Hopper

Staff Backend Software Engineer

Hopper3 days ago
Location

US - Remote

Workplace

Remote

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 300,000 – 400,000

Level

Staff

Role

Backend Engineer

Posted

Jun 30, 2026

Full TimeRemoteStaff

The role

Summary

Staff Backend Software Engineer at Hopper Technology Solutions, responsible for architecting and shipping scalable backend systems that power a configurable, multi-tenant travel commerce platform serving 410M cardholders globally. The role emphasizes AI-assisted development, distributed systems expertise in Scala, and product-driven engineering mindset to drive strategic partner offerings and incremental cardholder spend. You'll own features end-to-end in a low-process environment with senior engineers, leveraging modern AI tooling to accelerate feature delivery while maintaining system reliability and performance.

What you'll do

Architect Scalable Backend Systems: Design and implement distributed systems patterns and foundational infrastructure that enable efficient scaling across the multi-tenant travel commerce platform. Create architectural blueprints that allow new partner experiences to launch faster while maintaining system reliability, performance, and data consistency across 410M cardholders.
Lead AI-Assisted Development Initiatives: Orchestrate AI agents and automated workflows to accelerate feature development and system maintenance. Build feedback loops and guardrails that keep AI-assisted development productive and reliable. Establish judgment frameworks for when to trust AI outputs versus human intervention, reducing development cycles while maintaining code quality standards.
Own End-to-End Feature Delivery: Take complete ownership of features from backend architecture through partner-facing implementation. Work primarily on backend systems while leveraging AI tooling to move across the full stack as needed. Ship complete, production-ready features that deliver measurable business value to banking and travel partners.
Drive Technical Decision-Making: Lead architectural decisions and consensus-building asynchronously through thoughtful technical documentation, design specs, and architectural decisions. Articulate not only how to solve technical problems but the reasoning behind choices and tradeoffs being accepted. Influence the platform's technical direction through clear communication with senior engineers and cross-functional teams.
Collaborate with Product and Business Partners: Work directly with product managers and business stakeholders to define, refine, and execute the technical roadmap. Translate cardholder behavior insights and partner requirements into scalable backend solutions. Provide technical expertise that shapes product strategy and ensures alignment between engineering capabilities and market opportunities.
Improve Developer Productivity: Identify and execute improvements to the codebase that reduce friction for both human engineers and AI agents. Implement patterns, abstractions, and tooling that make the system easier to understand, modify, and extend. Continuously optimize the development experience to enable faster iteration and safer deployments.
Mentor and Collaborate with Senior Engineering Team: Work within a low-process, trust-based environment with peer senior engineers. Provide and receive thoughtful feedback for continuous growth. Share expertise across the team while maintaining a collaborative approach to problem-solving and technical innovation in AI-driven development practices.

What we look for

Technical

Distributed Systems ArchitectureStrong expertise designing and implementing distributed systems patterns, including service communication, data consistency models, and scalability solutions. Experience with multi-tenant architecture patterns and handling complex system state across geographically distributed infrastructure.
Scala DevelopmentProduction-grade experience with Scala and functional programming paradigms. Deep understanding of Scala's type system, concurrency primitives, and ecosystem. Ability to architect scalable backend services using Scala's strengths for building reliable, concurrent systems.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)Hands-on experience with GCP services including Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, Firestore, Pub/Sub, and Cloud Functions. Understanding of GCP's architectural patterns for building scalable, resilient distributed applications. Experience with infrastructure-as-code and deployment automation on GCP.
AI Agent Orchestration and LLM IntegrationPractical experience building feedback loops for AI-assisted development and orchestrating agentic workflows. Deep understanding of Large Language Model strengths, weaknesses, and failure modes. Ability to design systems that effectively leverage AI for productivity while maintaining output quality and reliability.
Backend System DesignExpert-level ability to design production-grade backend systems handling high transaction volumes, complex data transformations, and strict reliability requirements. Experience with database optimization, caching strategies, and API design for partners consuming commerce platform services.
API Design and IntegrationExpertise designing RESTful or event-driven APIs that integrate with partner systems at scale. Understanding of versioning strategies, backward compatibility, and partner integration patterns. Experience building configurable commerce platform APIs that support diverse partner use cases.

