific systems that handle complex real-time inventory.
API Versioning and Backward CompatibilityExperience managing API evolution, versioning strategies, and maintaining backward compatibility in systems serving multiple external partners and internal services.

Compensation & benefits

Salary

USD 160,000 – 220,000 (annual)

Stock options

Available

Benefits

Pre-IPO Equity Packages

Competitive equity compensation as part of a well-funded, pre-IPO startup positioned for significant growth, providing upside potential aligned with company success.

Comprehensive Health Coverage

Hopper-sponsored Health Collective providing enrollment options for basic medical and dental insurance with flexible deductible choices to meet individual healthcare needs.

Life and Disability Insurance

Private insurance coverage supplementing social security for Accidental Death and Long-term Disability protection, including Excess and Gap insurance options for comprehensive coverage.

Pension Savings Allowance

Cash allowance provided in lieu of formal pension plan, giving employees flexibility to direct retirement savings contributions according to personal financial planning strategies.

Generous Parental Leave

Significantly above-industry-standard parental leave benefits reflecting Hopper's commitment to work-life balance and family support for all employees.

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Unlimited PTO policy enabling flexible time management and encouraging employees to take adequate rest while maintaining productivity and business continuity.

Flexible Work Arrangements

Flexdesk coworking All Access Pass combined with work-from-home stipend, supporting remote-first operations and providing flexibility to work from preferred locations.

Travel Stipend

Carrot Cash travel stipend enabling employees to experience travel benefits and explore Hopper's services firsthand, aligned with company mission.

Entrepreneurial Culture

Dynamic work environment encouraging innovation, calculated risk-taking, and pushing organizational limits as part of everyday business operations and team culture.

Open Leadership Communication

Direct access to management and company leadership with transparent communication channels enabling employees to engage with decision-making and strategic initiatives.

High-Impact Team Environment

Opportunity to work in small, dynamic teams where individual contributions directly drive company success and provide outsized impact relative to team size.

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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
ScalaJavaKotlin
Frameworks
AkkaPlay FrameworkSpring Boot
Databases
PostgreSQLKafkaDynamoDBRedis
Tools
gRPCDockerKubernetesDatadogGitCI/CD Pipelines
Other
REST API ArchitectureProtocol BuffersEvent-Driven ArchitectureDistributed Tracing
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