Hopper

Senior Backend Engineer - Lodging and Cars

Hopper2 days ago
Location

US - Remote

Workplace

Remote

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 160,000 – 240,000

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, where you'll architect and maintain scalable, high-throughput microservices handling billions of dollars in global travel transactions. This role demands deep expertise in JVM-based systems, distributed computing, and real-time booking fulfillment for a fast-growing travel fintech platform serving 120+ million users globally. You'll own end-to-end technical integrations with major lodging and car rental partners while optimizing resilient, low-latency services in a remote-first, high-impact environment.

What you'll do

End-to-End Technical Partner Integration: Execute comprehensive technical integrations with external lodging, car rental, and Global Distribution System (GDS) partners while navigating complex communication protocols, distributed data schemas, and real-time synchronization requirements. Lead the design and implementation of robust API integrations that handle high-volume booking requests and maintain data consistency across multiple systems.
Scalable Service Development: Write clean, performant, production-grade code in Scala or other JVM languages (Java, Kotlin) to develop, maintain, and evolve mission-critical lodging and cars services. Focus on building services that maintain strict engineering standards while handling millions of concurrent transactions and ensuring 99.99% uptime for booking fulfillment.
Complex Codebase Exploration and Troubleshooting: Independently explore and analyze complex, distributed codebases to diagnose and resolve production issues in real-time. Deep-dive into infrastructure bottlenecks, performance degradation, and system failures using observability tools and distributed tracing to implement surgical fixes that maintain system stability under high load.
Cross-Functional Requirements Translation: Partner with Product Managers and Operations teams to decompose complex business requirements into technical specifications, architecture decisions, and implementation timelines. Translate commercial needs around booking reliability and partner onboarding into scalable technical solutions within microservices architecture.
Full Lifecycle Feature Ownership: Take complete ownership of the development lifecycle for new product features spanning initial technical design, implementation, comprehensive testing, performance optimization, and safe production deployment. Drive features from conception through monitoring and optimization in production to ensure measurable business impact.
High-Performance Service Architecture: Contribute to the design and implementation of highly resilient, low-latency services optimized for peak booking traffic and high concurrency. Architect services with built-in fault tolerance, graceful degradation, and real-time monitoring to ensure seamless booking experiences even under extreme load conditions.
Code Quality and System Optimization: Participate in thorough code reviews with a focus on identifying optimization opportunities across scalability, performance, and system health. Mentor team members on distributed systems patterns, performance tuning, and operational excellence while maintaining a high bar for technical quality and architectural consistency.
Production Monitoring and Observability: Implement comprehensive monitoring, logging, and alerting strategies for distributed services handling mission-critical bookings. Proactively identify performance anomalies, optimize query patterns, and ensure observability across the microservices ecosystem to enable rapid incident response and continuous improvement.

What we look for

Technical

JVM Language ProficiencyAdvanced proficiency in Scala with proven experience building production systems, or strong proficiency in Java/Kotlin with demonstrated ability to scale services to high throughput and low latency. Experience with functional programming paradigms and type-safe language features is essential for maintaining code quality in complex systems.
Microservices Architecture ExpertiseDeep practical experience designing, implementing, and operating microservices-based systems at scale. Proven track record of decomposing monolithic systems, managing inter-service communication, handling distributed transactions, and maintaining consistency across service boundaries in production environments.
Distributed Systems and Communication ProtocolsHands-on experience with modern service-to-service communication patterns including gRPC for high-performance RPC, publish-subscribe messaging (Kafka, RabbitMQ), and RESTful APIs. Solid understanding of distributed system challenges including eventual consistency, idempotency, retry strategies, and circuit breakers.
Real-Time Data ProcessingExperience building systems that handle high-volume, real-time data flows and transactions. Proficiency with event streaming, stream processing concepts, and implementation of systems that maintain accuracy and consistency while processing millions of events or transactions per day.
Database and Persistence LayerStrong working knowledge of relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL systems, including schema design, query optimization, indexing strategies, and transaction handling. Experience with data migration, replication, and ensuring data integrity in distributed environments.
Production Reliability and ObservabilityDemonstrated expertise in building reliable, observable systems including experience with centralized logging (ELK stack, Datadog), distributed tracing (Jaeger, Zipkin), metrics collection (Prometheus), and alerting frameworks. Proven ability to investigate production issues using observability tools and implement fixes with minimal customer impact.

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related FieldFormal education in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, or equivalent field providing strong foundational knowledge in algorithms, data structures, and systems design. Alternative: equivalent professional experience demonstrating mastery of computer science fundamentals.
Continued Learning in Distributed SystemsDemonstrated commitment to staying current with distributed systems architecture, cloud technologies, and modern backend engineering practices. This can be evidenced through technical publications, open-source contributions, conference presentations, or completion of specialized coursework.