Education

Computer Science FoundationBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience demonstrating deep computer science fundamentals including algorithms, data structures, and systems design principles.

Experience

8+ Years Backend EngineeringMinimum eight years of professional backend software engineering experience, with at least four years at staff or principal engineer level, demonstrating consistent ability to architect and deliver large-scale distributed systems.
3+ Years with Scala or JVM EcosystemsDemonstrated mastery-level experience with Scala or similar functional programming languages on the JVM. If not direct Scala experience, proven ability to quickly master new languages and demonstrate production-grade proficiency within months.
Commerce Platform or B2B SaaS ExperienceExperience building or scaling commerce platforms, marketplace systems, or B2B SaaS products serving enterprise customers. Understanding of multi-tenant architecture challenges, partner integration complexity, and commerce transaction processing at scale.
AI-Driven Development LeadershipRecent hands-on experience leveraging AI agents, LLMs, and automated workflows in production development. Demonstrated judgment in orchestrating AI-assisted development, building effective feedback loops, and maintaining code quality while accelerating feature velocity.
Rapid Codebase NavigationProven track record of fearlessly diving into unknown codebases and delivering results quickly. Ability to rapidly understand complex systems, identify improvement opportunities, and ship impactful features without extensive onboarding periods.

Skills

Required skills

ScalaProduction-grade Scala development with mastery of functional programming patterns, type system, and concurrency models for building distributed systems.
Distributed Systems DesignArchitectural expertise in designing scalable, resilient systems handling high throughput and complex consistency requirements across multiple services.
Google Cloud PlatformHands-on expertise with GCP services including compute, storage, messaging, and serverless offerings for building cloud-native distributed applications.
Backend System ArchitectureExpert-level ability to design and implement production backend systems with focus on reliability, performance, scalability, and maintainability.
LLM and AI Agent DevelopmentPractical experience building systems that orchestrate AI agents and LLMs, with deep understanding of model capabilities, failure modes, and effective guardrails for production reliability.
Technical Communication and DocumentationAbility to clearly articulate technical decisions, tradeoffs, and architectural choices through written specifications and design documents that drive consensus asynchronously.

Nice to have

TypeScript and ReactWhile backend-focused, experience or willingness to rapidly pick up TypeScript and React to ship full-stack features using AI tooling when needed.
Travel or Fintech IndustryBackground building systems in travel booking, fintech, or B2B commerce spaces, bringing domain expertise in payment processing, transaction handling, and partner integration challenges.
Multi-Tenant SaaS ArchitectureExperience designing and scaling multi-tenant platforms that serve diverse enterprise customers with different requirements, isolation concerns, and customization needs.
Event-Driven ArchitectureExpertise building event-driven systems using message queues, event sourcing, or event streaming platforms to handle asynchronous communication across distributed services.
Database Optimization and Query DesignAdvanced experience with SQL optimization, database indexing strategies, query performance tuning, and choosing appropriate database technologies for specific workload patterns.
Machine Learning IntegrationsExperience integrating machine learning models and predictions into production backend systems, including model serving, feature engineering, and real-time inference pipelines.
Product-Driven EngineeringTrack record of anchoring technical decisions in customer experience and business impact rather than technical elegance, with ability to translate user needs into scalable solutions.

Compensation & benefits

Salary

USD 300,000 – 400,000 (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
ScalaTypeScriptPython
Frameworks
Play FrameworkAkkaReact
Databases
Cloud SQLFirestorePostgreSQL
Tools
Google Cloud Pub/SubGitHubDocker and KubernetesTerraformAI Development Tools
Other
REST APIsAsynchronous ProgrammingMachine Learning and LLM IntegrationSystem Observability
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