Experience

Senior-Level Backend Engineering ExperienceMinimum 5-7 years of professional backend software engineering experience, with at least 3+ years in senior-level roles owning technical design and architectural decisions. Demonstrated ability to make sound technical trade-offs, mentor junior engineers, and influence team technical direction.
Microservices and Distributed Systems ImplementationProven track record of successfully implementing, deploying, and operating multiple microservices in production at scale. Evidence of owning complete feature lifecycle from technical design through production deployment, with demonstrated expertise in handling distributed system complexity and production troubleshooting.
High-Concurrency and High-Throughput SystemsHands-on experience building and optimizing systems designed to handle millions of requests or transactions daily with strict latency requirements. Demonstrated ability to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, optimize resource utilization, and maintain service reliability under peak load conditions.
Cross-Functional Collaboration in Tech-Driven OrganizationsProven ability to work effectively with product managers, business stakeholders, and operations teams to translate requirements into technical solutions. Experience communicating complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and managing expectations around delivery timelines and technical constraints.

Skills

Required skills

Scala ProgrammingExpert-level proficiency in Scala with deep understanding of functional programming paradigms, type system, collections library, and Scala's concurrency model. Production experience building mission-critical services that handle high throughput and low latency requirements.
Java or KotlinStrong proficiency in Java (Spring, Jakarta EE frameworks) or Kotlin for building enterprise-grade backend services. Demonstrated ability to write efficient, maintainable code that scales to handle millions of operations daily while maintaining reliability and performance.
gRPC and Protocol BuffersHands-on experience designing and implementing gRPC services for high-performance inter-service communication. Proficiency with protocol buffers for efficient serialization and schema evolution in production systems handling real-time data exchange.
Pub/Sub Messaging SystemsPractical experience with publish-subscribe messaging patterns and technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or AWS SNS/SQS. Demonstrated understanding of message ordering, delivery guarantees, consumer groups, and building resilient event-driven architectures.
RESTful API DesignExpertise in designing and implementing clean, well-documented REST APIs following HTTP best practices. Experience with API versioning, error handling, rate limiting, and security considerations in production travel commerce systems.
SQL and Database OptimizationStrong SQL skills with proven ability to write efficient queries, design normalized schemas, and optimize database performance. Experience with query execution plans, indexing strategies, and performance tuning for high-concurrency applications.
Distributed Systems ArchitectureDeep understanding of distributed systems principles including consensus algorithms, eventual consistency, distributed transactions, idempotency, and failure handling. Proven ability to architect systems that maintain correctness and reliability across service boundaries.
Production Debugging and TroubleshootingExpert-level ability to diagnose and resolve complex production issues using logs, metrics, traces, and system observability tools. Demonstrated skill in identifying root causes of performance degradation or system failures in distributed environments and implementing reliable fixes.
Microservices Design PatternsPractical expertise with microservices design patterns including circuit breakers, service discovery, distributed tracing, saga patterns for distributed transactions, and bulkhead isolation. Evidence of applying these patterns to build resilient, maintainable systems.
System Performance OptimizationProven ability to identify performance bottlenecks, profile application code and infrastructure, and implement targeted optimizations. Experience with resource utilization analysis, caching strategies, batch processing optimization, and maintaining low-latency responses under high load.

Nice to have

Travel or E-Commerce Industry ExperiencePrior experience in travel, hospitality, payments, or high-volume e-commerce platforms. Familiarity with booking systems, inventory management, pricing algorithms, or real-time commerce challenges provides valuable context for this role.
API Gateway and Service Mesh TechnologiesExperience with modern infrastructure tools such as Kong, Envoy, Istio, or Linkerd for managing inter-service communication, routing, and resilience patterns. Knowledge of container orchestration and deployment of services in Kubernetes environments.
CI/CD Pipeline Design and ImplementationHands-on experience designing and implementing continuous integration and continuous deployment pipelines using tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or CircleCI. Demonstrated focus on rapid, safe deployments with comprehensive automated testing.
Observability Stack ImplementationHands-on experience implementing comprehensive observability including centralized logging (ELK, Splunk, Datadog), distributed tracing (Jaeger, Zipkin), and metrics collection (Prometheus, Grafana). Ability to design dashboards and alerting strategies for production systems.
Cloud Platform ServicesPractical experience with AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure services for backend deployments. Familiarity with managed databases, containerization, serverless options, and cloud-native architecture patterns.
Financial or Payment Systems ExperienceExperience building systems involving financial transactions, payments processing, or fintech applications. Understanding of transaction atomicity, settlement processes, and regulatory compliance requirements in financial systems.
Technical Leadership and MentoringDemonstrated ability to lead technical initiatives, mentor junior engineers, and influence architectural decisions within engineering teams. Evidence of improving team capabilities, conducting effective code reviews, and fostering a culture of technical excellence.
Data Integration and ETL ProcessesExperience designing and implementing data integration workflows, ETL pipelines, or data synchronization between multiple systems. Knowledge of handling schema evolution, data reconciliation, and maintaining data consistency across heterogeneous systems.

Compensation & benefits

Salary

USD 160,000 – 240,000 (annual)

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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
Play FrameworkAkkaSpring BootgRPCFinagle
Databases
PostgreSQLMySQLRedisCassandraMongoDB
Tools
KafkaDockerKubernetesPrometheusGrafanaJaegerELK StackGitCI/CD Pipelines
Other
Protocol BuffersREST API DesignGraphQLOAuth 2.0 and JWTAgile and ScrumIncident Response and On-Call Culture
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